R Graphical Manual

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Last data update: 2014.03.03

R: Enhanced Metafile Graphics Device

emf	R Documentation

Enhanced Metafile Graphics Device

Description

'emf' starts the graphics device driver for producing enhanced metafile (emf) graphics, which can imported natively as vector graphics in both OpenOffice and Microsoft Office.

Usage

emf(file = "Rplot.emf", width = 7, height = 7,
    bg = "transparent", fg = "black", pointsize = 12,
    family = "Helvetica", custom.lty = FALSE)

Arguments

`file`	character string giving the name of file.
`width`	width of plot in inches.
`height`	height of plot in inches.
`bg`	plot background color. If `"transparent"`, no background color is painted.
`fg`	initial foreground color to be used.
`pointsize`	default font point size to be used.
`family`	default font family to be used.
`custom.lty`	logical: if false, approximate R line types with EMF standard line types (any program that imports EMF should support this). If true, use exact R line type via the EMF `"PS_USERSTYLE"` option, which does not appear to be supported by OpenOffice.

Details

The standard office suites support very few vector graphics formats for import. Enhanced Metafiles (EMFs) do tend to be supported, which is the purpose of this device.

The EMF specification does not allow for multiple pages; attempting to create multiple pages will result in a warning message and the output file will contain the different pages superimposed.

Also, EMF does not allow for embedding fonts. Thus you must be careful that your desired font is present both on the system that you use when you create the emf file (i.e., when you run R) and on the system that you use to import/view the resulting file. Sticking to the standard Adobe PostScript font families is probably a good idea.

EMF supports Unicode characters, and this package tries to maintain support as well. However, font metric information is system dependent and so support may be spotty in practice.

The EMF format itself does not allow for partial transparency (i.e., the only useful type – 0.0 < alpha < 1.0); attempting to use a transparent color will result in a warning message and the output will be completely transparent (invisible).

EMF-level clipping is not yet implemented, since R appears to take care of this; however, if you see a problem that could be the result a clipping bug, please contact the author.

Author(s)

Philip Johnson

Examples

require(devEMF)
## Not run: 
# open file "bar.emf" for graphics output
emf("bar.emf")
# produce the desired graph(s)
dev.off() #turn off device and finalize file

## End(Not run)