[R-SIG-Mac] How to put nice R graphics into powerpoint

[joerg van den hoff]

Denis Chabot wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I really like the nice vector-based pdf graphics I get in R.
> 
> However, PowerPoint seems to be unable to read them as vector graphics 
> and rasterizes them, making them quite "fuzzy" and ugly. Granted, the 
> problem lies with Microsoft, but in the mean time what is the best 
> workaround? I'd like to do better than producing png from within R 
> (especially that only my iMac has X11, my very old PowerBook does not).

well, if you can afford it: the Power Point look-alike from apple 
("Keynote") can usually import _and_ export .ppt files (so you can at 
least use what you already have). but if you present your results with a 
mac (and with Keynote) your problem is solved, since you can simply drag 
adn drop your pdf file into the keynote slides which keeps it as such 
(i.e. vector graphics). all in all keynote (if it survives...) seems to 
be a much nicer thing than power point.
> 
> I am still able to show vector graphics in pict format in PowerPoint. So 
> it should be possible to extract the vectorized plot from the pdf and 
> save it as pict, still vectorized.
> 
> However opening the R-produced pdf in Illustrator and saving as pict 
> produces a file quite a bit bigger than the original pdf, suggesting it 
> was saved as raster pict instead of vector pict. It shows up in 
> Powerpoint just as ugly as if it was inserted directly as pdf. This is 
> true with Illustrator CS (aka v11 I think) used either under 10.2.8 or 
> 10.3.7. It is also true when using GraphicConverter 5 and Preview 
> (Jaguar's version, I think it is also true with the Panther version) to 
> go from pdf to pict.
> 
> I fired up Canvas (old, version 8) and it did manage to save something 
> that was vectorized (i.e. very sharp when viewing at 400% in PowerPoint) 
> but the empty circles I used as symbols were not filled blacks, the 
> dashes of dashed lines had become "wiggly", text orientation was 
> unacceptably changed, etc. etc.
> 
> So does anyone know of a technique to produce vector graphics that 
> insert nicely in PowerPoint, either directly from R or by converting a 
> pdf produced by R into something else?
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Denis Chabot
> 
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