This seems reasonable to me if the base system is modified to let "safe" commands through as you suggest. > So, I think that what's needed on the LaTeX side is for epstopdf's > functionality to be incorporated into graphics.dtx. Wouldn't this would go in pdftex.def which is no longer part of the core latex/graphics system so it can more easily track pdftex features? http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/graphics/pdftex/pdftex.def %% %% The Current Maintainer of this work is %% Heiko Oberdiek and Martin Schr\"oder. %% Actually wouldn't it be enugh to simply say something like \ifpdf \RequirePackage{epstopdf}... in the graphics.cfg distributed with tex-live or other systems that have write18 turned on by default? David ________________________________________________________________________ The Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1249803. The registered office is: Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, United Kingdom. This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star. The service is powered by MessageLabs. ________________________________________________________________________