[fitsbits] Storing PDF and other graphics binary files in FITS {External} {External}

[Mohammad Akhlaghi]

Follow-up on Bill's suggestion:

To make a formal link to the separate PDF in the FITS, you can put the 
URL of the PDF as a keyword in the FITS file (and a link to the FITS 
file's URL in the PDF).

If it is public, you can use something like zenodo.org: reserve the DOI 
(before publishing the FITS, PDF and other files) and write the DOI in 
both the FITS and PDF files.

Cheers,
Mohammad

On 3/15/26 7:37 PM, William Pence via fitsbits wrote:
> How would one view the PDF file if it is imbedded inside a FITS binary table?  Would users find it more convenient to distribute ancillary data like this as separate files where they can be directly accessed alongside the primary FITS file.
> 
> Bill
> 
>> On Mar 15, 2026, at 12:26 PM, jaffe via fitsbits <fitsbits at listmgr.nrao.edu> wrote:
>>
>> For an interferometric application I am storing the binary data in the so-called OI-FITS convention of FITS.  But on the side I am generating rather complicated graphics files for my users, in this case in PDF.  I would like to store the .pdf file as a table in the same FITS file.  Is there a conventional way of doing this?  I could create a 1 row binary table with the entire PDF file as the single column, but this could be several megabytes and might bother some reading or writing routines.
>>
>> Is there any need to create a "GRAPHICS" extension to FITS?
>>
>> Walter
>>
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