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 = ifelse(onefile, "Rplots.ps", "Rplot%03d.ps"),
               onefile = TRUE,
               paper, family, bg, fg, width, height, horizontal, pointsize,
               pagecentre, print.it, command)

    ps.options(paper, horizontal, width, height, family, pointsize, bg, fg,
               onefile = TRUE, print.it = FALSE, append = FALSE,
               reset = FALSE, override.check = FALSE)
    .PostScript.Options

### Arguments

`file` | a character string giving the name of the file. If it is `""`, the output is piped to the command given by the argument `command`. If it is `"|cmd"`, the output is piped to the command given by ``cmd`'. For use with `onefile=FALSE` give a `printf` format such as `"Rplot%d.ps"` (the default in that case).
`...` | 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 option `"papersize"` if that is set 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 on each side.
`family` | the font family to be used. EITHER a single character string which must be one of `"AvantGarde"`, `"Bookman"`, `"Courier"`, `"Helvetica"`, `"Helvetica-Narrow"`, `"NewCenturySchoolbook"`, `"Palatino"` or `"Times"`, OR a character vector of length four.
`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, generate a file number containing the page number and give EPSF header and no `DocumentMedia` comment.
`pagecentre` | logical: should the device region be centred on the page: defaults to true.
`print.it` | logical: should the file be printed when the device is closed? (This only applies if `file` is a real file name.)
`command` | the command to be used for ``printing''. Defaults to option `"printcmd"`; this can also be selected as `"default"`.
`append` | logical; 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.

A postscript plot can be printed via `postscript` in two ways.

1. Setting `print.it = TRUE` causes the command given in argument `command` to be called with argument `"file"` when the device is closed. Note that the plot file is not deleted unless command arranges to delete it.
2. `file=""` or `file="|cmd"` can be used to print using a pipe on systems that support ``popen`'.

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"`.

Most of the PostScript prologue used is taken from the R character vector `.ps.profile`. This is marked in the output, and can be changed by changing that vector. (This is only advisable for PostScript experts.)

If the second form of argument `"family"` is used, it should be a set of four paths to Adobe Font Metric files for the regular, bold, italic and bold italic fonts to be used. If these paths do not contain the file separator, they are taken to refer to files in the R directory ``R_HOME/afm`'. Thus the default Helvetica family can be specified by `family = c("hv______.afm", "hvb_____.afm", "hvo_____.afm", "hvbo____.afm")`.

It is the user's responsibility to check that suitable fonts are made available, and that they contain the needed characters when re-encoded to the ISOLatin1 encoding. The fontnames used are taken from the `FontName` fields of the `afm` files. The software including the PostScript plot file should either embed the font outlines (usually from `.pfb` or `.pfa` files) or use DSC comments to instruct the print spooler to do so.

As ISOLatin1 encoding is used, `-` is set as a minus and not as a hyphen. Supply a hyphen (character 173) if that is what you need.

### 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")
    # produce the desired graph(s)
    dev.off()              # turn off the postscript device
    postscript("|lp -dlw")
    # produce the desired graph(s)
    dev.off()              # plot will appear on printer

    stopifnot(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)))

    ###  ---- Use TeX's Computer Modern fonts ---
    ## Only use alphanumeric chars here.
    postscript(family=paste("/myfonts/afm/",
       c("cmr10", "cmbx10", "cmsl10", "cmbxsl10"), ".afm", sep=""))
    ## The resultant postscript file can be used by dvips provided
    ## font subsetting is disabled (by flag -j0)