| CGM files [message #17668] |
Wed, 03 November 1999 00:00  |
Justin Ashmall
Messages: 15
Registered: May 1999
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Junior Member |
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IDLers,
I'm attempting to produce a CGM file of a plot, however the resulting file
gives a square image rather than the landscape shaped plot I'm after and
also has some over-lapping text. Producing an encapuslated postscript file
with the same plot commands works fine (i.e. the correct aspect ratio, no
overlapping text).
Ultimately I want to get the plot into Word (I don't want to use .eps since
I'm not using a PS printer). If I resize the CGM file the text becomes
distorted. Outside of IDL I've tried using Ghostview to convert the .eps
file to a windows meta-file which works except the resolution is very poor,
leading to my curves becomes badly jagged.
Any suggestions?
Cheers,
Justin
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| Re: CGM files [message #17693 is a reply to message #17668] |
Tue, 09 November 1999 00:00  |
mdwillia
Messages: 2
Registered: August 1999
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Junior Member |
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Mark Hadfield <m.hadfield@niwa.cri.nz> writes:
> If you DID have a Postscript printer, then by far the best way would be
> to use
> the IDL PS device to generate EPS output. You can add a TIFF preview, if
> you want, in IDL or with GSview (on Windows) or maybe Ghostview (which I
> haven't used).
> Without a PS printer you don't have too many satisfactory options.
> The CGM device is pretty much useless for importing into Word, as you
> have noted.
> Ideally you want WMF (Windows Metafile) format but IDL does not have a
> WMF driver. (Surely it wouldn't be that hard for them to write one!)
I use PV-WAVE to import plots and graphics into MS-WORD. The CGM
driver, as of version 7.0 of PV-WAVE, works great to produce output
files, with preview, that are perfectly scalable and sizable within
MS-WORD. From both UNIX and Windows. If you are running PV-WAVE
on Windows, then you can use the WMF driver to produce a scalable
metafile that all of the Microsoft Office applications are content
to import and size.
Just the rare $0.02 from a WAVE user on the ol' comp.lang.idl-pvwave.
Regards,
M. Williams
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| Re: CGM files [message #17785 is a reply to message #17668] |
Mon, 08 November 1999 00:00 |
justin_ashmall
Messages: 4
Registered: November 1999
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Junior Member |
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dejastockwell@my-deja.com (rgs) wrote in <7vv8ok$2nh$1@nnrp1.deja.com>:
> Greetings Jack,
>
> here's some free advice, for what it's worth:
> - wipe MSWord from your computer and mind
> - use LaTeX & includegraphics & ps !!!
Although I'm not a huge Microsoft fan I'm going to have to stick up for
Word here against the fashionable MS bashing goes on. Word does the trick
most of the time - it can be quirky and difficult sometimes but much less
so than Latex and it's derivatives. When I started out writing my thesis
I spent a few weeks with Latex but decided to use Word in the end. I find
not working in a WYSIYG enviroment slow and often annoying, causing me to
miss small errors. Even the MS equation editor is not too bad once you've
learnt the keyboard short-cuts.
> It has been my experience that bitmaps/WMF/etc look Lousy
> in Word.
Maybe you should try again - WMFs especially are handled very well giving
excellent results on any screen or type of printer in my experience. I
have used Word for published papers and have had no complaints.
> If you do follow this crooked path (and I strongly
> urge latex/ps if I hadn't mentioned that yet)
It's a shame that the CGI driver doesn't work properly - if it did there
wouldn't be a PS vs WMF argument. I'm surprised that RS haven't sorted
out a WMF driver considering the large amount of effort they have put
into the Windows version of IDL (e.g. IDL as an ActiveX control).
Justin
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| Re: CGM files [message #17802 is a reply to message #17668] |
Fri, 05 November 1999 00:00 |
Pavel Romashkin
Messages: 166
Registered: April 1999
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Senior Member |
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rgs wrote:
> here's some free advice, for what it's worth:
> - wipe MSWord from your computer and mind
> - use LaTeX & includegraphics & ps !!!
Sorry, but for me this free advice is worth its free. I have Word, use
Word and it gets what I need done for me. For more sophisticated people,
I don't mind that you use anything that works for you, but this is not
yet a reason to throw away widely available and quitecommon package.
> It has been my experience that bitmaps/WMF/etc look Lousy
> in Word.
WMF and EMF are fully scalable vector file formats. At least on a PC and
at least for me, they print and scale fine from Word. I wrote more than
one paper this way and had no problems. The only time when this fails is
when you bring Word document with WMF or EMF onto Macintosh - there all
resolution in graphics is lost. As well as if you bring a Mac word
document with EPS pictures on a PC - pictures get screwed up. Given how
this two platforms are different, I don't expect this to work out. But
on one platform I never have problems.
> If you do follow this crooked path
Oh well; I am unlucky here, I have no freedom to buy whatever packages I
want or advised to own. For my simplistic publications (as well as for
many thousands other people) the pathetic Word works allright.
Cheers,
Pavel
P.S. If you want easy solutions and can do things your way, get a
secretary instead of LaTeX. Just give her text and pictures, tell her
what you need and when, and you don't even need to care which software
she will use :-)
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| Re: CGM files [message #17825 is a reply to message #17668] |
Fri, 05 November 1999 00:00 |
R.G. Stockwell
Messages: 363
Registered: July 1999
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Senior Member |
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Greetings Jack,
here's some free advice, for what it's worth:
- wipe MSWord from your computer and mind
- use LaTeX & includegraphics & ps !!!
But since you asked about including figures in Word,
I suggest the following (this is what I used to do).
Even though you don't have a PS printer,
you can still install a PS driver on your
computer. You can then print to file from MSword
to create the ps file.
Then view and print to your printer with Ghostview.
It has been my experience that bitmaps/WMF/etc look Lousy
in Word. If you do follow this crooked path (and I strongly
urge latex/ps if I hadn't mentioned that yet), then
get an image editor and sharpen your images, edge enhance
them, then decrease colour number to 2 (in that order).
This helps to clean up a lot of the plots, but resized
images often get a mottled grey background. YUCK!
Good Luck,
rgs
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
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