Graphics in papers

Graphics in papers I have always wondered with what programs do people do their graphics when they publish papers. They most of the time seem to be embedded in some way as vector graphics, I'd say, as when I try to zoom the pdf it seems it computes the image in the moment, it doesn't seem to be a image. From their aspect they don't seem to be just print screens of Mathematica plots.
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 238

Total answers/comments: 5

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Guest [Entry]

"Have a look at PGF/TikZ. A lot of good examples can be found in the PGF/TikZ examples gallery.

Other options include: Asymptote, Sketch 3D, PSTricks, and Gnuplot TikZ terminal."

Guest [Entry]

"They are probable plots, generated with GnuPlot and integrated into latex via pstricks.

See:

http://ftp.fernuni-hagen.de/ftp-dir/pub/mirrors/www.ctandotorg/graphics/pstricks/contrib/pst-3dplot/pst-3dplot-doc.pdf
http://www.gnuplot.info/
http://tugdotorg/PSTricks/main.cgi"

Guest [Entry]

"See Wikibooks. In general, you can either insert a PDF (with pdflatex) or EPS (with ps latex) to import the vector graphics, or you can use a LaTeX package to render the graphics inline.

To create external graphics, Gnuplot and R are both fine choices, and you can also create them with Gnumeric, Inkscape, Xfig, or whatever strikes your fancy.

To create inline graphics, I've had success with the XY-pic package. It's arcane and hard to learn, but quite powerful.

The labels in those two figures are rendered by TeX — it's easier to get them when you're creating the graphics inline, but it's possible for an external file to get them as well."

Guest [Entry]

When I have done figures in LaTeX documents, I have preferred using an external image in either Poscript or PDF (depending on the tool chain used). The tools I have used for creating the graphic (such as gnuplot, Xfig, dot, etc) can output a vector image as opposed to a raster image.

Guest [Entry]

TikZ and PStricks are both good. There's one specialized area of graphics which is very important for experimental science and engineering but which has not been mentioned in the ansewrs so for. For plotting experimental data, I find Jim Plank's jgraph far simpler and more flexible than gnuplot (although I confess the learning curve is annoying). One example is a plot containing some Tukey boxes which I made for my class's exam grades. There are several other nice examples on the jgraph pages.