Basic: setting resolution and size of an R graphic

Mon, Oct 24, 2005 11:57 PM

Thanks Marc and Jim for the tips. The PDF file that I create with R looks
about the same as the one you created. However, I need to get the graphic
to be a certain size (300 pixels wide). I have been using the ImageMagick
program to do so for other graphics:

convert test.pdf -resize 300x300 out.pdf

then out.pdf looks rather poor (pixelly). The original image is too big.
ANy ideas?
Thanks a lot,Peter


Am Mo, 24.10.2005, 22:53, schrieb Marc Schwartz (via MN):

On Mon, 2005-10-24 at 22:32 +0200, Dr. med. Peter Robinson wrote:

Dear List,


I am sorry if this perhaps a too basic question, but I have not found
an answer in Google or in the R help system. I am trying to use R to do
a very simple analysis of some data (RT-PCR and Western analysis) with a
 T-test and
to plot the results as a histogram with error bars. (I have pasted an
example script at the bottom of this mail). In order to use this for
publication, I would like to adjust the resolution and size of the final
image. However, even using file types such as postscript or pdf that are
vector based, I get rather bad-looking results with

pdf(file="test.pdf") source("script at bottom of mail") dev.off()

using either pdf or postscript or jpg devices.


Therefore I would like to ask the list, how to best produce a graphic
from the script below that would fit into one column of a published
article and have a high resolution (as eps, or failing that tiff or
png)? Thanks in advance for any advice,


Peter

<Snip of code>


What OS are you on?


Running your example on FC4, I get the attached output for a pdf().


I suspect that on your OS, the height and width arguments are not
appropriate by default.

Thus, you may need to adjust your pdf (or postscript) function call to
explicitly specify larger height and width arguments.

Also note that to generate an EPS file, pay attention to the details
section of ?postscript, taking note of the 'onefile', 'horizontal' and
'paper' arguments and settings.


Also, check with your journal to see if they specify dimensions for such
graphics so that you can abide by their specs if provided. If they are
using LaTeX, there are means of specifying and/or adjusting the height
and/or width specs in the code based upon proportions of various measures
(ie. \includegraphics[width=0.9\textwidth]{GraphicsFile.eps} ).


HTH,


Marc Schwartz

Basic: setting resolution and size of an R graphic

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