Provide access to high resolution graph export

[scwimbush]

When I print a front panel containing a graph (who ever does that?) I get a stunningly beautiful publication-quality render of my data (overlooking the poorly done vertical y-axis label). However, all the many options of directly exporting a graph image (detailed here) ultimately provide only a screen-resolution image. See the contrast in image quality below:

Printed front panel vs exported graph image.

This idea has been discussed ad infinitum on the forum (see, for example, here, here, here, here, and here), but has never been adequately resolved. (Enlarging the graph for export does not work since graph elements do not scale, so lines, points and labels end up being far too small.) High time to implement a feature that has been in demand since (at least) 2002!

[wiebe@CARYA]

Well, not in LV18, or any version before it. I doubt it has changed.

Sure, there are lines but it's still a bitmap. Scale the image, and I can see the pixels growing, especially in text.

I'll do some digging. They indeed look like vectors. Not sure if it changed, or if I'm confusing graphs with something else.

[thols]

When exporting an XY graph to eps and viewing with epsviewer, I get a bitmap. (LV2019). If you are sure you get vectors, please tell me exactly how. 

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[pauldavey]

I have uploaded the VI and output EPS file here:

https://forums.ni.com/t5/Community-Documents/Export-XY-Graph-as-Vector-EPS/ta-p/3962347

[thols]

I still get a bitmap using that code. At least it looks like it when viewing with EpsViewer. If I use e.g. "Print.VI To Printer" invoke node, I get a vector based image. See comparison of  "Print.VI To Printer" to the left and your code to the right when zoomed in:

What does it look like when you zoom in?

[pauldavey]

When I open it in Illustrator, I can edit the text and move the lines around.  Did you look at the EPS file I uploaded?  Perhaps it is a compatibility issue with the EPS viewer.

[thols]

I don't know how eps files work (and I don't have Illustrator), but it looks like viewers generally produce a low-res bitmap of it (I tried a few now). But then I tried converting the eps to a png and pdf via an online conversion and now it is high res. So the high res information is there in the file for sure. Too bad though that it is black and white only, and missing some graphics, compared to "Print.VI to Printer" which has all graphics in high res and color. So it is not very usable for most cases.

[wiebe@CARYA]

When exporting to emf you get vectors. LabVIEW can work with emf files, so you can simply paste in a VI to test (if you copy to the clipboard it's easy).

I think my goal was to export a picture control to emf, and that that resulted in a bitmap embedded in a emf. Not too sure, it's been a while.

EDIT: Come to thing of it, I thing I tried eps, because it's somewhat possible to embed eps files in a PDF. That resulted in a bitmap embedded in eps.

It would be nice to have a "export image" option (in stead of "export simplified image"). IIRC, Most if not all things in LabVIEW can be drawn in emf (gradients and such), so it would be feasible technically.