Save metafile in C#

Question

If I have a wmf or emf image in System.Drawing.Image, is there a way to save the metafile data with c# without rendering it as a bitmap? Calling Image.Save will render it to a bitmap and I want to keep the original data so that it would still be a valid .wmf or .emf format file.

Answer 1

It seems you can not.

On this MSDN page, it is stated:

Remarks

When you use the Save method to save a graphic image as a Windows Metafile Format (WMF) or Enhanced Metafile Format (EMF) file, the resulting file is saved as a Portable Network Graphics (PNG) file instead. This behavior occurs because the GDI+ component of the .NET Framework does not have an encoder that you can use to save files as .wmf or .emf files.

Answer 2

Despite this MSDN page, it is possible to save a true EMF file. See this question: gdi-c-how-to-save-an-image-as-emf

Answer 3

It is possible to save a metafile in its orignal format if you use the gdi32.dll.

I am using the method described here and it works fine.