export_fig Warning: RGB color data not yet supported in Painter's mode

Hi!

I'm using the function 'export_fig' to save my figures in pdf format. When I try to save, it shows me this error:

"Warning: RGB color data not yet supported in Painter's mode

 In legendcolorbarlayout>doParentResize at 335
 In /usr/site/hpc/x86_64/glibc-2.5/generic/matlab/R2011a/toolbox/matlab/graphics/hardcopy.p>hardcopy at 22
 In graphics/private/render at 142
  In print>LocalPrint at 271
  In print at 228
  In print2eps at 42
  In export_fig at 377
  In vertical_plot at 404
  In main_function at 166"

This Warning is repeated for maybe 30 times. Then the figure is saved to pdf, but the contourplot is missing. -only the edges of the contourplot are visible. You can download the original figure and the pdf file on this link:

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=721894

How can I fix this problem?

Im using MATLAB 7.12.0 (R2011a) on a supercomputer. Ghostscript 8.70-6.e15 is installed.

Thank you!

-Michael

[Walter Roberson]

Your link is to a .rar file, which reduces the number of people who will download it. For example my system does not handle .rar files.

Answer 1

[Qiaonan Duan]

My solution is to add all your colors to colormap. Then index them when ploting.

For example, for a scatter plot:

cmap = .....; %self defined colormap

colorIdx = ....; %map color to each dot by index

colormap(cmap); %change colormap variable to customized colormap

scatter(X,Y,s,colormap); % This scatter plot is able to export as eps.

[Emily M-B]

Great solution! This WORKED for me!

Answer 2

[Jan]

This is not a problem of export_fig, but of the export of vector graphics: With the OpenGL and ZBuffer renderers you can create nice 3D graphics using RGB values to define the colors of objects. But then you can export pixel graphics only.

To create scalable vector graphics for the PDF export, the Painters renderer is used. But then you cannot use a Z-buffer painting, transparency and shaded RGB colors.

But you can use indexed colors with the Painters renderer, see Solution 1-6OTPQE

See also: How can I export a figure containing a surface with RGB CData to an eps file using the painters renderer?

[Spigge]

The post is old but this issue continues to cause problems. I want to export to pfd or eps but I get the same warnings (42 of them to be precise) and a poor quality as a result. How can I identify ALL objects that need to be coverted to indexed color? I have several hundered graphical objects of different types in my application. I have tried using findall(gcf,'type','patch') but only 12 out of the 42 warnings seem to be caused by patch objects. What else should I look for and can I use the same fix as Solution 1-6OTPQE for all types of identified objects?

Thanks

Fredrik

Answer 3

[Walter Roberson]

Before calling export_fig, try

set(gcf, 'Renderer', 'zbuffer')
drawnow();

Answer 4

[Michael Backmann]

@Walter: your solution didn't work. but thanks anyway!

@Jan: that was to much input for me! I tried to copy the example of "Solution 1-6OTPQE" directly above the export_fig line, but all stays the same.

Could you please take a look on my plotting file. maybe you find the error. here is the m-file:

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=721913

-The figure plot is on line 31. The contour plot is on line 133-200 (for variable 'pr') and i try to save the plot on line 396-408.

I'm so confused! please help!

thx, -michael

Answer 5

[Oliver Woodford]

I added a paragraph in this issue to the export_fig webpage: http://sites.google.com/site/oliverwoodford/software/export_fig