Picture quality problem

[evan]

Hi,

I plot the graph perfectly in DPlot, and I need to insert this graph to my document. So I save the graph as PNG picture, and I insert this picture to my document. When I try to reduce the picture size to match the texts, the picture quality obviously gets worse, and now it's kinda hard to see the numbers on the graph.

I wonder if there is any other better way to put the graphs plotted in DPlot into a document (I'm using Word 2007) with reduced size, but without compromising too much quality? Thanks.
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BMW R1200C

[DPlotAdmin]

Evan,
Two ways:
1) Word (and just about any other application) will do a poor job of resizing 8-bit images. If you've been saving as 8-bit, try 24-bit.

2) For best results figure out what size (in inches) you want the box around the graph to be in your Word document. Then in DPlot use Options>Extents/Intervals/Size, check "Specify size" and enter those dimensions. Now adjust the font sizes to your liking. When saving the PNG file use 0 for both the width and height; that will create an image that is the same size as what you see on your display in DPlot.

[evan]

Evan,
Two ways:
1) Word (and just about any other application) will do a poor job of resizing 8-bit images. If you've been saving as 8-bit, try 24-bit.

2) For best results figure out what size (in inches) you want the box around the graph to be in your Word document. Then in DPlot use Options>Extents/Intervals/Size, check "Specify size" and enter those dimensions. Now adjust the font sizes to your liking. When saving the PNG file use 0 for both the width and height; that will create an image that is the same size as what you see on your display in DPlot.

Thanks a lot, that works for me.

just got another question that is unrelated to this topic:

I've got a curve with negative Y values, but it is hard to see the what's going on by plotting them on the default X-Y plane. What I'd like to do is plot these Y values on a log scale, but the problem is they are all negative values! I wonder if there is any way to get around this? Many thanks.
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Hotels In Mexico

[DPlotAdmin]

Are all Y values negative? If so you could just invert Y with Edit>Operate on Y and Y=-Y, then change your Y axis label to indicate that the actual values are negative.

If all Y values aren't negative but you only care about the amplitudes and not the sign, then you could Operate on Y with Y=abs(Y).

[evan]

Are all Y values negative? If so you could just invert Y with Edit>Operate on Y and Y=-Y, then change your Y axis label to indicate that the actual values are negative.

Thanks, I actually thought about this solution, but how can I manually change each individual tick label on the Y-axis to indicate they are in fact negative values? Many thanks.
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Chevrolet Lacetti

[DPlotAdmin]

That's quite a bit more trouble as there's no automatic way to do that. But you can 1) right-click on any number on the Y axis and select "None" for the number format, then 2) use Text>X,Y Labels and place -0.1 at 0.1, -1.0 at 1.0, etc.

[evan]

ok, now everything looks fine apart from that the Y-axis label overlap with the hardcoded tick labels because the default ones are set to 'none'. Is there any way to adjust the position of the Y-axis label or this is fixed with respect to the graph? Thanks.
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Toyota Cresta specifications

[DPlotAdmin]

Aarrggghhh... I hadn't thought of that, sorry. But yes, in a way. If you add a "\n" or two to the end of your Y axis label then it will be shifted one line height to the left for every "\n". Exact placement isn't possible, but you should be able to get it looking more or less like you want.

I need to amend this in the next release and do the same thing that is already done for the X axis: if the Y axis numbers use "None", check for X,Y labels on the Y axis and shift the axis title as needed.

Of course in your case a better solution would be to allow all negative values on a logarithmic scale - it would have to be all negative, otherwise there's a real problem at Y=0. I'll have to think about this one a bit.

[evan]

thanks very much! it works like a charm.

It would be nice if you can flip the chart upside down in the future, just a suggestion.
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List of Chrysler bellhousing patterns

[evan]

thanks very much! it works like a charm.

It would be nice if you can flip the chart upside down in the future, just a suggestion.

found the function, now it's perfect. thanks.
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Scuderia Ferrari history

[DPlotAdmin]

Options>Extents/Intervals/Size, check the "Invert Y" box.