GNU Octave: Printing and Saving Plots

15.2.8 Printing and Saving Plots

The print command allows you to send plots to you printer and to save plots in a variety of formats. For example,

print -dpsc

prints the current figure to a color PostScript printer. And,

print -deps foo.eps

saves the current figure to an encapsulated PostScript file called foo.eps.

Function File: print ()

Function File: print (options)

Function File: print (filename, options)

Function File: print (h, filename, options)

Print a plot, or save it to a file.

Both output formatted for printing (PDF and PostScript), and many bitmapped and vector image formats are supported.

filename defines the name of the output file. If the file name has no suffix, one is inferred from the specified device and appended to the file name. If no filename is specified, the output is sent to the printer.

h specifies the handle of the figure to print. If no handle is specified the current figure is used.

For output to a printer, PostScript file, or PDF file, the paper size is specified by the figure’s papersize property. The location and size of the image on the page are specified by the figure’s paperposition property. The orientation of the page is specified by the figure’s paperorientation property.

The width and height of images are specified by the figure’s paperpositon(3:4) property values.

The print command supports many options:

-fh

Specify the handle, h, of the figure to be printed. The default is the current figure.

-Pprinter

Set the printer name to which the plot is sent if no filename is specified.

-Gghostscript_command

Specify the command for calling Ghostscript. For Unix and Windows the defaults are "gs" and "gswin32c", respectively.

-color

-mono

Color or monochrome output.

-solid

-dashed

Force all lines to be solid or dashed, respectively.

-portrait

-landscape

Specify the orientation of the plot for printed output. For non-printed output the aspect ratio of the output corresponds to the plot area defined by the "paperposition" property in the orientation specified. This option is equivalent to changing the figure’s "paperorientation" property.

-TextAlphaBits=n

-GraphicsAlphaBits=n

Octave is able to produce output for various printers, bitmaps, and vector formats by using Ghostscript. For bitmap and printer output anti-aliasing is applied using Ghostscript’s TextAlphaBits and GraphicsAlphaBits options. The default number of bits for each is 4. Allowed values for N are 1, 2, or 4.

-ddevice

The available output format is specified by the option device, and is one of:

ps
ps2
psc
psc2: PostScript (level 1 and 2, mono and color). The FLTK graphics toolkit generates PostScript level 3.0.
eps
eps2
epsc
epsc2: Encapsulated PostScript (level 1 and 2, mono and color). The FLTK graphic toolkit generates PostScript level 3.0.
tex
epslatex
epslatexstandalone
pstex
pslatex
pdflatex: Generate a LaTeX (or TeX) file for labels and eps/ps/pdf for graphics. The file produced by epslatexstandalone can be processed directly by LaTeX. The other formats are intended to be included in a LaTeX (or TeX) document. The tex device is the same as the epslatex device. The pdflatex device is only available for the FLTK graphics toolkit.
tikz: Generate a LaTeX file using PGF/TikZ. For the FLTK toolkit the result is PGF.
ill
aifm: Adobe Illustrator (Obsolete for Gnuplot versions > 4.2)
cdr
corel: CorelDraw
dxf: AutoCAD
emf
meta: Microsoft Enhanced Metafile
fig: XFig. For the Gnuplot graphics toolkit, the additional options -textspecial or -textnormal can be used to control whether the special flag should be set for the text in the figure. (default is -textnormal)
hpgl: HP plotter language
mf: Metafont
png: Portable network graphics
jpg
jpeg: JPEG image
gif: GIF image (only available for the Gnuplot graphics toolkit)
pbm: PBMplus
svg: Scalable vector graphics
pdf: Portable document format

If the device is omitted, it is inferred from the file extension, or if there is no filename it is sent to the printer as PostScript.

-dghostscript_device

Additional devices are supported by Ghostscript. Some examples are;

ljet2p: HP LaserJet IIP
ljet3: HP LaserJet III
deskjet: HP DeskJet and DeskJet Plus
cdj550: HP DeskJet 550C
paintjet: HP PointJet
pcx24b: 24-bit color PCX file format
ppm: Portable Pixel Map file format
pdfwrite: Produces pdf output from eps

For a complete list, type system ("gs -h") to see what formats and devices are available.

When Ghostscript output is sent to a printer the size is determined by the figure’s "papersize" property. When the output is sent to a file the size is determined by the plot box defined by the figure’s "paperposition" property.

-append

Append PostScript or PDF output to a pre-existing file of the same type.

-rNUM

Resolution of bitmaps in pixels per inch. For both metafiles and SVG the default is the screen resolution; for other formats it is 150 dpi. To specify screen resolution, use "-r0".

-loose

-tight

Force a tight or loose bounding box for eps files. The default is loose.

-preview

Add a preview to eps files. Supported formats are:

-interchange: Provide an interchange preview.
-metalfile: Provide a metafile preview.
-pict: Provide pict preview.
-tiff: Provide a tiff preview.

-Sxsize,ysize

Plot size in pixels for EMF, GIF, JPEG, PBM, PNG, and SVG. For PS, EPS, PDF, and other vector formats the plot size is in points. This option is equivalent to changing the size of the plot box associated with the "paperposition" property. When using the command form of the print function you must quote the xsize,ysize option. For example, by writing "-S640,480".

-Ffontname

-Ffontname:size

-F:size

Use fontname and/or fontsize for all text. fontname is ignored for some devices: dxf, fig, hpgl, etc.

The filename and options can be given in any order.

Example: Print to a file using the svg device.

figure (1);
clf ();
surf (peaks);
print -dsvg figure1.svg

Example: Print to an HP DeskJet 550C.

clf ();
surf (peaks);
print -dcdj550

See also: saveas, orient, figure.

Function File: saveas (h, filename)

Function File: saveas (h, filename, fmt)

Save graphic object h to the file filename in graphic format fmt.

fmt should be one of the following formats:

ps: PostScript
eps: Encapsulated PostScript
jpg: JPEG Image
png: PNG Image
emf: Enhanced Meta File
pdf: Portable Document Format

All device formats specified in print may also be used. If fmt is omitted it is extracted from the extension of filename. The default format is "pdf".

clf ();
surf (peaks);
saveas (1, "figure1.png");

See also: print, orient.

Function File: orient (orientation)

Function File: orient (hfig, orientation)

Function File: orientation = orient ()

Function File: orientation = orient (hfig)

Query or set the print orientation for figure hfig.

Valid values for orientation are "portrait", "landscape", and "tall".

The "landscape" option changes the orientation so the plot width is larger than the plot height. The "paperposition" is also modified so that the plot fills the page, while leaving a 0.25 inch border.

The "tall" option sets the orientation to "portrait" and fills the page with the plot, while leaving a 0.25 inch border.

The "portrait" option (default) changes the orientation so the plot height is larger than the plot width. It also restores the default "paperposition" property.

When called with no arguments, return the current print orientation.

If the argument hfig is omitted, then operate on the current figure returned by gcf.

See also: print, saveas.