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Re: Printing to postscript [message #11267 is a reply to message #11264] Tue, 17 March 1998 00:00 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
davidf is currently offline  davidf
Messages: 2866
Registered: September 1996
Senior Member
Jon Marchant (jmm@ukc.ac.uk) writes:

> Hi - I'm a bit new to IDL and would like some advice on
> printing greyscale filled contour plots so that they can
> be imported into Microsoft Word. The plots are drawn using
> the 'B-W Linear' colour table on the unix version of IDL 4.
>
> I've currently got IDL to print encapsulated postscript
> files, but when printed out the colour (grey) range isn't
> as large as it should be, i.e. it goes from black to medium
> grey instead of black to white. I've checked the data and the
> code, the full range of the colour table should definitely be
> in the graphs, and indeed is apparent when the same plot is
> sent to the screen. Does anyone have any idea what's going
> wrong?

You need to set the Bits_Per_Pixel keyword on the Device
command to 8, after you do a Set_Plot to PS. It is 4 by
default, for only 16 shades of grey. For other tips on
PostScript printing, see my web page and the articles on
how to produce Perfect PostScript Output.

> Also, as these are quite large arrays I'm printing, the eps
> files are huge (2MB plus); is there no alternative to eps
> for importing graphs into word?

There are alternatives, but none give you the nice, crisp
letters and sharp lines that make you want to use PostScript
in the first place. One alternative is to not use filled
contours (I think it is all those polygons that is making
your file so big), but rather display the data as an image
with the contours on top of it. This is a little more
difficult to do in a PostScript file than it is on the
display, but if you can find someone with a copy of my
book, you can see how it is done on page 96.

Cheers,

David

-----------------------------------------------------------
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Phone: 970-221-0438
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com/
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