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I would like to plot a large number of data points (~10^9) on a 2D plot with TikZ. Likely, this would create a vector image file that is as large as the data file (around 50GB). In order to avoid this, I would like to convert the image to a raster image. I have no experience with this, although I have used TikZ a lot in the past. Can I start creating the vector image as usual, but for example convert it to a raster image every 100 000 points and continue to draw on it with the next 100 000 points. That way, in the end, I will have a manageable file (it is not important that the resolution is good enough to resolve all points, just important that I put all of them so that the image represents the entire data file).

John
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    I don't understand completely what you want to do (I'm no graphics expert, maybe others understand), but my guess is that tikz does not perform well on that scale. – gernot Apr 02 '17 at 10:36
  • Probably you could try to process it with Lua(LaTeX). But I don't know whether the caching would be appropriate. – TeXnician Apr 02 '17 at 10:39
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    I would look out for specialized programs for preprocessing the data and use TeX only for visualizing the compressed data. You probably also should aggregate the data by some external program. A 5x5 inch area has no more than 9.000.000 dots at 600dpi. – gernot Apr 02 '17 at 10:45
  • See http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/264182/drawing-a-really-large-binary-matrix-as-colored-grid – John Kormylo Apr 02 '17 at 16:16

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