Stata graphs in pdf fixed

| Gabriel |

Yesterday I complained that Stata makes ugly pdf graphs. Today I decided to fix it. Not only does this code make graphs that aren’t ugly, but it should port to Stata for Linux or Solaris (the current pdf feature only “works” on Stata for mac). This little program first saves a graph as eps (which Stata does well) and then uses the commnd line utility “ps2pdf” to make the pdf. Deleting the eps file is optional.

This program runs a little slower than the native pdf export but on the other hand it’s usually faster to load a pdf than an eps into a graphics program and I tend to be more impatient about that sort of thing (which I do interactively) than I am about running Stata (which I usually batch).

(Update 4/27 3:34pm, I have added the program to the ssc directory. So instead of copying the code below you can just type “ssc install graphexportpdf, replace”. Thanks to Kit Baum for some help with the syntax parsing)

*1.0.1 GHR April 27, 2009
program graphexportpdf
	version 10
	set more off
	syntax anything(name=filename) [, DROPeps replace]
	local extension=regexm("`filename'","(.+)\.pdf")
	if `extension'==1 {
		disp "{text:note, the file extension .pdf is allowed but not necessary}"
		local filename=regexs(1)
	}
	if "`replace'"=="replace" {
		disp "{text:note, replace option is always on with graphexportpdf}"
	}
	graph export "`filename'.eps", replace
	if "$S_OS"=="Windows" {
		disp "{error:Sorry, this command only works properly with Mac, Linux, and Solaris. Although I can't make a pdf for you, I have generated an eps file that you can convert to pdf with programs like ghostscript or acrobat distiller}"
	}
	else {
		shell ps2pdf -dAutoPositionEPSFiles=true -dPreserveEPSInfo=true -dAutoRotatePages=/None -dEPSCrop=true "`filename'.eps" "`filename'.pdf"
		if "`dropeps'"=="dropeps" | "`dropeps'"=="drop" {
			shell rm "`filename'.eps"
		}
	}
end