[R] MacOS X and vectorized files (emf, wmf,...)

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Mon, 31 Jan 2005, Patrick Giraudoux H wrote:

> Dear Listers,
>
> We are organising practical trainings for students with R 2.0.1 under MacOS 
> X. I am used with R 2.0.1 under Windows XP and thus has been surprised not to 
> find functions in the MacOS X version of R providing vectorized chart outputs 
> to a file. For instance the equivalent of:
>
> win.metafile()
>
> or
>
> savePlot()
>
> ... including a wmf or emf option.
>
> Can one obtain only jpeg or bitmap or eps files with R under MacOS X or did I 
> miss something?

Why did you expect to find Windows-specific formats under MacOS X?  (BTW, 
these are often bitmap formats.)

You missed pdf (the most obvious one on MacOS X whose native graphic is 
based on PDF) and svgDevice on CRAN.

Both postscript() and pdf() provide vector graphics (which may be what you 
mean by `vectorized chart') plots on all R platforms, as does xfig() 
although it is less useful unless you have xfig/fig2dev.

You will find lots of mentions over the years about making wmf/emf on 
Unix, but that is for use on Windows.  The format is poorly documented, 
but it would be possible to write a wmf() graphics device -- no one has 
contributed one as yet.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595