Exporting graphics interactively

Introduction

Whether you need a high-quality image for print, or something to add to a PowerPoint slide deck or website, GAUSS provides tools that make interactive graphics editing and export simple.

GAUSS shows you exactly what the exported graph will look like ahead of time, so you can get the image you want the first time.

Create a graph

For this tutorial, we will use one of the GAUSS example files to create a graph. Go to the GAUSS command prompt (program input/output window) and enter:

run randomwalk.e

This should create a graph that looks like the image below, on the GAUSS Graphics Page.

Export the Graph

Open the Graph Settings Window

Our goal for this tutorial is to create a 640-pixel wide image to add to the end of this tutorial. Our first step will be to open the GAUSS Graphics Editor, by selecting View > Graph Settings from the main GAUSS menu.

By default, the Graph Settings window will show graph settings such as line color, title, and axes labels. Click the canvas (the background outside of the graph) as shown below to view the canvas settings which control the size of the graph:

Resize the graph

By default, graphs in GAUSS are sized dynamically. This means that they take up as much room as is available in the window. To specify a size for the graph, we need to:

1. Select Fixed Size.
2. Uncheck Fixed Ratio so we can set height and width independently.

To change the graph size, double-click the number next to Width and enter the desired value--in this case 640 pixels.

Repeat the same for the desired height. We will set the height to 400 pixels. Now you will see exactly what the exported graph will look like.

Make final adjustments

The graph looks good, but we can make it better with a couple of changes. Let's click and drag the legend to the open space on the left top of the graph.

Finally, we will make the title font a little smaller:

1. Click inside the graph to switch from canvas to graph settings:
2. Double-click the current font for the title (Helvetica Neue 18 in this case). Then select the new size, 14 pts:

Export the graph

Once we have made all the final adjustments to the graph, select File > Export Graph from the main GAUSS menu:

Then using your operating system's windows: choose a name, file type, and folder in which to save the file.

Final product

After following the steps above, you should end up with a graph that looks similar to this: