When attempting to communicate an interpretation of the state of the atmosphere (e.g. a frontal analysis), there are often times when the best way to communicate that information is with a picture. Graphics metafiles are often the best way to communicate such information in a way that allows it to be visually integrated with other data sets. Here we describe a recent attempt to create a utility for exporting any arbitrary graphic from AWIPS to Google Earth. Using this as context, we will discuss the some of the currently available and supported metafile formats and the challenges they present for use in forecasting applications. The author's view of the essential requirements for a metafile format for forecasting applications will be presented.