postscript {base}R Documentation

PostScript Graphics

Description

postscript starts the graphics device driver for producing PostScript graphics.

The auxiliary function ps.options can be used to set and view (if called without arguments) default values for the arguments to postscript.

Usage

postscript(file = "Rplots.ps", ...)
ps.options(..., reset = FALSE, override.check = FALSE)
.PostScript.Options

Arguments

file a character string giving the name of the file to print to. If this is "", the output is piped to the command given by R_PRINTCMD when R was built.
... further options for postscript().
paper the size of paper in the printer. The choices are "a4", "letter", "legal" and "executive" (and these can be capitalized). Also, "special" can be used, when the width and height specify the paper size. A further choice is "default", which is the default. If this is selected, the papersize is taken from the environment variable "R_PAPERSIZE" if that is set (which it usually is on Unix) and to "a4" if it is unset or empty.
horizontal the orientation of the printed image, a logical. Defaults to true, that is landscape orientation.
width, height the width and height of the graphics region in inches. The default is to use the entire page less a 0.25 inch border.
family the font family to be used. This must be one of "AvantGarde", "Bookman", "Courier", "Helvetica", "Helvetica-Narrow", "NewCenturySchoolbook", "Palatino" or "Times".
pointsize the default point size to be used.
bg the default background color to be used.
fg the default foreground color to be used.
onefile logical: if true (the default) allow multiple figures in one file. If false, assume only one figure and give EPSF header and no DocumentMedia comment.
pagecentre logical: should the device region be centred on the page: defaults to true.
print.it, append logical; are currently disregarded; just there for compatibility reasons.

Details

postscript(..) opens the file file and the PostScript commands needed to plot any graphics requested are stored in that file. This file can then be printed on a suitable device to obtain hard copy. Alternatively, file= "" can be used to print directly to the default printer (if the print command is set, which it usually is on Unix and is not on Windows).

The postscript produced by R is EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) compatible, and can be included into other documents, e.g. into LaTeX, using \includegraphics{<filename>}. For use in this way you will probably want to set horizontal=FALSE, onefile=FALSE, paper="special".

See Also

Devices, {check.options which is called from both ps.options and postscript.}

Examples


 # open the file "foo.ps" for graphics output
 postscript("foo.ps")


dev.off()              # turn off the postscript device

all(unlist(ps.options()) == unlist(.PostScript.Options))
ps.options(bg = "pink")
str(ps.options(reset = TRUE))

##- error checking of arguments:
ps.options(width=0:12, onefile=0, bg=pi)

## override the check for 'onefile', but not the others:
str(ps.options(width=0:12, onefile=1, bg=pi, override.check = c(F,T,F)))
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