[R] Reducing the size of pdf graphics files produced with R

[Chabot Denis]

Thank you Prof. Ripley.

Believe me, I do not have the skills to contribute such a thing as a  
stream compressor and I DO appreciate the work and usefulness of the  
pdf device as it is. I do most of my plots with pdf device, the rest  
with quartz (especially when I'm not sure I'll want to save a plot)  
and (rarely) png when the pdf output is too large or for  
compatibility with microsoft applications.

I find the statement you took from the help page promising: I often  
include these large plots into LaTeX, so I'll investigate what form  
of compression pdftex can do.

Sincerely,

Denis
Le 07-05-22 à 12:47, Prof Brian Ripley a écrit :

>> From the help page
>
>      'pdf' writes uncompressed PDF.  It is primarily intended for
>      producing PDF graphics for inclusion in other documents, and
>      PDF-includers such as 'pdftex' are usually able to handle
>      compression.
>
> If you are able to contribute a stream compressor, R will produce  
> smaller plots.  Otherwise it is unlikely to happen (and it any case  
> would be a
> smaller contribution than that of the author of pdf(), who is quite  
> happy with external compressors).
>
> Acrobat does other things (not all of which it tells you about),  
> but compression is the main advantage.
>
> On Tue, 22 May 2007, Chabot Denis wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Without trying to print 1000000 points (see <http://
>> finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/Rhelp02a/archive/42105.html>), I often print
>> maps for which I do not want to loose too much of coastline detail,
>> and/or plots with 1000-5000 points (yes, some are on top of each
>> other, but using transparency (i.e. rgb colors with alpha
>> information) this actually comes through as useful information.
>>
>> But the files are large (not as large as in the thread above of
>> course, 800 KB to about 2 MB), especially when included in a LaTeX
>> document by the dozen.
>>
>> Acrobat (not the reader, the full program) has an option "reduce file
>> size". I don't know what it does, but it shrinks most of my plots to
>> about 30% or original size, and I cannot detect any loss of detail
>> even when zooming several times. But it is a pain to do this with
>> Acrobat when you generate many plots... And you need to buy Acrobat.
>>
>> Is this something the pdf device could do in a future version? I
>> tried the "million points" example from the thread above and the 55
>> MB file was reduced to 6.9 MB, an even better shrinking I see on my
>> usual plots.
>>
>>
>> Denis Chabot
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting- 
>> guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>
>
> -- 
> 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