0

I have written a paper in MS-Word. Now, I am converting it into LaTeX. The problem that I am facing is about figures. Some of the figures I have converted using Adobe Illustrator. However, since I have already exhausted my trial version and I cannot use it anymore, I wanted to know which software should I use for making:

1.) High quality figures (in eps format) 2.) High quality graphs (line graphs, scatter plots, etc in eps format)

Also, I did some of my research work in R. So, the plots that I made in R, is it somehow possible to export them to eps for LaTeX?

John
  • 1
  • 3
    knitr, sweave, pgfplots might be usefuul keywords. – Manuel Dec 16 '14 at 08:00
  • For figures (not graphs) TikZ could be a nice try. Also, in this case you won't need eps files, you'll embed the code directly in the LaTeX source. – Astrinus Dec 16 '14 at 08:01
  • why eps? Why not convert theold ones to pdf and create the new ones in pdf as well? – MaxNoe Dec 16 '14 at 08:08
  • 2
    Hi and welcome, the question is quite good and understandable, unfortunately and answer depends on personal taste. Additionally, the question is very broad, so to answer it one has to go over a wide range of points. Can you specify the question and turn subsequent ones into new questions? – Johannes_B Dec 16 '14 at 08:09
  • @Manuel, I have updated the question. – John Dec 16 '14 at 08:10
  • @MaxNoe, even if I do it using pdf, what software should I use for both figures and graphs? – John Dec 16 '14 at 08:11
  • @Johannes_B, sorry if the question is ambiguous. The thing is, I have been doing uptill now using the illustrator making eps files. What more information should I provide for it to become clear? Thanks. – John Dec 16 '14 at 08:12
  • If you are confident with R, ggplot gives nice results. TikZ is for drawings, shemes. You write code in the LaTeX file, pgfplots is a frontend for plotting to TikZ. The freeware Alternative to illustrator is inkscape. There are lots of other possibilieties, e.g. python with matplotlib (very good tex support) or gnuplot or ... – MaxNoe Dec 16 '14 at 08:15
  • The question is clear, but there are soooo many ways to produce plots or schemes or diagrams. If you want to stick to LaTeX, have a look at pgfplots as has been suggested before. – Johannes_B Dec 16 '14 at 08:19
  • You can even keep your MS W0rd/Excel pictures and include them in png, jpg or pdf-format if you don't want to trouble yourself converting. – Johannes_B Dec 16 '14 at 08:20
  • I think this is a duplicate http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/205/3235 – percusse Dec 16 '14 at 08:47
  • You also can take a look at Pstricks Home Page and its impressive list of specialised extensions and gallery of examples. It can output .eps files with the pst-eps package, but also .pdf files with auto-pst-pdf. – Bernard Dec 16 '14 at 11:01
  • For me there are not doubt: to show any R result (not only graphs), use Sweave/knitr to make Latex integration so you can have reports with automatic updates (there are examples here and there). For vectorial images, draw .svg files using Inkscape but save also as pdf files. With TikZ and pgfplots you can make nice true LaTeX figures and graphs, but these packages are not alternatives to statistical languages or painting programs. Moreover, take into account the learning curve ... – Fran Dec 16 '14 at 19:24

1 Answers1

1

For figures - try InkScape - you can save your figure in many formats (this can handle complex figures also). For simple figures try TpX a TeX based drawing programme. Still you can use TeXCad or LaTeX Draw. Choice is yours.

For plotting data - R produces eps figures - which can be incorporated in your LaTeX documents. An excellent book on R and LaTeX (importing figures etc. etc.) is available. The other program I like is gnuplot - you can create your plots in many many formats - eps, pdf, Tikz code, PSTricks code, jpg, png, bmp ...

D. Durga Prasad
  • 21