print_eps

Save figures to high quality eps files with cropped borders and embedded fonts.

Description

PLEASE NOTE - This function has now been superseded by EXPORT_FIG, which encompasses all its functionality plus some further functionality. This function will therefore no longer receive any support. EXPORT_FIG can be downloaded from:
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/23629

PRINT_EPS saves a figure to an eps file, with:
   - Figure borders cropped
   - Fonts embedded (as subsets)
   - Accurate vector graphics, compressed losslessly
   - High quality bitmap graphics, compressed lossily
   - Line dash lengths vary with line width (as on screen)
   - Grid lines given their own dot style, instead of dashed
   - No options to be set
 
PRINT_EPS requires only a target filename and an optional figure handle - there are no other options to be set. The output eps is exactly the size and layout of the figure on the screen. Additionally, line styles for dotted and dashed lines are improved for clarity, along with grid lines, resembling better those in the original figure. The function is perfect for generating eps figures for use in scientific publications.
 
PRINT_EPS uses ghostscript and pdftops (from the Xpdf package), so these must be installed on your system and the executables must be on your system's path. Get them from -
Ghostscript: http://www.ghostscript.com
Xpdf: http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the following in the creation of this submission:
savefig
This submission has inspired the following:
export_fig

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.5 (R2007b)
• Other requirements: Ghostscript, Xpdf

[Liang Li]

Hey,

Thanks a lot for this function. This is exactly what I am looking for. However, I am using a window XP system and this function doesn't seem to work right. I guess it is because I did not make pdftops work right in win32. I went to the Xpdf website you mentioned above, download the precompiled binary package: Win32 (built with MSVC): xpdf-3.02pl2-win32.zip. I changed the directory in your function. However, system(cmd) returns a result of 1. Would you please give me some hints on what I should do? or it is just not for windows users?

Many thanks,

Liang

[Oliver Woodford]

The function is written to work on all systems. I have used it on a Windows Vista system without any trouble.

[stone li]

Would you please give me some hints about how to install the ghostscript and pdftops and set path for the compiler?

[Oliver Woodford]

For Windows, download gs###w32.exe (where ### is a number, e.g. 863) from Sourceforge (follow the link at ghostscript.com), and extract it to the default location. Download the zip file named Xpdf-#.##pl2-win32.zip from http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html and extract the files in it to the folder
C:\Program Files\gs\gs#.##\bin (where #.## is a number) where Ghostscript was installed. Now put this folder on your system path, by following instructions at:
http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/48074/how-can-i-add-a-new-folder-to-my-system-path.html

[Le Page]

Had some troubles to get it right, but then it produces what no other solution I tried managed to do... representing dotted/dashed lines properly. Thanks very much.

Comments/Questions:
- line 69: name = [cd filesep name];
If one indicates complete path names of the output .eps file, this line should apparently be taken out, otherwise it duplicates the path.

- I have a figure with grey colored axes (the background). It appears white in the .eps file when using this function. I also noticed it when using matlab functions. Only through exporting did I manage to get the right axes color. Any hints ?

- Also, line 70-72, in your comments, I guess you wanted to write pdftops instead of pstopdf ?

Thanks !

[wei feng]

You may want to change line 69 to:
name = ['"', cd, filesep, name, '"']; % Add the path to the current directory
this way windows directories with spaces in them will work (such as c:\documents and settings\...

[Koray S. Erer]

I must be making a mistake somewhere. When I try to open the created eps file, GSview issues the following DSC error: "This EPS file is missing the required %%BoundingBox" It nevertheless opens the file, but the figure is in wrong size and incorrectly cropped. In addition, originally italic Greek letters are not italic. Any help appreciated.

[Oliver Woodford]

All the path issues mentioned have been fixed. The bbox error with gsview has been fixed.

The function uses the output of MATLAB's print, which automatically sets the background to white and italic Greek letters to non-italic (see http://www.mathworks.com/support/bugreports/details.html?rp=365825 for the latter).

[Andrej Vilhar]

Thanks for the function! Unfortunately, I still have problems. I want the "čžš" letters to appear in my graphs in eps format and they still don't. I get an "`e" instead of "č" and an empty space " " instead of "ž".

I follow all the steps correctly and all the other things are OK. What am I missing? Thanks!

[Oliver Woodford]

MATLAB's print can't handle some accents. Using the latex interpreter is a more reliable method for including them, e.g.
title('H\'{e}ll\"{o} \v{c}\v{z}\v{s}', 'Interpreter', 'Latex')

[Andres Leon]

HELLO, I FOLLOW THIS STEPS:

For Windows, download gs###w32.exe (where ### is a number, e.g. 863) from Sourceforge ........on your system path, by following instructions at:
http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/48074/how-can-i-add-a-new-folder-to-my-system-path.html

THEN I TYPE ON MATLAB, GETTING THE FOLLOW ERROR MESSAGE:

>> print_eps('PQ')
Error: /configurationerror in --setpagedevice--
Additional information: [/PageSize [-415 -311]]
Operand stack:
   --nostringval-- (%%BoundingBox: 515 553 100 242) --dict:1/2(ro)(G)-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- (%%BoundingBox: 515 553 100 242) 1 515 553 --dict:1/1(L)--
Execution stack:
   %interp_exit .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- false 1 %stopped_push 1905 1 3 %oparray_pop 1904 1 3 %oparray_pop --nostringval-- 1888 1 3 %oparray_pop 1771 1 3 %oparray_pop --nostringval-- %errorexec_pop .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval-- %ztokenexec_continue (scanner state) --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 1873 10 3 %oparray_pop --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --dict:8/10(L)-- --nostringval-- 4 %dict_continue
Dictionary stack:
   --dict:1152/1684(ro)(G)-- --dict:0/20(G)-- --dict:74/200(L)--
Current allocation mode is local
Current file position is 356
GPL Ghostscript 8.63: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1

WHERE MY FILE IS PQ.eps. PLEASE I NEED HELP TO SOLVE THIS ERROR. THANK A LOT

[Kelley Sullivan]

I have the same problem as Andres. Any solution? Thanks.

[Oliver Woodford]

Apparently a system restart can fix some ghostscript problems. (Thanks, Kelley).