What is the "resolution" of exported vector graphics
Mon, 03/11/2019 - 05:51 am
Hello,
we frequently produce graphs with a lot of datapoints (e.g. 80,000 points). These are exported (usually as emf) to PowerPoint and look fine for presentations or printouts. However, it seems that even the vector formats (emf or svg) do not allow to zoom in heavily. The attached graph shows this: The original recording contains about 40,000 datapoints (top row). The second graph shows the first 2000 datapoints as a "true" Igor graph and the third graph is a zoom in on the same region in the first graph. The apparent loss of resolution happens with svg as well as with emf files and is also similar for export of the graphics via the clipboard or as a file. In Inkscape I can see that the paths that are created contain much less nodes than the original number of datapoints.
I admit that it is definitely a better idea to make the necessary graphs seperately in Igor and not rely on zoom functions in PowerPoint or other programs. But I thought that vector formats would allow for "infinite zoom in". Probably it would be good to have some information on the possible resolution of the various export formats or an option for SavePict that allows to export all datapoints.
I am using Igor 8.0.2.1 on Windows 10.
As when drawing to the screen, the number of "nodes" that are included in the exported graphic will depend on the size of the exported graphic. Otherwise exported graphs might require very large file sizes (to contain all data points) and be very slow to draw.
As you said, you should do your zooming in Igor, where you have the full dataset, instead in some other program.
March 11, 2019 at 08:21 am - Permalink