Figure export

last modified

2024–4–1

‘Print size’

In a file created by print from a figure object, the figure has a ‘print size’ according to its PaperPosition property, elements width and height, interpreted according to its PaperUnits property.

PaperPosition: [left bottom width height]
PaperUnits: 'inches' (US default) | 'centimeters' (non-US default)| 'normalized' | 'points'

The elements left and bottom of the PaperPosition property are only relevant for output which has pages, i.e. PDF of PostScript, in which case the paper size is defined by the PaperSize property.

PaperSize: [width height]

For those those output file formats which support it, the ‘print size’ becomes the intrinsic physical size of the figure stored in the file. If the file is in a bitmap format, its size in pixels derives from the print size according to the -r parameter of print.

Screen size

A figure also has a screen size and position according to its Position property, interpreted according to its Units property.

Position: [left bottom width height]
Units: 'pixels' (default) | 'normalized' | 'inches' | 'centimeters' | 'points' | 'characters'
(Physical units and 'pixels' are converted into each other according to the read-only system-specific ScreenPixelsPerInch root property.)

The relation between the PaperPosition and Position properties is defined by the PaperPositionMode property.

PaperPositionMode: 'auto' (default) | 'manual'

If PaperPositionMode is 'manual', the two properties are independent. If it is 'auto', then setting the Position property leads to setting the PaperPosition elements width and height to equivalent values, while the elements left and bottom are set such that the figure is centered with respect to PaperSize.

This synchronization is unidirectional: Setting the PaperPosition property does not affect the Position property, but PaperPositionMode becomes 'manual'.

Default values

When a figure is created, the values of these six properties are initialized from the corresponding defaults. Defaults are either set explicitly as defaultFigure* properties on the root element, or fall back to the read-only factoryFigure* properties.

The properties defaultFigurePaperPosition and defaultFigurePosition can both exist and do not have to match each other. If defaultFigurePaperPositionMode is 'auto', Position is initialized from defaultFigurePosition and PaperPosition is set to match it, while defaultFigurePaperPosition is ignored.