Re: Plot to PDF

[Ben Abbott]

On Jul 9, 2009, at 9:10 PM, Torquil Macdonald Sørensen wrote:

> Ben Abbott wrote:
> > On Jul 9, 2009, at 6:50 PM, Torquil Macdonald Sørensen wrote:
> > > Hi!
> > >
> > > When I plot to pdf in octave, the page format turns out wrong. The  
> > > resulting PDF
> > > looks like an A4 page, even though the actual plot is wider than  
> > > its height
> > > (standard format). I'm using octave 3.2 and the newest gnuplot  
> > > development
> > > snapshot. Plotting to PDF with gnuplot works fine using the  
> > > pdfcairo terminal.
> > >
> > > The command I have tried when plotting to pdf in octave is:
> > >
> > > fplot(blablabla...)
> > > print("plot.pdf")
> > >
> > > It works, apart from that page format issue. Anyone know how to do  
> > > it right? I'm
> > > using the octave3.2 from Debian Sid.
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > Torquil Sørensen
> > It's not clear to me what you are seeing, or what you expect to  
> > see. So I'll explain what should happen and you can comment.
> > Both pdf an postscript output respect the papersize and  
> > paperposition properties.
> > The default are
> > papersize = [8.5, 11];
> > paperposition = [0.25, 2.5, 8.0, 6.0];
> > The resulting pdf/postscript output should (approximately) fill a  
> > 8x6 in box centered on a page of 8.5x11 inches.
> > If this is what you see, then all is working correctly.
> > If you'd like to produce a pdf to import into a LaTeX document (or  
> > a figure for a similar purpose), then try
> > set (gcf, "papersize", [6.4, 4.8])
> > set (gcf, "paperposition", [0, 0, 6.4, 4.8])
> > plot (1:10)
> > xlabel ("xlabel")
> > ylabel ("ylabel")
> > title ("title")
> > plot test.pdf
> > Ben
>
> Thanks Ben, I will try to explain more thoroughly and provide some  
> files. When using the plot command, a window appears, with certain  
> dimensions. This window is a bit wider than it is tall. I would like  
> the PDF to have the same dimensions.
>
> When I use the print command to obtain an EPS file, the EPS has the  
> same aspect ratio as this window. When printing to PDF, there is  
> lots of extra white space above and below the plot. So the result is  
> not the same when printing to EPS and PDF. So printing to EPS gives  
> the desired result.
>
> (Btw, I assume you meant "print test.pdf", not "plot plot.pdf" in  
> your example code above)
>
> I have uploaded and EPS and a PDF so that the difference can be seen:
>
> * EPS example:
>
> plot (1:10)
> print plot.eps
>
> Result: http://folk.uio.no/tmac/plot.eps
>
> * PDF example:
>
> plot (1:10)
> print plot.pdf
>
> Result: http://folk.uio.no/tmac/plot.pdf
>
> The EPS has the format that I want, and which is the same as the  
> plot window displayed by octave after the plot command.
>
> The "set(gcf..." you included in the above has the following effect:
>
> EPS case: It affects the aspect ratio of the graphic, as well as the  
> paper format/size.
>
> PDF case: It affects only the graphic, not the page format/size of  
> the PDF file.
>
> Best regards
> Torquil Sørensen


Thanks for providing more detail.

The behavior of Octave is consistent with Matlab and is intended.

To obtain a pdf file that is the same size as the eps

        dpi = get (0, "screenpixelsperinch");
        pos = get (gcf, "position");
        papersize = pos(3:4)./dpi;
        set (gcf, "papersize", papersize)
        set (gcf, "paperposition", [0, 0, papersize])
        plot(1:10)
        print test.pdf

If you compare the the eps file, be sure your viewer clips the result  
at the bounding box. Otherwise, you'll see an additional 50pt border.

Ben