R help - Sep 2004 - How to save graphics in portable way in batch mode?

Hi all,

What is the right portable way to save graphics 
in batch mode?

Remarks:

  1. Problem is STFWed and RTFMed. In particular a short note 
     about png() is found in R-FAQ. In fact, there were stated 
     that png() is not reliable under Linux in batch mode.

  2. savePlot under windows is quite convenient, but 
     not supplied under Linux.

  3. pdf() + postscript() < savePlot()
     Indeed, savePlot does support much more image formats 
     and is flexible in changing type of output via its
     argument.

  4. The scheme 

     "postscript(); plot(); dev.off();" 

     makes R-scripts not really nice. Indeed, if one's script 
     had about 15 plot calls then in order to save graphics 
     one need to add 15 times the postscript() in prior of 
     plot() call and then 15 times the dev.off() as epilogue 
     to plot() call.

  5. Hm, one could create function similar to Sweave() 
     (see R-1.9.1\src\library\utils\R\Sweave.R) and 
     benefit from automatic name generation and saving.
     But it is quite unnatural, isn't it?
      
so, it would be nice to know what is the "right way".

P.S. BTW, will be there any specific changes in R-2.x?

Thank you a priori for your comments,
Valery.

Have you considered the following approach to creating a single PDF 
file with multiple pages of plots?

pdf(file="c:\\myfigs.pdf")
plot()
plot()
plot()
dev.off()

   Or if you want a file for each figure with names generated 
automatically, try something like:

pdf(onefile=FALSE)
plot()
plot()
plot()
dev.off()

   It seems like as long as the PDF device is going to have the same 
settings (e.g., width, height, and pointsize) across plots, there is no 
need to call pdf() and dev.off() multiple times within a script.

hope this helps,

Chuck Cleland

Khamenia, Valery wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> What is the right portable way to save graphics 
> in batch mode?
> 
> Remarks:
> 
>   1. Problem is STFWed and RTFMed. In particular a short note 
>      about png() is found in R-FAQ. In fact, there were stated 
>      that png() is not reliable under Linux in batch mode.
> 
>   2. savePlot under windows is quite convenient, but 
>      not supplied under Linux.
> 
>   3. pdf() + postscript() < savePlot()
>      Indeed, savePlot does support much more image formats 
>      and is flexible in changing type of output via its
>      argument.
> 
>   4. The scheme 
> 
>      "postscript(); plot(); dev.off();" 
> 
>      makes R-scripts not really nice. Indeed, if one's script 
>      had about 15 plot calls then in order to save graphics 
>      one need to add 15 times the postscript() in prior of 
>      plot() call and then 15 times the dev.off() as epilogue 
>      to plot() call.
> 
>   5. Hm, one could create function similar to Sweave() 
>      (see R-1.9.1\src\library\utils\R\Sweave.R) and 
>      benefit from automatic name generation and saving.
>      But it is quite unnatural, isn't it?
>       
> so, it would be nice to know what is the "right way".
> 
> P.S. BTW, will be there any specific changes in R-2.x?
> 
> Thank you a priori for your comments,
> Valery.
> 
> ______________________________________________
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> 
-- 
Chuck Cleland, Ph.D.
NDRI, Inc.
71 West 23rd Street, 8th floor
New York, NY 10010
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fax: (917) 438-0894

"Khamenia, Valery" <V.Khamenia at biovision-discovery.de>
writes:
> Hi all,
> 
> What is the right portable way to save graphics 
> in batch mode?
> 
> Remarks:
> 
>   1. Problem is STFWed and RTFMed. In particular a short note 
>      about png() is found in R-FAQ. In fact, there were stated 
>      that png() is not reliable under Linux in batch mode.
> 
>   2. savePlot under windows is quite convenient, but 
>      not supplied under Linux.
> 
>   3. pdf() + postscript() < savePlot()
>      Indeed, savePlot does support much more image formats 
>      and is flexible in changing type of output via its
>      argument.
> 
>   4. The scheme 
> 
>      "postscript(); plot(); dev.off();" 
> 
>      makes R-scripts not really nice. Indeed, if one's script 
>      had about 15 plot calls then in order to save graphics 
>      one need to add 15 times the postscript() in prior of 
>      plot() call and then 15 times the dev.off() as epilogue 
>      to plot() call.
> 
>   5. Hm, one could create function similar to Sweave() 
>      (see R-1.9.1\src\library\utils\R\Sweave.R) and 
>      benefit from automatic name generation and saving.
>      But it is quite unnatural, isn't it?
>       
> so, it would be nice to know what is the "right way".
Looks like you may have RTFM but didn't RTWFM (or even RTWHP). Check
out the "onefile" argument in postscript().

> P.S. BTW, will be there any specific changes in R-2.x?
The sources are available....

E.g. https://svn.r-project.org/R/trunk/NEWS

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907