When I save graphs as PNG (under windows), some of the colors seem to
change. Specifically, the default pale blue background becomes a sort
of light mustard yellow.
Has anyone else had this problem? Is this a Stata issue?
Thanks!
Nick Winter
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Nicholas Winter, Ph.D. P 202.939.5343
Policy Studies Associates F 202.939.5732
1718 Connecticut Avenue, NW [email protected]
Washington, DC 20009-1148 www.policystudies.com
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lee Sieswerda [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2003 11:38 AM
> To: '[email protected]'
> Subject: RE: st: Graph output: wmf to gif?
>
>
> GIF is a fine, if rather old, format for the web. Nor is GIF
> "fat" when used
> properly.
>
> GIF and JPEG are the most common image compression formats on
> the web. To
> make a long story short, use GIF when you have few colours in
> the image.
> Most Stata graphs would likely fall into this category. Use
> JPEG when you
> have a lot of different colours, as in a colour photograph. It is more
> complicated than that, but those are good rules of thumb.
> Here's another
> simple explanation:
> http://www.gearfactory.net/jpegvsgif.php
>
> Some people and programs (especially free ones) won't offer GIF as an
> option. There is an explanation here:
> http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html
>
> StataCorp has pointed out that Stata's implementation of PNG
> is experimental
> at the moment. I have tried to use Stata's PNG format, but the results
> appear rudimentary (maybe I'm missing something). The W3C
> considers PNG a
> patent-free replacement for GIF. See: http://www.w3.org/Graphics/PNG/
>
> The only graphic format within Stata that I have found acceptable for
> publication quality graphics is EPS/PS. Actually, its more
> than acceptable,
> it is near perfect. To my eyes, the WMF/EMF format often makes wonky
> circles, text isn't spaced properly, and other problems. The
> image quality
> in Stata's PNG implementation is jaggy, especially the text
> portions. The
> BMP format, of course, results in very fat files and so is
> unacceptable.
> Stata graphs in EPS format have none of these problems. Unfortunately,
> however, if you (or you publisher) do not have a PostScript compatible
> printer, EPS/PS can not be printed. PDF is nice and there are
> lots of EPS/PS
> to PDF converters.
>
> An interesting image format that is receiving quite a bit of
> attention is
> SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) because it can combine raster
> and vector
> images, as well as text, and it is written and stored in XML
> rather than
> binary. If it lives up to its reputation, it will be the Holy
> Grail of 2D
> portable web-friendly graphics. For those interested, see:
> http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/Overview.htm8
>
> This is what I do with graphs (using Stata 8 Win):
> 1. For everyday use, I just copy and paste (WMF or EMF) into my word
> processor.
> 2. For publication quality,
> a) I save my graph as both WMF and as EPS.
> b) Using Ghostscript and GSView, I attach the WMF file
> to the EPS as
> a preview image. This allows me to view and print the graph in my word
> processor. When the file is printed on a
> PostScript-compatible printer it
> prints the flawless EPS version.
> 3. If I were publishing on the web on a regular basis, I would save my
> graphs in EPS format and then buy/beg/borrow/steal a good
> image optimizer or
> graphics package to convert to GIF or JPEG. Or, if I could,
> I'd wait and see
> how good Stata's PNG implementation gets. There are a lot of image
> conversion programs around. I've never used a straight image
> conversion
> program, other than GSView. I've used DeBabelizer (which is an image
> optimizer) and Fireworks, Illustrator, and Photoshop (which are
> full-featured graphics apps), all of which produce industry-standard
> results, but which are not particularly inexpensive.
>
> Best,
> Lee Sieswerda
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Philippe Glaziou [SMTP:[email protected]]
> > Sent: Monday, March 31, 2003 9:30 PM
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: Re: st: Graph output: wmf to gif?
> >
> > David LB Schwappach <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > I'm preparing a Internet presentation of a batch of graphs
> > > produced by STATA. I save the graphs as wmf files and then
> > > use a graphics editor to convert to gif. However, the wmf
> > > files are very large and after resizing them, the gif
> > > quality is worse. How do other people prepare high quality
> > > STATA graphs for the web?
> >
> >
> > PNG (portable network graphics) and JPEG formats are very
> > common on the web. Gif is not such a good format on the web,
> > because gif is fat.
> >
> > Different formats of the same stata graph, with size:
> >
> > tata.eps 9981
> > tata.png 6919
> > tata.jpg 11114
> > tata.gif 115882
> >
> > My stata knows about PNG, but only from the menu (unless I
> > missed something). -graph export tata.png, as(png)- does not
> > work. In any case, imagemagick <http://www.imagemagick.org>
> > does the conversion between 68 major formats for free, and
> > runs also under MS-windows.
> >
> > --
> > Philippe
> > *
> > * For searches and help try:
> > * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
> > * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> > * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> * http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
> * http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
> * http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
>
*
* For searches and help try:
* http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/findit.html
* http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
* http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/
