wmf2svg - WMF/EMF Converting Tool & Library for Java

This project’s goal is to provide a Java tool and library for reading WMF/EMF files and rendering or writing them through GDI-compatible backends.

Command line

java -jar wmf2svg-[version].jar [options...] [wmf/emf filename] [svg/svgz/png/jpg/jpeg filename]

The output format is selected by the output filename suffix.

.svg: write SVG.
.svgz: write gzip-compressed SVG.
.png: render to PNG using Java2D/ImageIO.
.jpg or .jpeg: render to JPEG using Java2D/ImageIO.

Options

-compatible: output IE9 compatible style. but it’s dirty and approximative.
-replace-symbol-font: replace SYMBOL/Wingdings[23]? Font to serif Unicode symbols.

If you render PNG/JPEG in a headless environment, specify Java’s headless mode at runtime as needed:

java -Djava.awt.headless=true -jar wmf2svg-[version].jar input.wmf output.png

It now requires Java 8.0 or later.

Library usage

The parsers replay metafile records to a Gdi implementation. Choose the implementation that matches the output you want.

SVG output

try (InputStream in = new FileInputStream("input.wmf");
		OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("output.svg")) {
	SvgGdi gdi = new SvgGdi();
	new WmfParser().parse(in, gdi);
	gdi.write(out);
}

Use new EmfParser() for .emf input.

PNG/JPEG output

try (InputStream in = new FileInputStream("input.emf");
		OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("output.png")) {
	AwtGdi gdi = new AwtGdi();
	gdi.setOpaqueBackground(true);
	new EmfParser().parse(in, gdi);
	gdi.write(out, "png");
}

AwtGdi renders through Graphics2D and writes raster images with ImageIO. Use "jpeg" to write JPEG.

WMF/EMF output

WmfGdi and EmfGdi record GDI calls and serialize them as WMF or EMF. This can be used to generate metafiles directly, or to transcode the supported subset of another metafile.

try (InputStream in = new FileInputStream("input.wmf");
		OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("output.emf")) {
	EmfGdi gdi = new EmfGdi();
	new WmfParser().parse(in, gdi);
	gdi.write(out);
}

try (OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("output.wmf")) {
	WmfGdi gdi = new WmfGdi();
	gdi.placeableHeader(0, 0, 1000, 1000, 1440);
	gdi.header();
	gdi.rectangle(100, 100, 900, 900);
	gdi.write(out);
}

Some advanced records are format-specific and may not be representable in the target metafile writer.

Maven repository

<groupId>net.arnx</groupId>
<artifactId>wmf2svg</artifactId>
<version>0.10.2</version>

Build

This project uses Maven to build a wmf2svg jar file.

mvn package

History

2026-04-30: Improve EMF+ support. And add PNG/JPEG output through AWT/ImageIO and improve AWT PNG rendering fidelity.
2026-04-29: Fix some bugs
2026-04-28: Implements an EMF support (by OpenAI Codex and human instructions)
2026-04-26: Migrated to Maven build system. And some TODO implemented.
2021-07-12: Fix a bug about images with palette.
2021-06-30: Fix a bug that occurred when using Symbol type fonts.
2018-11-24: Changed to gradle build system.
2015-07-04: wmf2svg now requires Java 6.0 or later.
2014-07-19: Fixed pie method bug.
2014-02-23: Added -replace-symbol-font option.
2013-09-29: Fixed a invalid css property.
2012-08-28: Improved arc radius and Fixed negative size image bug.
2012-07-05: Improved arc problem, and fixed TextOut? background position bug.
2012-02-11: Improved arc problem, and fixed font-size bug.
2011-09-28: Fixed restoreDC and cyrillic bug. And add wmf writer function.
2011-08-20: Some bugs fixed.
2011-03-10: Arc bug fixed and extTextOut is enhanced.
2011-01-08: Arc bug fixed and add fillRgn/paintRgn support.
2010-12-01: Some bugs fixed.
2010-11-20: Text position bug fixed.
2010-09-11: Some bugs fixed.
2009-05-24: wmf2svg version 0.8.3 is supported on Google App Engine/Java.