There may have been some improvements in the GIF since I last tried it for this sort of thing, but I doubt it, since it's a "standard" format. I've found GIF quite satisfactory for multicolored low-detail, low precision graphics, but for monochrome, specifically line-art rendering, I find it somewhat lacking, in that it tends to show breaks in lines where there should be none, among other failings.

With PDF, the problem is that, once rendered, a drawing is pretty hard to render in a readable size if it's been reduced.

PCX and BMP's, of course, are enormous.

The real issue, however, is to have a common component library as a resource so each contributor doesn't have to reinvent each component symbol.

One thing that might be useful, if it were freely avaiable, would be a PCL-to-bmp (or other truly standard graphic format) utility. That way one could print-to-file using an HP PCL-compatible monochrome printer and use that as the transport medium from whatever format is used by his/her local schematic tool set and submit it as PCL. Another person could then translate the PCL to whatever graphic format he/she can conveniently view. That would allow everyone to use whatever schematic capture package is of his/her liking while still making it accessible to others.

Surely there are other ways of dealing with this conundrum as well, probably better ones.

RE