[Rd] pdf default version

[Marc Schwartz (via MN)]

On Fri, 2006-09-15 at 12:43 -0500, Marc Schwartz (via MN) wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-09-15 at 12:12 -0500, Kevin Wright wrote:
> > R has had the ability to generate pdfs with transparent colors for a
> > couple of years now using pdf(..., version="1.4").
> > 
> > By default, Sweave uses just 'pdf' (without version 1.4), so a hack is
> > needed when using Sweave to create pdfs with transparent colors.  See
> > http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/04/11/6655.html
> > 
> > I would find my work process simpler if R defaulted to generating PDFs
> > using version="1.4".  The help page for R's pdf command says there is
> > a risk of some older pdf viewers not being able to view newer PDFs.
> > Does anyone have a feeling for how big a risk this is?  I tried for a
> > while to search google for pdf metadata and the distribution of pdf
> > documents of different versions, but could find nothing useful to
> > report.
> > 
> > The PDF 1.4 specification appears to have been published in November, 2001.
> > 
> > Is updating pdf() to version="1.4" feasible?
> > 
> > Discussions on this topic will be watched with interest.
> > 
> > Kevin Wright
> 
> Rather than globally changing R, wouldn't it be better to add another
> option to Sweave?
> 
> For example, one can already specify 'height' and 'width' arguments for
> figures, why not a pdf version value?
> 
> If I am reading it correctly, the relevant code from Sweave.R seems to
> be within the RweaveLatexRuncode() function:
> 
>   if(options$pdf){
>        pdf(file=paste(chunkprefix, "pdf", sep="."),
>            width=options$width, height=options$height)
> 
> Could this not be modified to something like:
> 
>   if(options$pdf){
>        pdf(file=paste(chunkprefix, "pdf", sep="."),
>            width=options$width, height=options$height,
>            version = pdf.version)

Quick correction here. That final line should be:

  version = options$pdf.version)

Thanks to Dirk for pointing out my typo.

Marc