Practical IDL Programming

8 Creating Graphical Output

This chapter discusses the methods available in IDL for saving and printing graphical output. It begins with the fundamental differences between bitmap and vector output, and then lists the formats of each type supported by IDL. This is followed by a description of the process of capturing the contents of a graphics window to a bitmap output file, with equal treatment given to 8-bit and 24-bit output formats, along with an example program that simplifies the process. Next, the subject of creating publication-quality PostScript output is reviewed in detail, including explanations of the configuration of the PostScript page, along with font and color selection. Example programs are shown that greatly simplify the process ...