| Re: how to input idl figure to MS office [message #31635] |
Mon, 29 July 2002 15:31 |
MKatz843
Messages: 98
Registered: March 2002
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Member |
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I hope the following comments may help for the Postscript route. This
advice applied to all Mac versions of Word, and perhaps PC versions as
well... I do this routine daily.
I've found that it helps to import an EPS file into Word using
"Insert > Picture > From File"
Then make sure you select Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) from the file
type menu before selecting the picture in the menu. This avoids having
Word mangle (I mean interpret) the image into its own format. You can
choose the insert a "link" to the image. That will keep the size of
the word file way down (if your graphic is large) but you have to be
sure not to misplace the EPS file.
Once imported, don't expect to see a beautiful representation of the
graphic on screen. You'll see a low-res preview if you've created one
from IDL. Otherwise you may see a blank frame or nearly blank frame
where the image should be. DO NOT double-click an EPS graphic in
Word--it will try to let you edit it.
If you print to a Postscript printer, the results should be perfect.
If you want to output to PDF, you *must* output to a postscript file
first, then "distill" with Adobe Distiller. The quick PDF output
options in Mac OS X will not render the EPS properly (it places the
low-res preview instead.)
If you'll be printing to a non-Postscript printer, I suggest creating
a PDF from Word, then print from the PDF to be able to use an EPS
file.
Hope this helps,
M. Katz
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| Re: how to input idl figure to MS office [message #31652 is a reply to message #31635] |
Mon, 29 July 2002 02:44  |
Randall Skelton
Messages: 169
Registered: October 2000
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Senior Member |
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If it is a direct graphics plot you are trying to use, I would first save
it as a ps/eps file using set_plot, 'ps' and then convert the ps/eps file
using CorelDraw or Adobe Illustrator. If you are running windows, you
should save the file in the windows metafile format (.wmf) while if you
are using a macintosh then a pict file (.pct) format is ideal. Both of
these formats are 'metafiles' which means they can hold EITHER
vector-drawn or image-drawn data. Good graphics programs like CorelDraw
and Illustrator can import IDL generated postscript and export a correctly
drawn, vector-based metafile. Most other programs will simply mangle your
ps/eps plots into images and generate rasterized metafile images. If you
find the lines too thin when you follow the above, you can try setting the
line thickness in IDL (rather tedious IMHO) or you can simply adjust the
plot in CorelDraw to suite your taste. I agree that wmf files tend to
have lines which are too thin (especailly for powerpoint).
Cheers,
Randall
On Sat, 27 Jul 2002, tom wrote:
> The best figure form generated from IDL is PS, but it is not easy to
> use PS in MS office. How to do that?
>
> (I use CorelDraw to open PS, then paste figure to office, but the line
> is too thin in CorelDraw, although it is quick good in PS_ghostview )
>
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