[R] Exporting R graphics into Word without losing graph quality

[David Carlson]

This will create a simple plot using Windows enhanced metafile
format:

> win.metafile("TestFigure.emf")
> plot(rnorm(25), rnorm(25))
> dev.off()
null device 
          1 
>

Windows does not read pdf. It will offer to import an eps
(encapsulated postscript) file, but it only imports the bitmap
thumbnail image of the figure so it is completely useless. You
can edit a metafile in Word, but different versions seem to have
different issues. Earlier versions would lose clipping if you
tried to edit the file, but World 2013 works reasonably well.
Text labels can jump if you edit the figure in Word (especially
rotated text) although it is simple to drag them back to where
you want them. I haven't tried 2010 or 2007 recently.

-------------------------------------
David L Carlson
Department of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77840-4352




-----Original Message-----
From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org
[mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Duncan
Murdoch
Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2013 5:24 PM
To: david hamer; r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] Exporting R graphics into Word without losing
graph quality

On 13-12-15 6:00 PM, david hamer wrote:
> Hello,
>
> My x-y scatterplot produces a very ragged best-fit line when
imported into
> Word.

Don't use a bitmap format (png).

Don't produce your graph in one format (screen display), then
convert to 
another (png).  Open the device in the format you want for the
final file.

Use a vector format for output.  I don't know what kinds Word
supports, 
but EPS or PDF would likely be best; if it can't read those,
then 
Windows metafile (via windows() to open the device) would be
best. 
(Don't trust the preview to tell you the quality of the graph,
try 
printing the document.  Word isn't quite as bad as it appears.)

Don't use Word.

Duncan Murdoch

>
>
>
> * >plot (data.file$x, data.file$y, type = "p", las=1, pch=20,
ylab =
> expression("Cover of Species y" ~ (m^{2}~ha^{-1} )),
xlab =
> expression("Cover of Species x" ~ (m^{2}~ha^{-1}))  )
>lines  (
> data.file$x,   fitted ( model.x )  )*
>
>   A suggestion from the internet is to use .png at high (1200)
resolution.
>     * >dev.print  ( device = png,  file = "R.graph.png",
width = 1200,
> height = 700)*
> This gives a high-quality graph, but the titles and tick-mark
labels become
> very tiny when exported into Word.
>
> I therefore increased the size of the titles and tick-mark
labels with cex.
>     * >plot (......cex =1.8, cex.lab = 1.8, cex.axis =
1.25,....)*
> But this causes the x-axis title to lie on top of the
tick-mark labels.
> (This problem does not occur with the y-axis, where the title
lies well
> away from the y-axis tick-mark labels.)
> Changing margins     * >par ( mai = c ( 1.3, 1.35, 1, .75 ) )*
does not
> seem to have any effect on this.
>
> A suggestion from the internet is to delete the titles from
plot, and use
> mtext with line=4 to drop the title lower on the graph.
>
> * >plot (.......  ylab = " ", xlab = " ".....)    >mtext(side
= 1, "Cover
> of Species x (superscripts??)", line = 4)*
> This works, but with mtext I have now lost the ability to have
the
> superscripts in the axis title.
>
> And I am back full circle, having to lower the resolution of
the graph to
> keep the x-axis title away from the axis, and thus reverting
to a ragged,
> segmented "line" when exported to Word......
>
> Final note:  The R graphics window version of the graph
becomes very
> distorted, even though the graph may be of high quality (other
than the
> problem of the x-axis title overlaying the x-axis tick-mark
labels) once in
> Word.  I guess this is because of using "tricks" to try to get
a desired
> end-product in Word....
>
> Thanks for any suggestions,
>           David.
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
>
>
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and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible
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