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I asked a question earlier that was quickly closed as a duplicate. Looking at the earlier question, I can see that it kinda sorta technically is a duplicate. However, the other question isn't clearly expressed and is mostly on a different topic, and while the answers do provide an answer to my question it's hidden among answers to a different question, and might not be the best/cleanest way to do what I'm trying to achieve.

My question is whether my question should count as a duplicate in this case, or whether it would be better to leave it open as a question specifically on this topic. I don't mind much myself, but I think future visitors will have a hard time finding the other question if they have the same problem as me.

My question is How can I print out the exact dimensions of my images?

The other question is How do I control the exact dimension of a picture in LaTeX?. This question was originally called "How do I get the exact dimension of a picture in LaTeX", but I proposed an edit to the title because the question body is mostly about changing the dimensions of the image, not getting them. (Though it does also ask for that as well, which is the issue.)

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    About your concern about future visitors with the same problem like you: The good thing is, you already help them finding an answer. They will find your question and therein the link to the answers of the other question which can help them solve their problem
    – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz
    Jun 21, 2017 at 12:06
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    Note: having your question being closed as duplicate does not mean your question was not good. (It should thus not be taken personally - even if it's not always easy/straightforward.) As highlighted by samcarter and Alan Munn, your question is valuable as it provides a new point of entry for future user seeking for a certain content. Each person has its own way of understanding/expressing a problem, so each question is worth it - even if one solution is enough.
    – ebosi
    Jun 21, 2017 at 20:11
  • @ebo I understand that very well - my question is just about which is more useful to future visitors: leave my question as a duplicate, helping people to find the old question and then, with some effort, extract the relevant information from it, or allow a clear and concise answer to be posted to my question so that it can be found more easily. Either way is fine by me.
    – N. Virgo
    Jun 22, 2017 at 0:52

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By editing the duplicate question title, (from "How do I get the exact dimensions..." to "How do I control the exact dimensions...") you've made it appear less of a duplicate than it is. But the duplicate question absolutely starts out with exactly the question you are asking:

This question is pretty simple: I'd like to have the possibility to get the exact size of a picture in LaTeX with, for example, the macro \the.

In fact, I've founded the way \settoheight{} and so on, but it didn't work at all. What I've got doesn't match with what I can see in the image properties (I suppose that's the name in English). The result: 8pt versus 1300 pixels. It's may be a mis-use...

And while it's true that the end goal of that user's question was different, the question still remains, and there is an answer (Jake's) that clearly explains how to find the size of an included image.

In the comments to your question, you say that Jake's solution

seems to solve my problem, but it does it in a really inconvenient way, requring me to reenter the includegraphics command twice, and printing the answer into the document itself instead of the console.

But surely these are minor details. Or if they are not, then the standard procedure is to edit your question using the linked proposed duplicate solution and then explain why that answer isn't sufficient. (In this particular case, the issue of how you output the values seems trivial to me, and so I would still think the edited question was a duplicate.)

But if you do want to edit your question in this way, you could ask for it to be reopened. Your question is a clearer question in many ways than the duplicate, for sure.

But duplicate questions don't typically get deleted, so people will still find your question in searches anyway, so I'm not sure that it's such a big issue.

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    It sounds as if the original title should be restored. If it has been edited mainly to distinguish the question from another, rather than because the content of the question requires the change, that seems unhelpful to users generally.
    – cfr
    Jun 22, 2017 at 0:43
  • @cfr It's a close call, since the question was a bit of an XY problem question.
    – Alan Munn
    Jun 22, 2017 at 0:44
  • Yes, exactly, the other question is technically a duplicate, but it has the form "I'd like to do X, but oh really I wanted to do Y, here's the details of the solution to Y that worked for me", whereas my question is actually just that I want to do that same X, and Y is irrelevant. Having previously seen the 'XY' version I didn't realise the answers addressed 'X' at all. This (meta) question is just about whether my 'X' problem is a duplicate of this 'XY' problem.
    – N. Virgo
    Jun 22, 2017 at 0:47
  • Regarding those minor details, sure, they are minor - they aren't the issue here.
    – N. Virgo
    Jun 22, 2017 at 0:48
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    @Nathaniel Yes, I understand that, but since your question will not be deleted, people searching for your question will still find it. I agree it's not an ideal situation. Perhaps we could open your question and post a version of Jake's answer as a community wiki answer.
    – Alan Munn
    Jun 22, 2017 at 0:52

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