[R] Reducing the size of pdf graphics files produced with R

[Sundar Dorai-Raj]

You need not buy Acrobat. There are two free software programs that will 
compress pdf files:

http://www.cutepdf.com
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/ (and in particular GSView)

They both allow several levels of compression.

Thanks,

--sundar

Chabot Denis said the following on 5/22/2007 3:32 AM:
> Hi,
> 
> Without trying to print 1000000 points (see <http:// 
> finzi.psych.upenn.edu/R/Rhelp02a/archive/42105.html>), I often print  
> maps for which I do not want to loose too much of coastline detail,  
> and/or plots with 1000-5000 points (yes, some are on top of each  
> other, but using transparency (i.e. rgb colors with alpha  
> information) this actually comes through as useful information.
> 
> But the files are large (not as large as in the thread above of  
> course, 800 KB to about 2 MB), especially when included in a LaTeX  
> document by the dozen.
> 
> Acrobat (not the reader, the full program) has an option "reduce file  
> size". I don't know what it does, but it shrinks most of my plots to  
> about 30% or original size, and I cannot detect any loss of detail  
> even when zooming several times. But it is a pain to do this with  
> Acrobat when you generate many plots... And you need to buy Acrobat.
> 
> Is this something the pdf device could do in a future version? I  
> tried the "million points" example from the thread above and the 55  
> MB file was reduced to 6.9 MB, an even better shrinking I see on my  
> usual plots.
> 
> 
> Denis Chabot
> 
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