Re: IDL produced postscript files in latex

[davidf(at)dfanning.com (David Fanning)]

Simon Webster (simon@nonsense.co.uk) writes:

> I'm producing postscript files with idl to go in a latex article.
> Everything is fine when i just have one plot on the page, but when i
> used !p.multi=[0,2,0] latex acted as though the second graph didn't
> exist, overwriting the plot with text.  Is this a known problem and is
> there any way around it?

Gosh, it has been a LONG time since I worked with Latex.
The original IDL documentation was written in Latex,
which looked like gibberish to the folks who were 
turning IDL into PV-Wave. They hired me, I think, 
because I had a Ph.D. and they (mistakenly, probably)
thought that meant I would be smart enough to figure
it out. As I recall, they wanted me to scratch out
"IDL" everywhere it occurred and write in "PV-Wave".

I spent two days with the LaTex manuals, then figured
out how to do a global search and replace. I let a week
or 10 days go by while I sort of got used to the new
place, etc. Finally, I told them I was finished with
the job. They were so impressed with how short a time 
it took me that they gave me a $700 bonus, as I recall. :-)

Anyway, I don't *ever* remember difficulty getting
LaTex to accept encapsulated PostScript output, even
with multi-plots (and we had several of them in the
IDL documentation). You are certain you have set it
up correctly:

   thisDevice = !D.Name
   !P.Multi=[0, 2, 1]
   Set_Plot, 'PS'
   Device, XSize=5, YSize=5, /Inches, /Encapsulated, $
      Filename='myplot.eps'
   Plot, data
   Plot, moredata
   Device, /Close_File
   Set_Plot, thisDevice
   !P.Multi = 0

I don't recall at all the LaTex commands, but presumably
the bounding box in the encapsulated PostScript file
will set the correct amount of space aside in the LaTex
file.

I would look elsewhere for your problem. :-)

Cheers,

David
-- 
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
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