15.2.9 Printing and Saving Plots

The print command allows you to save plots in a variety of formats. For example,

print -deps foo.eps

writes the current figure to an encapsulated PostScript file called foo.eps.

Function File: print ()

Function File: print (options)

Function File: print (filename, options)

Function File: print (h, filename, options)

Print a graph, or save it to a file

filename defines the file name of the output file. If the file name has no suffix, one is inferred from the specified device and appended to the file name. If no filename is specified, the output is sent to the printer.

h specifies the figure handle. If no handle is specified the handle for the current figure is used.

options:

-fh

Specify the handle, h, of the figure to be printed. The default is the current figure.

-Pprinter

Set the printer name to which the graph is sent if no filename is specified.

-Gghostscript_command

Specify the command for calling Ghostscript. For Unix and Windows, the defaults are ’gs’ and ’gswin32c’, respectively.

-color

-mono

Monochrome or color output.

-solid

-dashed

Forces all lines to be solid or dashed, respectively.

-portrait

-landscape

Specify the orientation of the plot for printed output. For non-printed output the aspect ratio of the output corresponds to the plot area defined by the "paperposition" property in the orientation specified. This options is equivalent to changing the figure’s "paperorientation" property.

-ddevice

Output device, where device is one of:

ps

ps2

psc

psc2

Postscript (level 1 and 2, mono and color). The FLTK graphics toolkit generates Postscript level 3.0.

eps

eps2

epsc

epsc2

Encapsulated postscript (level 1 and 2, mono and color). The FLTK graphic toolkit generates Postscript level 3.0.

tex

epslatex

epslatexstandalone

pstex

pslatex

pdflatex

Generate a LaTeX (or TeX) file for labels, and eps/ps/pdf for graphics. The file produced by epslatexstandalone can be processed directly by LaTeX. The other formats are intended to be included in a LaTeX (or TeX) document. The tex device is the same as the epslatex device. The pdflatex device is only available for the FLTK graphics toolkit.

tikz

Generate a LaTeX file using PGF/TikZ. For the FLTK the result is PGF.

ill

aifm

Adobe Illustrator (Obsolete for Gnuplot versions > 4.2)

cdr

corel

CorelDraw

dxf

AutoCAD

emf

meta

Microsoft Enhanced Metafile

fig

XFig. For the Gnuplot graphics toolkit, the additional options -textspecial or -textnormal can be used to control whether the special flag should be set for the text in the figure (default is -textnormal).

hpgl

HP plotter language

mf

Metafont

png

Portable network graphics

jpg

jpeg

JPEG image

gif

GIF image (only available for the Gnuplot graphics toolkit)

pbm

PBMplus

svg

Scalable vector graphics

pdf

Portable document format

NOTE: The gnuplot binary as shipped by Debian cannot create PDF files, see http://bugs.debian.org/478677

If the device is omitted, it is inferred from the file extension, or if there is no filename it is sent to the printer as postscript.

-dghostscript_device

Additional devices are supported by Ghostscript. Some examples are;

ljet2p

HP LaserJet IIP

ljet3

HP LaserJet III

deskjet

HP DeskJet and DeskJet Plus

cdj550

HP DeskJet 550C

paintjet

HP PointJet

pcx24b

24-bit color PCX file format

ppm

Portable Pixel Map file format

pdfwrite

Produces pdf output from eps

For a complete list, type ‘system ("gs -h")’ to see what formats and devices are available.

When Ghostscript output is sent to a printer the size is determined by the figure’s "papersize" property. When the output is sent to a file the size is determined by the plot box defined by the figure’s "paperposition" property.

-append

Appends the PS, or PDF output to a pre-existing file of the same type.

-rNUM

Resolution of bitmaps in pixels per inch. For both metafiles and SVG the default is the screen resolution, for other it is 150 dpi. To specify screen resolution, use "-r0".

-tight

Forces a tight bounding box for eps-files.

-preview

Adds a preview to eps-files. Supported formats are;

-interchange

Provides an interchange preview.

-metalfile

Provides a metafile preview.

-pict

Provides pict preview.

-tiff

Provides a tiff preview.

-Sxsize,ysize

Plot size in pixels for EMF, GIF, JPEG, PBM, PNG and SVG. For PS, EPS, PDF, and other vector formats the plot size is in points. This option is equivalent to changing the size of the plot box associated with "paperposition" property. Using the command form of the print function, you must quote the xsize,ysize option. For example, by writing "-S640,480".

-Ffontname

-Ffontname:size

-F:size

Associates all text with the fontname and/or fontsize. fontname is ignored for some devices; dxf, fig, hpgl, etc.

The filename and options can be given in any order.

Example: Print to a file, using the svg device.

figure (1);
clf ();
surf (peaks);
print -dsvg figure1.svg

Example: Print to an HP Deskjet 550C.

figure (1);
clf ();
surf (peaks);
print -dcdj550

See also: figure, orient, saveas.

Function File: saveas (h, filename)

Function File: saveas (h, filename, fmt)

Save graphic object h to the file filename in graphic format fmt.

fmt should be one of the following formats:

ps

Postscript

eps

Encapsulated Postscript

jpg

JPEG Image

png

PNG Image

emf

Enhanced Meta File

pdf

Portable Document Format

All device formats specified in print may also be used. If fmt is omitted it is extracted from the extension of filename. The default format is "pdf".

clf ();
surf (peaks);
saveas (1, "figure1.png");

See also: print.

Function File: orient (orientation)

Set the default print orientation. Valid values for orientation include "landscape", "portrait", and "tall".

The "tall" option sets the orientation to portait and fills the page with the plot, while leaving a 0.25in border.

If called with no arguments, return the default print orientation.