Save a figure to PDF or EPS with non-standard fonts
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Oliver Woodford
on 9 Dec 2011
Edited: Michael G. Baker
on 27 Nov 2018
If I generate a figure using some fancy fonts, for example like this:
plot(rand(3));
set(gca, 'FontName', 'Georgia');
title('My graph', 'FontName', 'Impact');
then when I export the figure to PDF or EPS using print, e.g.:
print test.pdf -dpdf
the fonts are changed to Courier. This is because only a small number of fonts are supported when printing using the Postscript or Ghostscript drivers (e.g. when exporting to PDF or EPS files using the painters renderer).
How can I get round this limitation? Ideally I'd like a programmatic solution (i.e. one which doesn't require any user interaction).
0 Comments
Accepted Answer
Daniel Shub
on 9 Dec 2011
On a Windows machine with a virtual pdf printer (in my case the one that comes with Adobe Acrobat Pro) I can print to a pdf file and the fonts get embedded.
I tried this a few years ago (before there was export_fig). The biggest problem I had, and the one that made me give up, was I couldn't bypass the print dialog box. I always had to provide confirmation. I think there may have also been small changes in the figure and in some cases sections of the figure were replaced with bitmaps.
EDIT:
I can get a little closer. On both Windows and Arch Linux I have a virtual PDF printer installed and named PDF Printer. On Windows it the Adobe Acrobat Pro (or maybe Adobe Distiller printer) on Linux it is the CUPS-PDF printer. On both systems
print '-PPDF Printer' myfilename.pdf
gives the desired result without any user interaction. I think it should be pretty OS independent and consistent across PDF printer type. Integrating it into export_fig may be harder. You will either need the user to supply the name of the PDF printer or a good guess as to what it is called. Guessing the printer name will probably be harder than guessing where Ghost Script is installed.
4 Comments
Jan
on 10 Dec 2011
You can select the printer using the -Pprinter flag of the PRINT command. There are PDF printers available, which do not need a dialog.
More Answers (4)
Juan Guerrero
on 25 Apr 2017
Hi, I came up with a solution explained here: http://isa.uniovi.es/~guerrero/FontExample/FontExampleFiles.zip
There are pretty amazing solutions like export_fig but when you only want to obtain a pdf with correct fonts this is simpler. Another advantage is that you are aware of what you are doing, which is an advantage when the Matlab version changes.
Best regards.
1 Comment
Michael G. Baker
on 13 Sep 2018
Edited: Michael G. Baker
on 27 Nov 2018
This is a good work-around for something that Matlab should have fixed long ago.
On Mac El Capitan, I needed to add the "-dNOSAFER" flag to the GhostScript call to prevent GS from crashing due to file permissions (even though I had read/write for the specified file).
Owen Gebler
on 6 Apr 2018
My solution to this problem is to use the open-source image editor Inkscape to convert an SVG plot produced by MATLAB to a PDF file. This can be automated from within a MATLAB script by calling Inkscape via a command prompt with the following command:
command = strcat('"C:\Program Files\Inkscape\inkscape.exe" ', {' '}, '"', fileToConvert,...
'.svg" --export-pdf="', fileToConvert, '.pdf" --export-pdf-version=1.5 --export-area-drawing');
command = string(command);
[ status, msg ] = system(command); % Run command prompt - return variable to suppress output text
Obviously this is Windows specific, and one should ensure Inkscape has been installed locally, and the path to it is accurate in the command.
0 Comments
Daniel Shub
on 10 Dec 2011
When creating eps and pdf files I include the following check:
validFontNames = {'AvantGarde'; 'Bookman'; 'Courier'; 'Helvetica'; ...
'Helvetica-Narrow'; 'NewCenturySchoolBook'; 'Palatino'; ...
'Symbol'; 'Times'; 'ZapfChancery'; 'ZapfDingbats'};
htxt = findobj(hfig, '-depth', inf, '-property', 'FontName');
for itxt = 1:length(htxt)
errorMsg = ['The font "', get(htxt(itxt), 'FontName'), '" ',...
'is not supported for pdf output.'];
if ~any(strcmpi(get(htxt(itxt), 'FontName'), validFontNames))
warning(errorMsgId, errorMsg, '');
end
end
While not a solution, at least it warns me about the font substitution ...
2 Comments
Alan
on 28 Sep 2012
But findobj doesn't find objects whose HandleVisibility is off like xlabel and ylabel.
Daniel Shub
on 28 Sep 2012
You are right. I make the handles of all the children visible at the beginning of the function and return them to the original state at the end.
Oliver Woodford
on 12 Dec 2011
1 Comment
Daniel Shub
on 12 Dec 2011
If you show the code snippet you use to replace the fonts, I will vote for you. Then you can see if clean, but limited to 11 fonts, solution is more desirable than my hack with the PDF printer ...
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