[R-SIG-Mac] Difficulties with quartz() device and clipboard?

[Robert Chatfield]

Let me summarize the best current work-arounds for  Microsoft Word,  
Open Office,
and several other applications

...until they can handle transparencey as the R App interfaced does.
The quick method and the higher-quality method.

This is useful for keeping a relevant command history and
summaries together with associated graphics.

QUICK WAY:
quartz(bg="white")
... plot command(s)
Focus on the quartz window
Copy to clipboard  or Command-C

Switch to Preview
Select "New From Clipboard"   or   Command-N
Copy         (again)

Switch to Microsoft Word (2004) or Open Office (my current favorite)
Find appropriate place (just after the command output that
you are documenting and any associated summaries)

Paste
(Resize object to 50% or so to conserve space in your summary.)

....
POSSIBLY HIGHER RESOLUTION WAY
For Open Office, one may also pull in a fairly well rendered PDF
containing vector drawings:

 From the R GUI:
Focus on graphics window (as specified above with "white")
Save the graphics as PDF

Move to Open Office, an then
Select Open
... in the dialog box,
Select your pdf file
ALSO select File Type PDF - Portable Document Format
     (far down the menu, currently at the end of the second "group"  
delineated by
     blank lines)

Now, Select All
Copy,
Paste into your Open Office Writer  document as above.

Note: When resizing an imported PDF object, one must also resize the
fonts using the Format dialogue.  (I.e., when resizing to 50%, change
all 12-point font characters to 6-point font).

Word will import PDF's directly but convert them to fairly accurate  
bit-maps,
not quite journal quality.

Bob Chatfield