Graphics export for high quality documents
Nathan Myhrvold
I am working on a book project where I have a number of graphics, and
some tables that I want to create using Mathematica. There are a number
of problems that I have found with this. I am using Mathematica 7.0 on
Windows 64 bit, in case that matters.
It is hard to get high quality output into Microsoft Word. If I export
graphics as WMF or EMF the text frequently look funny - there is a
character layout issue. I think this has to do with how Mathematica
deals with spacing and scaling. Setting ImageSize helps, and using the
right font names helps, but there still are problems.
Another problem is that PDF files of a Word document that includes
Mathematica graphics imported as EMF often has problems with
mathematical symbols.
Exporting PDF directly from Mathematica is in general higher quality
than WMF, EMF output. However, it has the problem that you can't import
it into Microsoft Word - at least not directly. There might some way to
process it so you can.
Also, there seem to be some persistent problems with PDFs- the
mathematical symbol fonts do not seem to work reliably for me. Part of
the problem is a bug/feature in Mathematica that it does not embed fonts
in the PDF. The work around is to run a PDF distiller program over the
output to embed the fonts which helps.
PDFs from Mathematica can be edited with Adobe Illustrator, which helps
touch them up if there is something I can't achieve in Mathematica
directly. Again, there are problems with math fonts - even on the same
computer if I edit a graph that has Traditional Form output, the math
symbols won't appear in Illustrator.
For use in the book we want to import the pictures into Adobe InDesign.
I am not an InDesign user, but when I have tried to import PDFs from
Mathematica using the Place command, what I get looks like a scaled, low
res bitmap. The book publishing / design / layout people that I have
spoken with so far all want me to export raw data so the graphs can be
made with other software - they have no experience with Mathematica.
Yet many people seem to do books with Mathematica so this must be a
solved problem.
Tables are another issue - with the Grid[] you can make some pretty
complicated tables. But they are hard to export to other programs that
will treat them like tables instead of like pictures. EMF and PDF
work, but with the same problems as Graphics output. It has occurred to
me that HTML or XML output might help for tables.
Finally, I know that a lot of people use 3rd party add-ons when they
make publication quality graphs with Mathematica. The Presentations
package by David Park is one such - which I already have, but I have
only used for a few things and don't claim to know all it can do.
There are/were several packages on MathSource for doing custom tick
marks and other things - they probably are still there but they have
reorganized MathSource to a state where I can't find them anymore, even
with search. Are there any other add-ons that are useful for publication
quality graphics? Or stand alone programs I can use to post-process
things exported from Mathematica?
Surely somebody out there must have experience with this!
Here are my specific questions:
1. What is the best strategy for Export[] for graphics for use in
Microsoft Word? Export to EMF? Something else?
2. What is the best strategy for Export[] to import into InDesign
or other desktop publishing programs? Export to PDF, followed by
running though batch PDF distiller is my best hope at the moment.
3. What are the most useful Mathematica add-ons, or stand alone
programs for making publication quality charts and graphics?
Nathan
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Andy Anderson
On Feb 25, 2009, at 4:05 AM, Nathan Myhrvold wrote:
> It is hard to get high quality output into Microsoft Word. If I
> export
> graphics as WMF or EMF the text frequently look funny - there is a
> character layout issue. I think this has to do with how Mathematica
> deals with spacing and scaling. Setting ImageSize helps, and using
> the
> right font names helps, but there still are problems.
If at all possible avoid Windows Metafile Format; it's old and breaks
easily. Bu there are also seem to be multiple versions of EMF floating
around, and I've noticed some issues popping up again with Office
2007. In any case, you might try running EMF files through Adobe
Illustrator and saving them as a new file (EMF or PDF) before
releasing them on Microsoft products. I've had success with this in
the past.
> Graphics export for high quality documents
>
> For use in the book we want to import the pictures into Adobe
> InDesign.
> I am not an InDesign user, but when I have tried to import PDFs from
> Mathematica using the Place command, what I get looks like a scaled,
> low
> res bitmap. The book publishing / design / layout people that I have
> spoken with so far all want me to export raw data so the graphs can be
> made with other software - they have no experience with Mathematica.
> Yet many people seem to do books with Mathematica so this must be a
> solved problem.
It's possible that the low-quality image you see is simply to speed up
its display in InDesign; try menuing View > Display Performance and
choosing a higher setting.
-- Andy
Sjoerd C. de Vries
so that you have something to look at in Word. On screen it may or may
not look fantastic, depending on the selected preview details, but it
prints fine (at least on a postscript printer). Mathematica embeds
fonts by default in EPS (at least, the documentation has this claim).
Cheers -- Sjoerd
On Feb 25, 11:04 am, "Nathan Myhrvold" <nath...@intven.com> wrote:
> Graphics export for high quality documents
>
> I am working on a book project where I have a number of graphics, and
> some tables that I want to create using Mathematica. There are a numbe=
r
> of problems that I have found with this. I am using Mathematica 7.0 o=
n
> Windows 64 bit, in case that matters.
>
> It is hard to get high quality output into Microsoft Word. If I expor=
t
> graphics as WMF or EMF the text frequently look funny - there is a
> character layout issue. I think this has to do with how Mathematica
> deals with spacing and scaling. Setting ImageSize helps, and using the
> right font names helps, but there still are problems.
>
> Another problem is that PDF files of a Word document that includes
> Mathematica graphics imported as EMF often has problems with
> mathematical symbols.
>
> Exporting PDF directly from Mathematica is in general higher quality
> than WMF, EMF output. However, it has the problem that you can't impor=
t
> it into Microsoft Word - at least not directly. There might some way t=
o
> process it so you can.
>
> Also, there seem to be some persistent problems with PDFs- the
> mathematical symbol fonts do not seem to work reliably for me. Part o=
f
> the problem is a bug/feature in Mathematica that it does not embed fonts
> in the PDF. The work around is to run a PDF distiller program over th=
e
> output to embed the fonts which helps.
>
> PDFs from Mathematica can be edited with Adobe Illustrator, which helps
> touch them up if there is something I can't achieve in Mathematica
> directly. Again, there are problems with math fonts - even on the sam=
e
> computer if I edit a graph that has Traditional Form output, the math
> symbols won't appear in Illustrator.
>
> For use in the book we want to import the pictures into Adobe InDesign.
> I am not an InDesign user, but when I have tried to import PDFs from
> Mathematica using the Place command, what I get looks like a scaled, low
> res bitmap. The book publishing / design / layout people that I have
> spoken with so far all want me to export raw data so the graphs can be
> made with other software - they have no experience with Mathematica.
> Yet many people seem to do books with Mathematica so this must be a
> solved problem.
>
> Tables are another issue - with the Grid[] you can make some pretty
> complicated tables. But they are hard to export to other programs tha=
t
> will treat them like tables instead of like pictures. EMF and PDF
> work, but with the same problems as Graphics output. It has occurred t=
o
> me that HTML or XML output might help for tables.
>
> Finally, I know that a lot of people use 3rd party add-ons when they
> make publication quality graphs with Mathematica. The Presentations
> package by David Park is one such - which I already have, but I have
> only used for a few things and don't claim to know all it can do.
> There are/were several packages on MathSource for doing custom tick
> marks and other things - they probably are still there but they have
> reorganized MathSource to a state where I can't find them anymore, even
> with search. Are there any other add-ons that are useful for publication
> quality graphics? Or stand alone programs I can use to post-proces=
s
> things exported from Mathematica?
>
> Surely somebody out there must have experience with this!
>
> Here are my specific questions:
>
> 1. What is the best strategy for Export[] for graphics for use=
in
> Microsoft Word? Export to EMF? Something else?
>
> 2. What is the best strategy for Export[] to import into InDes=
ign
> or other desktop publishing programs? Export to PDF, followed by
> running though batch PDF distiller is my best hope at the moment.
>
> 3. What are the most useful Mathematica add-ons, or stand alon=
AES
"Sjoerd C. de Vries" <sjoerd.c...@gmail.com> wrote:
> In the past, I have been using exports to EPS with an embedded preview
> so that you have something to look at in Word.
Just to reminisce about an old, old glitch relating to exported graphics
and embedded previews that I vaguely remember encountering in one of the
earliest releases of Mathematica.
If I'm recalling it correctly, you could write a graphic, including a
preview, from Mathematica to a file. Then you could write a new,
changed or updated graphic to the same file name -- and the old embedded
preview was left unchanged. You could end up with an graphic file in
which the graphic itself and the preview were totally different.
But this was a long time ago . . .