[R-SIG-Mac] Follow up to email on "saving graphs; jpeg(), bitmap()"

[David Winsemius]

On Aug 1, 2010, at 10:42 PM, Nadeem Faiz wrote:

> Hello
> I wanted to post a reply to the message from Tiago R Magalhaes  
> tiago17 at socrates.Berkeley.EDU .
> I had a need to save a R graph as jpeg file. Found Tiago's message  
> very helpful.  However the exact sequence of commands did not work  
> me.  In the interest of adding to this topic, here is what I had to  
> do to save a R plot to a jpeg format file.
> R version: 2.10.1OS:  Mac OS Snow Leopard (10.6.3)HW: Mac Mini
> Step 1) declare file name and file format in quartz() function.
>     quartz(title="your plot title", file="your_plot.jpg", type="jpeg")

If I were trying to create a jpg file, the first function I would try  
would be  ... jpeg(), although the quartz help page does indicate that  
a wide variety of formats are supported through quartz().

 > jpeg(file="test.jpg")  # the "title=" argument is ignored if you  
are plotting to a file
 > plot(1,1)
 > dev.off()
quartz
      2


> Step 2) create the plot as desired, for example
>     plot(1:10)
> Step 3) save the plot to the file specified in step 1.
>     dev.off()
> I did not find a lot of information online on this topic.  Hope this  
> helps others,
> NadeemDelaware ,USA

It is a bit of a puzzle to read this. Have you looked at the help  
pages for:

?quartz
?pdf
?Devices   # ???

As well as following the links from those pages? Surely one should not  
be relying on a 6 year old R-SIG-Mac posting to get information about  
Mac OSX graphics devices in 2010.

-- 
David.
> Tiago R Magalhaes tiago17 at socrates.Berkeley.EDU
> Thu Dec 9 17:58:25 CET 2004Previous message: [R-SIG-Mac] saving  
> graphs; jpeg(), bitmap()Next message: [R-SIG-Mac] summary: MacOSX,  
> Panther; save graphs, jpg(), pdf(), bitmap(), Ghostscript, X11  
> serverMessages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ]  
> [ author ]So after taking some time and bothering some people  
> (Thanks very much
> to all of them: Simon Urbanek, Rob J Goedman, Stefano Iacus, Byron
> Ellis, Elijah Wright, Denis Chabot, Nathan Weisz) I solved the
> problem.
>
> I decided to write this summary. It's kind of long, but it might be
> helpeful to someone else.
>
> Two problems: installation and knowledge on how to use R. This is
> valid for Panther 10.3.6, R 2.01 in a PowerBookG4.
>
> I) Installation
>
> X11 server has to be running. Go to Misc, Run X11 Server. You have to
> have X11 installed in your computer. Some Macs don't have it
> installed. It's on the 3rd CD. You can also download it from:
> http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/x11/download/
>
> 2) Saving graphs:
> jpeg(), png(), pdf()
>
> a) You have to have X11 running. Go to Misc, RunX11 server, let X11
> opened, don't close it.
>
> b)to save a file you first have to open a device.
> this was confusing to me, so let me be clear for other people like
> myself (supposing I am not the only one having this problem...).
>
> jpeg() and png() pdf() are NOT used to save plots AFTER the plots are
> done. That's not what they do.
>
> example:
> jpeg("myfile.jpg")   #opens a device - saves a file in your directory
> but it has 0 Kb
> plot(1:10)               #places the plot in the device - still 0 Kb
> file in your directory
> dev.off()                  #closes the device and saves the contents
> of the plot in file.
>                                 #you now have a file
>
>
> 3) there is another way to save graphs:
> bitmap()
>
> for that you need to have Ghostscript installed. I dowloaded
> Ghostscript, but using bitmap() sill does't work, it still can't find
> Ghostscript, I don't know where I have to install it, but I don't
> really need it.
>
> General considerations:
> a) It's always possible to save pdfs files from the active device on
> the menu: file > save
> b) cut and paste also works
> c) pdfs are wonderful for graphs and lines. I was surprised by the
> quality and the small size of the file. Another show of my ignorance.
> d) I am very surprised that this has not been an issue. I think the
> functions are not very intuitive and the help pages, although clear
> NOW, didn't help me that much when I first read them.
> e) I'm curious about this on windows. Do they also go through this
> device process?
> f) you people are wonderful. Thanks for all the support and the help
> that I have had. It was a little time consuming but I've learned a
> lot in the process.
>
>
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>
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David Winsemius
dwinsemius at comcast.net