[R] How can I obtain smooth lines in graphs?

Marc Schwartz marc_schwartz at comcast.net
Thu Jun 21 02:46:14 CEST 2007


If you are going to be pasting the plots into Powerpoint, then you will
want to use the EMF/WMF devices for output.

If has been a while since I used Windows, but my recollection is that if
you draw the plot to the screen and then right-click on the plot window,
you can either copy the plot to the Windows clipboard (and then paste
into Powerpoint) or export the plot as a metafile and then import it
into Powerpoint.

In either case, I would leverage this somewhat unique functionality on
Windows to use the EMF/WMF vector based formats, which are the native
Windows graphics formats.

You should be able to use ?Devices on Windows to list the available
devices and get more information there.

HTH,

Marc

On Wed, 2007-06-20 at 17:38 -0700, Judith Flores wrote:
> Thank you Marc,
> 
>    I am using R (version 2.5.0), Windows 2000, and
> Power Point as the final output and yes, you are right
> regarding the quality of a PDF file, it's much better
> than the ones I have tried so far (JPEG, PNG). 
> 
>    How can I increase the DPIs? 
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Judith 
> --- Marc Schwartz <marc_schwartz at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, 2007-06-20 at 17:05 -0700, Judith Flores
> > wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > >    I need to plot lines in a graph, but when I run
> > the
> > > corresponding commands I obtain pixel-like lines,
> > they
> > > need to be smooth, is there a way to do this?
> > > 
> > > Thank you,
> > > 
> > > Judith
> > 
> > Judith,
> > 
> > You will need to provide more information (version
> > of R, OS, output
> > device, etc.) and some sample code. 
> > 
> > If you are generating a bitmapped image file such as
> > PNG or JPEG, as
> > opposed to a vector based image such as PDF, EPS or
> > WMF/EMF then there
> > is not much you can do with respect to the
> > pixelation of curved/angled
> > lines or curves/angles in text.   You can increase
> > the dpi (dots per
> > inch) to enhance the relative resolution (at the
> > expense of a larger
> > file), but the image quality is still dependent on
> > the device upon which
> > the image is viewed. 
> > 
> > Pending further information, if you need high
> > quality output, depending
> > upon the intended use, then you want to use vector
> > based images.
> > 
> > HTH,
> > 
> > Marc Schwartz
> > 
> > 
> >
> 
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