Re: [Matplotlib-users] scatter with dots?

[John H. <jdh...@ac...>]

>>>>> "Carl" == Carl Dr Kleffner <cmk...@gm...> writes:

    Carl> Hi matplot-list, drawing scatterplots with thousends of
    Carl> scatter dots (marker='o') yields in bloated file sizes for
    Carl> vector-formats (ps, svg).  The reason for that is, that each
    Carl> marker circle ist made of a large number of lines instead of
    Carl> a simple arc (0..360 degree) i.e.

    Carl> Can this be patched easily? and btw what is the meaning of
    Carl> the _newstyle attribute in the drawing methods?

Originally the backends drew each marker with a separate function
call, which was slow and prevented optimizations.  We introduced a new
API to make marker drawing fast, but rather than break all the
noncompliant backends we left a flag in for newstyle, meaning the new
API, to determine which method to use.  Unfortunately, this supported
laziness, and no backends other than *Agg support the new method
(which can be 25x faster...)  It would also enable you to introduce
these optimizations, eg postscript macros, if you added it to PS.
Search the dev archives for newstyle for length discussions.  I'll be
happy to advise further if you are interested in pursuing this.

JDH