[Matplotlib-users] eps export files crash text processors

[Martin M. <mm...@gm...>]

Hi,

When I use matplotlib for a scatter plot with both dots and connecting lines,
the exported eps file is huge, if the distances between many points are small.
I think of this as a bug, since no preview tiff is included in the generated eps
and a variety of text processing applications (including OpenOffice) crash
when I try to import the eps. Ghostscript takes forever, too. Is there anything
that I can do in order to export reasonable eps files?

I am using:
python 2.4.2
matplotlib 0.87.2
numpy 0.9.8

with Linux

The following small example illustrates the problem:
--
import pylab,numpy,random
random.seed()
x=[random.gauss(0,1)/float(i)**2 for i in xrange(1,1000000)]
X=numpy.array(x,numpy.Float32)
pylab.plot(X[1:],X[:-1],"-", c="#eeeeee")
pylab.plot(X[1:],X[:-1],"xk")
pylab.show()
--

The resulting eps file:
-rw-r----- 1 xx users 212190257 Jul  4 09:39 image.eps

Thanks a lot in advance

Martin