fix_lines

Improves the style of lines in MATLAB generated eps files

Description

This function improves the style of lines in eps files generated by MATLAB's print function, making them more similar to those seen on screen. Grid lines are also changed from a dashed style to a dotted style, for greater differentiation from dashed lines.

The screenshot demonstrates the improvements, with the figure (top right) being printed to eps (bottom left), which is then improved (bottom right) using FIX_LINES. Note how the effect becomes more marked on thicker lines.

The function additionally moves any embedded fonts after the bounding box information, to ensure correct cropping in Ghostscript.

Acknowledgements

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

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.5 (R2007b)

[gmart]

i fixed the dashed line in my eps figure after running this function...

[Rob Campbell]

Clear, well-written code that does the job. Very useful.

[Laurence K]

Hi, I like this code - it has come in handy!

I was thinking that since the code has some error checking at the top, it should probably also take account of the situation where the file can't be opened. If that's the case at the moment (say the file isn't there) the line:

fh = fopen(fname, 'rt');

returns -1 into fh. That could be checked and acted on below that, for example like this:

[fh, fMsg] = fopen(fname, 'rt');
if ( fh == -1 )
  disp(['Error opening file: ' fMsg]);
  return;
end

Otherwise, an error is thrown when the fread line is executed, and it goes to close the file on the fclose line just below it. Since it's not open, this throws another error and the code exits with an error before the rethrow line is executed.

[Seb]

Work as i need. Thanks a lot!

[D Ko]

I tried using the script to improve my matlab-generated eps files (created using print('-depsc2','-tiff','-r600','filename.eps'])), but the output file cannot be read by ghostview.
I get the following message "DOS EPS header is bad". Ignoring DSC comments" in GV.
The Adobe Distiller-generated PDF for the eps file is a blank page.
Any idea?

[D Ko]

Ok, I think I am getting somewhere now. When I remove the tiff preview option, it works just fine. So it seems like it works if the original doesn't have a -tiff attached to it. (I like the preview for when i import the graphic in a WYSIWYG word processor).

[Robert]

Excellent! This makes figures look like they do on screen. For those of us who like GUIs, note that this also works if you save figures by clicking File>Save As... and select EPS (which opens in PDF viewers and word processors).

[Adam Nieslony]

You are the best! The tool is simple and do exactly what I have expected. Thank you.

[Sauro Salomoni]

Great script, does exactly what it's supposed to do. No more annoying thin slashes where there was supposed to be dots! Thanks