How to save a figure produced by tikz save/export as EPS file

Question

I use MiKTeX 2.9 and tikz package and use TeXworks to make simple figures, these are saved in pdf file by pdfLaTeX. I wish to have them as EPS file. I read here: Export eps figures from TikZ I use a simple example

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

% set up externalization
\usetikzlibrary{external}
\tikzset{external/system call={latex \tikzexternalcheckshellescape -halt-on-error
-interaction=batchmode -jobname "\image" "\texsource" && 
dvips -o "\image".ps "\image".dvi &&
ps2eps "\image.ps"}}
\tikzexternalize[shell escape=-enable-write18] % MikTeX uses a -enable-write18 instead of --shell-escape.

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) circle (1cm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

and get the following error:

===== 'mode=convert with system call': Invoking 'latex -halt-on-error -interact
ion=batchmode -jobname "untitled-1-figure0" "\def\tikzexternalrealjob{untitled-
1}\input{untitled-1}" && dvips -o "untitled-1-figure0".ps "untitled-1-figure0".
dvi && ps2eps "untitled-1-figure0.ps"' ========

! Package tikz Error: Sorry, the system call 'latex -halt-on-error -interaction
=batchmode -jobname "untitled-1-figure0" "\def\tikzexternalrealjob{untitled-1}    input{untitled-1}" && dvips -o "untitled-1-figure0".ps "untitled-1-figure0".dvi
 && ps2eps "untitled-1-figure0.ps"' did NOT result in a usable output file 'unt
itled-1-figure0' (expected one of .pdf:.jpg:.jpeg:.png:). Please verify that yo
u have enabled system calls. For pdflatex, this is 'pdflatex -shell-escape'. So
metimes it is also named 'write 18' or something like that. Or maybe the comman
d simply failed? Error messages can be found in 'untitled-1-figure0.log'. If yo
u continue now, I'll try to typeset the picture.

See the tikz package documentation for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              

l.15 \end{tikzpicture}

I see many have got the same error. I do not know what to do. Can somebody please help?

Welcome to TeX.sx! A tip: If you indent lines by 4 spaces, they'll be marked as a code sample. You can also highlight the code and click the "code" button (with "{}" on it). — doncherry, Jan 11 '13 at 05:42
You can do something like pdftops --eps filename.pdf for each PDF generated by the TikZ external library, but I recommend you to use the PDF images. — leo, Jan 11 '13 at 05:56
@user24203 if i may ask what is your objective of generating .eps figure ? IMHO these days .pdf is requested — texenthusiast, Jan 11 '13 at 06:12

score 10 · Answer 1 · edited Jan 12 '13 at 17:01

10

Sometimes, it seems easier to manually type the useful commands in a command window instead of going through the endless configuration steps of your LaTeX-ready text editor. Consider the following myfile.tex:

\documentclass[11pt]{book}
\usepackage{tikz}
\pgfrealjobname{myfile}
\begin{document}
\beginpgfgraphicnamed{myfile-f1}%
\begin{tikzpicture}
\fill(0,0) rectangle (4,4);
\end{tikzpicture}
\endpgfgraphicnamed
\end{document}

Open such a command window in the working folder where your file myfile.tex is located and compile as follows:

latex --jobname=myfile-f1 myfile.tex

then

dvips myfile-f1.dvi

and you will obtain the desired properly cropped myfile-f1.eps file.

edited Jan 12 '13 at 17:01

Torbjørn T.

206,688

answered Jan 12 '13 at 03:13

pluton

16,421

1

I followed your answer but obtained myfile-f1.ps. Not sure if relevant, but I'm on a MiKTeX distribution. – nnunes Jan 14 '13 at 09:57
2

same for me. It is not .eps but .ps. It does not seem to be a big problem. You just rename the file with an .eps extension. – pluton Jan 14 '13 at 14:01
Why does it generate a two-page dvi to me? The first page is blank with a page number only and the second page has the picture and a page number. – user58955 Oct 03 '13 at 22:08
I have a similar file with a tikz image, and after I run the first command above I get a .dvi file, which has the required image. But the .ps file output of the second command is empty when I open it. Would you know what is happening? – Arun Apr 14 '15 at 13:18
@Arun: without more information from you, no. – pluton Apr 14 '15 at 14:03
The resulting file is not cropped... Can latex or dvips crop the image straight away? – remus Jul 15 '15 at 09:09
@remus This was an old solution. What do you get with the following code: \documentclass[tikz]{standalone}\begin{document}\begin{tikzpicture}\fill(0,0) rectangle (4,4);\end{tikzpicture}\end{document} and the same compilation commands? – pluton Jul 15 '15 at 10:17
@pluton It looks ok when using standalone. But I'm trying to embed the chain commands in tikzexternalize which uses the main file documentclass with a4paper. – remus Jul 15 '15 at 12:13
@pluton I made a question here: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/255462/cropping-an-image-genereated-with-latex-dvips-and-tikzexternalize – remus Jul 15 '15 at 12:22
How to do this for multiple figures in a latex file? – AHK Oct 01 '22 at 20:24
@AHK Do you want to get multiple files with one figure per file? – pluton Oct 05 '22 at 17:07
@pluton yes, one file for one figure – AHK Oct 06 '22 at 02:11
@AHK can you translate your tex file into multiple tex files with only one figure each? Then you can compile all tex files in batch mode, to get the figures... – pluton Oct 11 '22 at 23:15

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:36

Here are two routes for MiKTeX users. The first is similar to this post, but with additional notes.

using pdflatex + pdftops with TeXworks

Download pdftops from foolabs.com (a PDF to PS/EPS converter). You'll find the 32-bit and 64-bit binaries for Windows in xpdfbin-win-3.03.zip. To install it, extract pdftops.exe from this file and copy it to the installation directory C:\Program Files\Xpdf\bin. Remember to add C:\Program Files\Xpdf\bin to the system variable Path (Start Menu -> right-click on Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Environment Variables under the Advanced tab -> look for the system variable Path and edit its value).
In TeXworks, go to Preferences -> Typesetting tab, and add --shell escape to the list of arguments passed to the pdflatex compiler as shown below.

Now run pdflatex on

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\usetikzlibrary{external} % set up externalization

\tikzexternalize[shell escape=-enable-write18] % activate externalisation

\tikzset{external/system call={pdflatex \tikzexternalcheckshellescape -halt-on-error
-interaction=batchmode -jobname "\image" "\texsource" && 
pdftops -eps "\image.pdf"}}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) circle (1cm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

in TeXworks and you will obtain graphics in the EPS format.

using latex + ps2eps with TeXnicCenter

Download ps2eps.zip and follow the instructions to install ps2eps. You'll find some additional notes here on its installation under Windows.
You'll also need Ghostscript and a Perl interpreter (one option is the free ActivePerl "Community Edition", available from activestate.com/activeperl).

(The ps2eps script assumes you have the 32-bit Windows install of Ghostscript. If you install the 64-bit version the file ps2eps.pl must be changed as described at the end of this answer.)
In TeXnicCenter, add -enable-write18 to the list of arguments passed to the latex compiler (go to Build, then click on Define Output Profiles), as illustrated below.

Now you can run latex on

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\usetikzlibrary{external} % set up externalization

\tikzexternalize[shell escape=-enable-write18] % activate externalisation

\tikzset{external/system call={latex \tikzexternalcheckshellescape -halt-on-error
-interaction=batchmode -jobname "\image" "\texsource" && 
dvips -o "\image".ps "\image".dvi &&
ps2eps -l "\image.ps"}}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) circle (1cm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

in TeXnicCenter and you will obtain graphics in the EPS format.

If you installed the 64-bit version of Ghostscript, you'll need to open ps2eps.pl with a text editor and replace the two occurrences of gswin32c with gswin64c.

OP uses TeXworks as mentioned in Question. TeXnicCenter also is a good choice — texenthusiast, Jan 11 '13 at 06:23
This is perfect NUNO. I managed to get *.PS format. How can I make it to save as .EPS? — user24203, Jan 11 '13 at 18:49
@user24203 to send a comment to NUNO use @NunoNunes like i did. at command line ps2eps FileName.ps gives FileName.eps file. For more ps2eps — texenthusiast, Jan 12 '13 at 00:26
@user24203 I left that bit out, sorry. it's now included in my answer. — nnunes, Jan 12 '13 at 00:42
@NunoNunes read WHY ? Section of programs like ps2epsi (a script distributed with ghostscript) don’t always calculate the correct bounding box — texenthusiast, Jan 12 '13 at 00:50

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 21 '20 at 18:41

An alternative response, the ltximg script automates this process, the separate image files are include them as an image (or with \input{test-tkz-1.tex}). The ltximg script you can do the following:

$ ltximg  --eps --subenv --imgdir=mypics  --prefix=tkz -o test-out test.tex

Now you will have a new document test-out.tex with the tikzpicture environments converted into images (preserving the consistency of the fonts) and you will also have each tikzpicture environment in separate files (in case you need some extra modification) and one file test-all.tex with (only) all tikzpicture.

First check the documentation to see the options and conditions that the input file must meet.

How to save a figure produced by tikz save/export as EPS file

3 Answers3

using pdflatex + pdftops with TeXworks

using latex + ps2eps with TeXnicCenter

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