[Matplotlib-users] large pdf files

fiolj fiolj at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 6 09:03:40 EDT 2020


Thanks Thibaut, using eps or other format is a good solution but I was
wondering about the change on file size. Usually, at least in my
experience in linux is that pdf export from matplotlib is very
efficient. In particular, very simple files were exported to small
files. I do not know what (if anything) changed from a few versions back
to the current version in my system (3.2.2) that the minimum file size I
can get now is about 370k.
Regards,
	Juan

El 10/5/20 a las 2:30 PM, Appel, Thibaut escribió:
> If the output size of .pdf is your concern, I suggest you export your figure with matplotlib in .eps, and then use the command line tool « epstopdf » shipped with any LaTeX distribution.
> 
> The .pdf backend of matplotlib is far from being optimized.
> 
> I always observe a factor of size decrease between 10 and 100 (!) in the output .pdf after running epstopdf, instead of saving directly in pdf.
> 
> Thibaut
>  
>> From: fiolj <fiolj at yahoo.com>
>> To: matplotlib-users <matplotlib-users at python.org>
>> Subject: [Matplotlib-users] large pdf files
>> Message-ID: <0886ed29-48a2-be2f-78a1-2bbab870d0ab at yahoo.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
>>
>> Hi, checking on sizes of pdf files I noticed that in my system currently
>> pdf output are at least 370k when similar plots previously were about 20k.
>>
>> I tested with an old figure (I do not matplotlib version but was created
>> about May 2019) and the figure was 15409 bytes while the same figure
>> with matplotlib version 3.2.2 has a size of 429110 bytes.
>> I checked and this happens even plotting a few (ten) points with line,
>> everything using default values.
>>
>> My user configuration file has not been modified but my system may have
>> changed.
>>
>> I've found similar reports but regarding much older versions.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>   Regards, Juan


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