Fwd: Re: [R] Exporting graphics to PS or EPS

[markhall@gol.com]

Forwarded Message:

> To: Joel West <MacStats at mac.com>

> From: Prof Brian D Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk>

> Subject: Re: [R] Exporting graphics to PS or EPS

> Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 08:03:26 +0100 (BST)

> -----

> On Sat, 19 Aug 2000, Joel West wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 18 Aug 2000 07:49:44 +0100, Brian D Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> 
wrote:
> > >On Thu, 17 Aug 2000, Paul E Johnson wrote:
> > >> My experience is that, if I output a gif that does not
> > >> fit on the page, then I've shot myself in the foot because resizing the
> > >> graph makes all the text in it too small.  I don't think postscript is
> > >> immune to this problem, but you can for sure convince me I'm wrong.  I
> > 
> > >It is.  After all, my books on S are done that way, as is much professional
> > >publishing.    If you want to incorporate graphs into other documents (not,
> > >say, a Web site) use a re-scalable vector format, namely postscript, PDF or
> > > (on Windows) W/EMF.
> > 
> > To second Prof. Ripley, the point of PostScript is that is a device-
independent, resolution-independent page description language.
> > 
> > On Fri, 18 Aug 2000 10:36:53 -0400, Griffith Feeney <gfeeney at hawaii.edu> 
wrote:
> > >I don't have much experience with this, but I think you may want eps for 
> > >use in TeX documents. You might want to have a look at
> > 
> > You absolutely want to use EPSF or instead of PS for any graphic that 
> you are going to paste into another document. That's the whole point. 
> Raw PostScript is write-only and really only usable for immediate 
> downloading to a printer or RIP.
> 
> (Not if it is DSC-conformant: see below.  Then it is designed to be sent to
> a document manager for page-by-page manipulation.)
> 
> > EPSF provides additional context around the PostScript job so that it 
> can be placed, and resized by programs that do not include a 
> PostScript interpreter. It also includes a low-res bit image so that 
> you can view the image on screen during editing. For a description of 
> EPSF and various other vector and bitmap formats, see the 
> Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats from O'Reilly at
> > 	<a 
href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/gffcd/">http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/gffc
d/</a>
> 
> The preview image is only required in EPSI (I for Interchange) files.  See
> the definitive source, the PostScript Language Reference Manual from Adobe.
> The critical point about EPSF is that it bans some of the PS operators, and
> unfortunately R (up to and including 1.1.1) got that slightly wrong. What
> you are describing is DSC-conformance, and R does manage that.
> 
> > PDF was developed in the mid-90s as an editable prepress exchange 
> version of PostScript. (That's why it's going to be the native 
> graphics format for Mac OS X). A pretty good discussion of how it 
> works can be found online at
> > 	<a 
href="http://www.seyboldseminars.com/News/Front/PDFday.html">http://www.seybolds
eminars.com/News/Front/PDFday.html</a>
> > An added benefit of PDF over EPSF is that there is a free viewer 
> program from Adobe for Windows, Mac, and some of the major flavors of Unix.
> 
> ghostscript/ghostview/gv/GSView are more widely available, and "free" in
> the R sense (Open Source) not just `no cost'.  The only `some of the major
> flavors of Unix' is a big drawback for Acrobat Reader, as is its bugginess,
> especially on Linux (and as frequently reported on the pdftex list) the
> Mac.  These days ghostscript does a pretty good job with PDF.
>  
> > Generating PDF is harder than EPSF, but it would be a nice 
> extension to R someday.
> 
> Take a look at help(bitmap): it is already there.  One day we will write a
> direct PDF graphics device, but having an indirect one has lowered its
> priority.   (Notice I did mention PDF as an alternative.)
> 
> -- 
> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
> Professor of Applied Statistics,  <a 
href="http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/">http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/</a>
> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272860 (secr)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
> 
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