Any fix for poor eps export of R2014b??

Hi, is there any way to create usable eps files from Matlab figures from current version 2014b? The eps files (or any other vector format like svg or pdf) produced by 2014b are anything but good. Almost nothing seems to be right. Just one example: if I use round markers ('o') this is what Matlab makes of it in the eps:

Everything else is pretty much messed up. It's utterly impossible to produce anything that would be suitable for any kind of publication. Is there any working workaround or fix? Will the upcoming release of Matlab be able to create proper vector graphics?

Best regards, Jan

[lvn]

Could you provide a minimal example of the code that will reproduce the plot above?

[jan sch.]

I've extracted this minimal example from one of my codes:

clear all; close all;
figure(1)
hold on
plot3(0,3,4,'ko','MarkerSize',8,'MarkerFaceColor','w','LineWidth',1.5)
plot3(2,0,3,'ko','MarkerSize',8,'MarkerFaceColor','w','LineWidth',1.5)
view([1 1 1])

This one creates two of these strange markers. I'm using the export setup dialog to export the figure to eps with a width of 7.5cm and height of 5.5cm. With previous versions of Matlab everything is exported fine. I've noted several other problems with exported figures. In another figure, filled round markers appear as octagons created from triangles. And one more observation: the axes and labels are exported grey instead of black.

[lvn]

Unfortunately i see now that I only have matlab 2014a, so I cannot reproduce.

Does exporting as "print -depsc2 test.eps" help?

[jan sch.]

Actually it seems to produce a corrupt eps file, which can't be opened by Corel Draw or Ghostscript. But I also tried export_fig, which results in similar bad eps.

Any export to vector graphics using 2014b seems to produce bad results - way inferior to previous versions.

[Richard Quist]

Jan,

The marker quality issue in vector output is a known problem - you can see the bug report about it here

I would suggest you contact Technical Support and provide them with examples (both the MATLAB code and the generated EPS files) that reproduce the other problems you are encountering.

Although not always suitable for publication you may find that forcing the use of the OpenGL renderer will produce better results for some of the issues you're experiencing.

Rich

[jan sch.]

Unfortunately, it's still the same with R2015a. The quality of exported figures is extremely bad. Circle markers aren't circles but polygons, axes and labels are exported in dark gray instead of black, patches and areas are strangely combined by smaller patches. It's very close to absolutely unusable. I have to use the old R2014a release to produce vector graphics that can be used as basis for figures that are adequate for publication. Mathworks has to do something about that urgently!

[Till]

I had this problem as well in 2014b. One (filled) round marker would be exported to EPS as a collection of eight triangles, forming an octagon. Really annoying when you wanted to change the edge width or fill color afterwards.

I just installed 2016a. The bug report says that this problem has been solved starting with this version, but I kind of have to disagree. Round markers are now exported as a single object, with a single edge and fill color, so in that regard it's useful again.

However, it's still an octagon. Up to 2014a the round markers were actual circles. While it's not unusable anymore, having actual circles would be much preferred.

Any news on that?

Answer 1

[Matt J]

Try export_fig ( Download ).

[jan sch.]

I did, doesn't change anything.