[OS X TeX] Epstopdf and the bounding box?

Joseph C. Slater joseph.slater at wright.edu
Sat Mar 2 13:30:47 EST 2002



You are in the same situation that many of us Mac/Matlab users are in. 
You may want to start shifting over to Octave. I have, and it's not so 
bad for what I need. Some argue it's better, but I'm working on that. 
The biggest challenge is that you have to learn how to use gnuplot to 
some extent in order to print. "gset term postscript" and "gset output 
''filename.eps''" along with replot will put an existing plot in a file.

However, if you install the "unstable" gnuplot using fink (if that's 
unstable, I don't know what stable is), plotting goes to aquaterm when x 
is not running, and your plot is automatically a PDF file. There are som 
limitations to gnuplot (lack of surfaces), but that may or may not be 
important to you. Those shortcomings are being worked on some, and for 
more sophisticated plotting, some use pgplot from octave.

Summary: there is life after matlab.

Now back to today's problem:
There are two ways in matlab to make an eps.
a) print to an eps file
b) use the command:
print -deps filename
you can do eps2, epsc, and a number of other options. See help print. 
I've found better luck in the past with b), however, I would try the 
opposite of what you are trying.

Also, you don't need to command line the conversion. Just drag the eps 
file onto TeXShop and it will do it for you.

Hope this helps,
Joe
On Saturday, March 2, 2002, at 12:28  PM, Bob Strain wrote:

>
>
>
> On 3/2/02 11:24 AM, "Piet van Oostrum" <piet at cs.uu.nl> wrote:
>
>>>>>>> Bob Strain <strain at cfm.brown.edu> (BS) writes:
>>
>> BS> Hi,
>> BS> I apologize if this issue has already been discussed, I just 
>> joined the
>> BS> list.  I am recently attempting to incorporate self made .eps 
>> graphics
>> into
>> BS> my tex documents.  So I have been using the epstopdf command.  The
>> following
>> BS> is a typical exchange with the computer:
>>
>> BS> -% epstopdf plot6.eps
>> BS> ==> Warning: BoundingBox not found!
>>
>> If there is no bounding box, it is not a proper EPS files..
>>
>> BS> Then the resulting pdf plot6.pdf will be a full page sized pdf 
>> when it
>> BS> should be only the size of the graphic.  This makes it very hard 
>> to use.
>> BS> Could anyone suggest a solution?
>
>
>> You said `self made' EPS file. Does that mean you make them by hand, or
>> create them with your own program?
>
> Sorry, I should have been more specific.  By 'self-made' I meant using
> matlab with 'self made' data.
>
>> Anyway, take care that the proper
>> %%BoundingBox comment is added.
>
> I'm not sure what you mean here.  I have used -hires and -exact to no 
> avail.
> I have tried eps and eps level 2.
>
>> Otherwise epstopdf will not know what size your graphic is and can only
>> revert to a full-page PDF.
>
> Do you know if matlab 5.3 just does not make proper eps files?  Do you 
> know
> of better way to go?
>
> Thanks,
> Bob Strain
>
>
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