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pstoedit

8 messages · BORGULYA Gábor, Brian Ripley, (Ted Harding) +3 more

BORGULYA Gábor
# 
Hi List!

    Has onyone experience with "pstoedit" (http://www.pstoedit.net/pstoedit) 
to convert eps graphs generated by R on Linux to Windows formats (WMF or 
EMF)? Does this way work? Is there an other, better way?
    The fact that the website of pstoedit mentions that a Better Enhanced 
Windows Meta Files (EMF) plugin exists for Windows 9x/NT/2K/XP only makes me 
expect poor quality. Am I right?

G?bor
Brian Ripley
#
On Wed, 13 Apr 2005, BORGULYA [iso-8859-2] G?bor wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
You can only do that using pstoedit on Windows.
                                     ^^^^^^^^^^
A much better way on Windows is to run the R code on R for Windows and use 
its win.metafile() device.  Another better way is to use Adobe 
Illustrator.

The ability to generate WMF on Unix is a long-standing wish at

 	http://developer.r-project.org/WindowsTODO.html

but no one has ever contributed a working device (although it would be no 
harder than say the PDF device).

Note that because of font differences, conversion from EPS to WMF can only 
ever be approximate.

            

      
      
      
    

        
No quality at all unless you are using Windows where it is unnecessary.

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      (Ted Harding)
    

    

      
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On 13-Apr-05 Prof Brian Ripley wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
Well, I have pstoedit on Linux and with

  pstoedit -f emf infile.eps outfile.emf

I get what is claimed to be "Enhanced Windows metafile"
and which can be imported into Word (though then it is
subsequently somewhat resistant to editing operations,
such as rotating if it's the wrong way up).

On the other hand,

  pstoedit -f wmf infile.eps outfile.wmf

which is supposed to produce a Windows metafile, produces
something which Word resists importing.

Best wishes to all,
Ted.


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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 13-Apr-05                                       Time: 09:36:21
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      Brian Ripley
    

    

      
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On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk wrote:

        

            

      
      
      
    

        
Maybe, but the URL quoted says

pstoedit 3.40

# Windows Meta Files (WMF) (Windows 9x/NT only)
# Enhanced Windows Meta Files (EMF) (Windows 9x/NT only)

so the quoted URL claims otherwise for the current version.

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      A.J. Rossini
    

    

      
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On 4/13/05, Prof Brian Ripley <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk> wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
If you follow the link for exact support, you find out that it
supports EMF using a

wemf - Wogls version of EMF 
wemfc - Wogls version of EMF with experimental clip support 
wemfnss - Wogls version of EMF - no subpathes 

which is apparently different than the MS Windows EMF support.  How,
it isn't clear from the documentation.


best,
-tony

"Commit early,commit often, and commit in a repository from which we can easily
roll-back your mistakes" (AJR, 4Jan05).

A.J. Rossini
blindglobe at gmail.com

  
  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      (Ted Harding)
    

    

      
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On 13-Apr-05 Prof Brian Ripley wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
Indeed, on the face of it. My version is 3.33 (the predecessor
of 3.4), and it does produce both WMF and EMF files (even if
Windows does not like the WMF files, though able to accept
the EMF files).

However, if from that site (above) you go to the changelog you
can read, under Version 3.40 (changed from 3.33):

#  disabled the WMF driver when libemf is used
   (all non-Windows systems). Libemf does not really
   handle WMF files. A CreateMetaFile effectively
   creates an EnhMetaFile - but that confuses programs
   which expect an real WMF file in a file with a .wmf suffix.

# added a workaround in the EMF driver for a bug/problem in
  the libemf which is used under *nix for EMF generation.
  The problem in libemf is that if text is rendered using the
  simple TextOut function call the resulting EMF file is no
  longer usable under newer versions of Windows.
  For more details see the description of the -nfw option of
  the wmf format driver.

This suggests that while WMF has been disabled for pstoedit
on non-Windows systems, the EMF driver should still work.

However, having only 3.33 at the moment I can't test the above.

However, for others interested it may be worth a try.

(The first "#" also contains a possible explanation why the
".wmf" file I made with the WMF driver wasn't read by Windows:
if it's really an EMF files carrying a ".wmf" filename extension,
and the ".wmf" leads Windows to expect WMF content rather than
the EMF content it really has, then this could happen; but
it didn't like it either when explicitly asked to import it
as an EMF, nor when the extension was changed to ".emf")

Best wishes,
Ted.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
Date: 13-Apr-05                                       Time: 13:44:13
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      Mike Prager
    

    

      
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Ted,

Have you tried bringing the eps files directly into Word?  The version I am 
using (Word 2002 = Word 10.x) can incorporate eps files and even generates 
its own previews.

Maybe you don't need to make the conversion at all.

Regards,
...Mike

        
At 4/13/2005 04:36 AM, you wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        

      
      
    

        

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      Friedrich Leisch
    

    

      
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> On 13-Apr-05 Prof Brian Ripley wrote:

        
>> On Wed, 13 Apr 2005, BORGULYA [iso-8859-2] G?bor wrote:

        
>> 
  >>> Has onyone experience with "pstoedit"
  >>> (http://www.pstoedit.net/pstoedit)
  >>> to convert eps graphs generated by R on Linux to Windows
  >>> formats (WMF or EMF)? Does this way work? Is there an other,
  >>> better way?
  >> 
  >> You can only do that using pstoedit on Windows.
  >> ^^^^^^^^^^

  > Well, I have pstoedit on Linux and with

  >   pstoedit -f emf infile.eps outfile.emf

  > I get what is claimed to be "Enhanced Windows metafile"
  > and which can be imported into Word (though then it is
  > subsequently somewhat resistant to editing operations,
  > such as rotating if it's the wrong way up).

I always use

pstoedit -f xfig $1 $figfile
fig2dev -L emf $figfile $outfile

on Linux (Debian's pstoedit seems not to support emf). Doesn't work
for all graphics, but in most cases it does, and when it works I get
something I can fully edit in Word, i.e., I can change the text of
axis labels, move points etc.

HTH,
Fritz