[R] Troubles using postscript(family = "ComputerModern")

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> David Winsemius <dwinsemius at comcast.net>
>>>>>     on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:46:08 -0500 writes:

    > On Nov 29, 2010, at 9:00 AM, pilchat wrote:

    >> Hi guys,
    >> 
    >> to make it easier, here is a simple case with the same issues. I use  
    >> the short function below to make the attached PS file.
    >> 
    >> Things to fix:
    >> 
    >> -) the greek letter "lambda" is not printed, while "mu" is printed  
    >> (see the plot command)
    >> -) the annotation inside the plot area: the "+-" symbol and "(K)"  
    >> overlap with the substitute for tmed and tstd respectively (see the  
    >> text command). Also, how can I set the number of decimal digits for  
    >> tmed and tstd? (option(digits=4) does not work )

    > I would have thought one would do any formatting (of digits) outside  
    > the text( ...substitute(...),...) setting.

    >> 
    >> Moreover, I'd like to make the characters thicker. Is there any way?

    > Which characters? There is a bold() option within plotmath.

    >> Finally, once I close the R session without saving it (I answer "n"  
    >> when quitting), the content of the ps file is erased.

    > Now _that_ is weird. A file should have been created in your default  
    > directory and closing R should not have made it go away.

    >> Do I miss something in writing the function?

    > Perhaps. (But you certainly missed something in writing the question.)  
    > When I remove the family="ComputerModern" from the postscript call, I  
    > start seeing lambda. ,,,, And the other spacing weirness also  
    > resolves. I am on a Mac and ComputerModern is not one of the  
    > pdfFonts() on my machine. The list of available fonts varies widely  
    > across various OSes and devices about which you have given us no clues.

Well, but indeed the OP is right: there's a severe problem at
least in some cases, including my own (Linux, Fedora 13)
*iff*  "ComputerModern" is used.

I'm too time-squeezed currently to give much more details
but there *is* bug here, either in R's implementation / usage of
the "ComputerModern" family or outside R in the font (metric?)
files used or possibly even the postscript viewer (but I doubt
the last one).

Martin Maeechler, ETH Zurich


    >> plot_example=function()
    >> {
    >> 
    >> setPS()
    >> postscript (file='plot_example.ps',width=5,height=5,horizontal =  
    >> FALSE, paper = "special",family =  
    >> "ComputerModern",encoding="TeXtext.enc")
    >> 
    >> tmed<-1.23456789
    >> tstd<-1.23456789
    >> 
    >> plot 
    >> (c 
    >> (0,1 
    >> ),c 
    >> (0,1 
    >> ),xlab=expression(paste(lambda,mu,T)),main="",sub="(a)")#"lambda"  
    >> not printed
    >> text(.0,.8,substitute( T[disk,med] == tmed %+-% tstd  
    >> (K),list(tmed=tmed,tstd=tstd)),pos=4,cex=1.5  )#overlapping symbols  
    >> and numbers
    >> 
    >> dev.off()
    >> 
    >> }
    >> <plot_example.ps>______________________________________________
    >> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
    >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
    >> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
    >> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

    > David Winsemius, MD
    > West Hartford, CT

    > ______________________________________________
    > R-help at r-project.org mailing list
    > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
    > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
    > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.