Hello:
I use matplotlib to generate x-y data plots; i.e., 2-D plots. The problem is
that the output files (the PDF files containing plots that are generated with
matplotlib) are huge. I can generate files that are 100's of KB or even MBs.
This seems absurd to me. These file sizes cause programs that use them to come
to a grinding halt. My goal is to reduce the plot files that I produce with
matplotlib. Details follow.
----------
I use matplotlib from EPD.
Enthought Canopy Python 2.7.3 | 64-bit | (default, Aug 8 2013, 05:37:06)
Matplotlib version:
>>> print matplotlib.__version__
1.3.0
OS:
I'm using Mac OS X Version 10.8.4.
----------
I use a home-grown code whose starting point was an example code on matplotlib
website.
My relevant imports are:
import numpy
import scipy
import pylab
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib
My plotting code lines are:
## PDF.
outfile = "basefile" + ".pdf"
## pylab.savefig(outfile, bbox_inches=0)
pylab.savefig(outfile,bbox_inches='tight')
----------
My PDF files contain simple plots which consist of (a) data points only, (b)
lines between data points (data points not plotted), or (c) both data points
and lines.
I have a consistent problem in that the files produced have sizes that seem way
too big.
For example, most recently, I am plotting 3 data sets; each data set has about
90,000 points. If I plot all three sets in one PDF figure, the file size is
over 2MB.
This seems absurd to me. I used R plotting for many years (again, my own
homegrown code, for 6 years) and never had this issue, and I was making these
kinds of plots/figures.
I thought it may be a vector/raster issue, but the following web page says that
PDF are generated as vector image, which, to my understanding (which could be
wrong), is the more compact format.
http://matplotlib.org/faq/usage_faq.html
Is there a command I can use to reduce the file size? Since I am using these
in reports and publications, the figures are almost always less than 3 inches
by 3 inches in size; i.e., I do not have issues about taking a raster figure
and trying to blow it up. So I am not concerned about pixelation problems that
occur when an image is increased in size.
Thank you very much.
c
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