Topic: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

Hi,

Today l spent whole day looking for some nice and intuitive diagram drawing software.

l have tested something like 25 apps altogether. 

I must admit that l like your Graph a lot but it needs some improvement.

I'm a student and l make my notes on a tabletpc in PDF files. l Would love to be able to copy and paste the diagram as vector graphics into my notes.  Making it from a screenshot lowers the quality a lot and doest look good too.

So l would be very happy to be able to copy to the clipboard the graph or export it straight to a PDF.

Is there anyway to do it or chance to implement this in a future release ?


Best regards,
Charles

Re: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

You can use Edit|Copy image to copy the shown image to the clipboard in both bitmap (bmp) and enhanced metafile (emf) format.

File|Save as image can save as bmp, emf, png, jpeg and pdf. The beta version of Graph 4.4, which is very close to be released, can also save as svg.

3 Reply by Anubis32 (edited by Anubis32 2011-11-23 21:43:05)

Re: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

Ivan Johansen wrote:

You can use Edit|Copy image to copy the shown image to the clipboard in both bitmap (bmp) and enhanced metafile (emf) format.

File|Save as image can save as bmp, emf, png, jpeg and pdf. The beta version of Graph 4.4, which is very close to be released, can also save as svg.


Thanks for your reply.

I did edit -> copy but quality is low, it isnt vectorish like.

When I save as image the diagram as PDF the quality is low too.

In both cases the graphic isnt vector like. When I zoom in the picture gets distorted.

Charles,

Re: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

Edit|Copy image copies the shown image with the same resolution as shown. So if you maximize the window you will get a higher resolution. It will copy as emf, which is a vector format.

When saving as image you can use the Options button to specify a custom resolution. When saving as pdf, the image is actually a bitmap image and not vectorized, but both emf and svg are vector formats.

5 Reply by mahlonritt (edited by mahlonritt 2011-11-25 11:05:59)

Re: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

I didn't understood what does vectorized image mean..Can you tell me more information about it..

Re: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

Ivan Johansen wrote:

Edit|Copy image copies the shown image with the same resolution as shown. So if you maximize the window you will get a higher resolution. It will copy as emf, which is a vector format.

When saving as image you can use the Options button to specify a custom resolution. When saving as pdf, the image is actually a bitmap image and not vectorized, but both emf and svg are vector formats.

Let me explain further few things.

I make my notes in a PDF Revu which is a PDF creator. I would like to be able to paste images with a diagram into it.
I really cant specify what resolution is best for me. Sometimes I need to zoom in and I want the picture to stay sharp.

Regarding edit/copy image.

When I do this and paste the image into my notes and zoom in, the diagram gets distorted:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40261400/Capture.JPG

Im not able to insert into my notes .emf and .svg files.

The only workaround that works for me is to open .emf file in Adobe Illustrator and save it later as .pdf which is great since 1)I like PDF 2) The diagram stays vectorish - when I zoom in it, it stays sharp. But this is really too much hassle for me.

When I open .svg file in Illustrator the whole page is blank.

There is alternative graph software (kst) that exports to PDF excellently but making a graph that suits my neds is much faster with yours.


BTW

Could  you please tell me how can I get those blue lines as l drawed on this photo?  l actually don't remember what is its name in english. I want to have them for x=-3/2pi, -pi/2, pi/2, 3/2pi etc.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/40261400/Capture2.JPG

Thanks for all your help.
Charles

Re: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

I have taken a quick look at PDF Revu. It apparently does not support image files in vector format, or rather it converts them to bitmap format. I actually find this strange.

But I can see that PDF Revu can work as a printer driver. So your best choice is probably to print to Bluebeam PDF from Graph. This seems to create a nice PDF file that PDF Revu can use.

I am a little unsure what it is you want with the blue lines. If you just want some of the grid lines to be thicker, you can accomplish this by setting Tick unit to pi and Grid unit to pi/2. I have attached a grf file that demonstrates this.

Post's attachments

Attachment icon Grid lines.grf 655 b, 646 downloads since 2011-11-25 

Re: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

Ivan Johansen wrote:

I have taken a quick look at PDF Revu. It apparently does not support image files in vector format, or rather it converts them to bitmap format. I actually find this strange.

But I can see that PDF Revu can work as a printer driver. So your best choice is probably to print to Bluebeam PDF from Graph. This seems to create a nice PDF file that PDF Revu can use.

I am a little unsure what it is you want with the blue lines. If you just want some of the grid lines to be thicker, you can accomplish this by setting Tick unit to pi and Grid unit to pi/2. I have attached a grf file that demonstrates this.

Hi Ivan,

Thanks for your reply.

Before I used to open .emf file in Adobe Illustrator and save it later as .pdf which gives  exactly same results as printing to PDF printer which is many times more convenient.  Thanks for trying this out for me! l didn't notice that Graph has print function.

So my main problem is solved now smile

1)  Regarding those blue lines.  l want the grid to stay exactly the same as it was. This is called something like "helping" lines. They show you where part of function starts and ends.  For tan it is from x=-3/2pi to -pi/2 and from pi/2 to 3/2pi and it goes on and on as much as you want.  Sorry I'm not good at math smile
So I think I should add some function to do this for me?   

2)  How can I draw cotangens function? y=ctg(x) and y=ctn(x)  don't work for me.

Thank you very much for your help.
Charles

Re: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

1) Ahh, you want to show the asymptotes of the function. Graph does not have any built-in functionality for this, though I hope to add it in the future. You can of course do it by inserting vertical functions. But the easiest here is probably to insert the relation mod(x, pi) = pi/2, though Graph cannot make relations dashed.

2) You can use cot(x) to plot the cotangent.

Re: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

Ivan Johansen wrote:

1) Ahh, you want to show the asymptotes of the function. Graph does not have any built-in functionality for this, though I hope to add it in the future. You can of course do it by inserting vertical functions. But the easiest here is probably to insert the relation mod(x, pi) = pi/2, though Graph cannot make relations dashed.

2) You can use cot(x) to plot the cotangent.


Inserting relation works but you cannot set argument range for it.

Is there a way to restore all settings to defaults? l played a bit with settings and l would rather want to revert it back smile

Many thanks :-)

Re: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

I wonder why you would want to set an argument range, but you can specify constraints, e.g x>-3pi and x<2pi.

Which settings do you want to revert? I am afraid the only way to revert all settings is to uninstall Graph and reinstall it afterwards.

Re: Need to export the graph as a vector graphics.

Ivan Johansen wrote:

I wonder why you would want to set an argument range, but you can specify constraints, e.g x>-3pi and x<2pi.

Which settings do you want to revert? I am afraid the only way to revert all settings is to uninstall Graph and reinstall it afterwards.

This is because I like to have a bit of a free space around the diagram since I very often annotate or sketch on them.

Here in yellow is selected that very special space wink

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/3599/graphsn.jpg

Now tan(x) looks excellent to me smile

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/3818/graphkx.jpg


Thanks a lot for your help again.
Charles