Mathematica => PDF => Illustrator problem solved! (Sort of...)
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg90036] Mathematica => PDF => Illustrator problem solved! (Sort of...)
- From: AES <siegman at stanford.edu>
- Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:14:34 -0400 (EDT)
- Organization: Stanford University
I posted recently about a situation in which a vector graphic was created using Mathematica, including the Thickness[] and PointSize[] options, and then transferred to a PDF format HD file using either Export[] or the Save Selection As... menu command. In either case when the resulting PDF file was then opened in Illustrator, the plot lines that had been slightly thickened using the Thickness[] command appeared enormously over-thickened in the Illustrator display (these lines could in fact be selected in Illustrator and thinned back down to something like the intended thickness), although neither the axes nor the frame outlines nor the points in the plot appeared to be similarly distorted. I've since tried creating a PDF file from the selected graphic in the Mathematica notebook in two additional ways, one of which seems to work. The first way was to select only the _figure_ itself, in the cell in which it appeared; invoke the Mathematica 6 Print Selection... menu command; and direct the resulting printed output to a PDF file using the Mac OS X Print to PDF option. Opening this PDF file in Illustrator revealed a tiny 0.6733" X 0.4541" figure located in the upper left corner of the standard 8.5" X 11" artboard. (The original graphic had been created using the option ImageSize->7*72.) Selecting this tiny image and enlarging it by 1000% revealed the same grossly over thickened lines in the image. The second way, which appears to be a more or less successful workaround, was to select the _cell_ containing the desired graphic; invoke the Mathematica 6 Print Selection...; and direct the printed output to another PDF file by again using the Mac OS X Print to PDF option. The image in this case, which again appears located on an 8.5" X 11" artboard, now appears entirely undistorted -- except that the Out[123]= label also appears in the figure and has to be hand-removed. I also note that the ratio of the widths given above, viz. 0.6733/5.6111 is 0.120000, which is suspiciously similar to the 120% reduction factor which I believe Mathematica somehow applies to printed images??? Did someone (at WRI or Adobe) slip a factor of 10 in their scaling somewhere?