[R] Creating publication-quality plots for use in Microsoft Word

[Marc Schwartz]

On Sep 15, 2010, at 10:25 AM, dadrivr wrote:

> 
> Thanks for your help, guys.  I'm looking to produce a high-quality plot (no
> jagged lines or other distortions) with a filetype that is accepted by
> Microsoft Word on a PC and that most journals will accept.  That's why I'd
> prefer to stick with JPEG, TIFF, PNG, or the like.  I'm not sure EPS would
> fly.
> 
> I tried inserting the PDF directly into Word, but I am on a PC and there is
> a loss of quality in the transfer.  I'm not sure I know how to use the
> approach that Marc suggested in reference to saving a new PDF for use in
> Word.
> 
> I also tried Gabor's suggestion to save in Microsoft's metafile format
> (savePlot with type = wmf and emf), but the images contain lines that are as
> jagged as those created from the regular R plot output.
> 
> Is there a way to enable anti-aliasing on all regular R plot output to clean
> up the jaggies and then save it in another format?  Or should I try
> something else?  Thanks again!


The comments that I had vis-a-vis saving to PDF were specific to operating on an OSX platform. They won't apply to Windows/Linux.

The issue is that the notion of "most journals" is problematic. Many journals will have requirements for specific formats, including plot/graphic output, which I would note includes the use of LaTeX/EPS/PDF as the source content, not Word or similar word processing formats.

If you need to stick with bitmapped formats, then you need to generate the plot file with a specific size/dpi in mind, so that the content will not be resized during editing. It is the resizing of plots and images that gets you into trouble with bitmapped formats, resulting in the oft seen "pixelation".

I would recommend that you check specifically with the journal(s) that you are targeting to find out exactly what they want. They typically publish guidelines for authors, which you should seek out.

Once you know exactly what the specific journals require, then you can target the content creation accordingly.

You can also search the archives via rseek.org (using "publication quality plots") to review past discussions on this same topic.

HTH,

Marc