[Matplotlib-users] savefig as pdf not generating vector graphics?

[per f. <per...@gm...>]

hi all,

i am using matplotlib 0.98.5.2 on Mac OS X. i am plotting a histogram and
then saving it as .pdf. The x and y labels use some symbols from latex, and
i have useTex set to true in my rcParams. The code is:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
my_fig = plt.figure(figsize=(5,5)), dpi=100)
plt.hist(rand(100), 10)
plt.xlabel(r"\alpha")
plt.ylabel(r"\beta\kappa")
plt.savefig('myfig.pdf')

The problem is that myfig.pdf for some reason renders the figure's x and y
labels as *images* rather than vector graphics. Strangely, the labels of the
units on the x and y axes are rendered as vector fonts correctly as they
should -- it is only the x and y labels that somehow are wrongly generated
as images.

how can i make it so everything is generated as a vector graphic in this
pdf?

thanks very much.

i am attaching my rcParams settings below in case it helps:

{'agg.path.chunksize': 0,
 'axes.axisbelow': False,
 'axes.edgecolor': 'k',
 'axes.facecolor': 'w',
 'axes.formatter.limits': [-7, 7],
 'axes.grid': False,
 'axes.hold': True,
 'axes.labelcolor': 'k',
 'axes.labelsize': 'medium',
 'axes.linewidth': 1.0,
 'axes.titlesize': 'large',
 'axes.unicode_minus': True,
 'backend': 'MacOSX',
 'backend_fallback': True,
 'cairo.format': 'png',
 'contour.negative_linestyle': 'dashed',
 'datapath': '/Library/Python/2.5/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data',
 'docstring.hardcopy': False,
 'figure.autolayout': False,
 'figure.dpi': 80,
 'figure.edgecolor': 'w',
 'figure.facecolor': '0.75',
 'figure.figsize': [8.0, 6.0],
 'figure.subplot.bottom': 0.10000000000000001,
 'figure.subplot.hspace': 0.20000000000000001,
 'figure.subplot.left': 0.125,
 'figure.subplot.right': 0.90000000000000002,
 'figure.subplot.top': 0.90000000000000002,
 'figure.subplot.wspace': 0.20000000000000001,
 'font.cursive': ['Apple Chancery',
                  'Textile',
                  'Zapf Chancery',
                  'Sand',
                  'cursive'],
 'font.family': 'sans-serif',
 'font.fantasy': ['Comic Sans MS',
                  'Chicago',
                  'Charcoal',
                  'ImpactWestern',
                  'fantasy'],
 'font.monospace': ['Bitstream Vera Sans Mono',
                    'DejaVu Sans Mono',
                    'Andale Mono',
                    'Nimbus Mono L',
                    'Courier New',
                    'Courier',
                    'Fixed',
                    'Terminal',
                    'monospace'],
 'font.sans-serif': ['Helvetica'],
 'font.serif': ['Bitstream Vera Serif',
                'DejaVu Serif',
                'New Century Schoolbook',
                'Century Schoolbook L',
                'Utopia',
                'ITC Bookman',
                'Bookman',
                'Nimbus Roman No9 L',
                'Times New Roman',
                'Times',
                'Palatino',
                'Charter',
                'serif'],
 'font.size': 12.0,
 'font.stretch': 'normal',
 'font.style': 'normal',
 'font.variant': 'normal',
 'font.weight': 'normal',
 'grid.color': 'k',
 'grid.linestyle': ':',
 'grid.linewidth': 0.5,
 'image.aspect': 'equal',
 'image.cmap': 'jet',
 'image.interpolation': 'bilinear',
 'image.lut': 256,
 'image.origin': 'upper',
 'image.resample': False,
 'interactive': False,
 'legend.axespad': 0.5,
 'legend.borderaxespad': 0.5,
 'legend.borderpad': 0.40000000000000002,
 'legend.columnspacing': 2.0,
 'legend.fancybox': False,
 'legend.fontsize': 'large',
 'legend.handlelen': 0.050000000000000003,
 'legend.handlelength': 2.0,
 'legend.handletextpad': 0.80000000000000004,
 'legend.handletextsep': 0.02,
 'legend.isaxes': True,
 'legend.labelsep': 0.01,
 'legend.labelspacing': 0.5,
 'legend.loc': 'upper right',
 'legend.markerscale': 1.0,
 'legend.numpoints': 2,
 'legend.pad': 0,
 'legend.shadow': False,
 'lines.antialiased': True,
 'lines.color': 'b',
 'lines.dash_capstyle': 'butt',
 'lines.dash_joinstyle': 'miter',
 'lines.linestyle': '-',
 'lines.linewidth': 1.0,
 'lines.marker': 'None',
 'lines.markeredgewidth': 0.5,
 'lines.markersize': 6,
 'lines.solid_capstyle': 'projecting',
 'lines.solid_joinstyle': 'miter',
 'maskedarray': False,
 'mathtext.bf': 'serif:bold',
 'mathtext.cal': 'cursive',
 'mathtext.fallback_to_cm': True,
 'mathtext.fontset': 'cm',
 'mathtext.it': 'serif:italic',
 'mathtext.rm': 'serif',
 'mathtext.sf': 'sans\\-serif',
 'mathtext.tt': 'monospace',
 'numerix': 'numpy',
 'patch.antialiased': True,
 'patch.edgecolor': 'k',
 'patch.facecolor': 'b',
 'patch.linewidth': 1.0,
 'path.simplify': False,
 'pdf.compression': 6,
 'pdf.fonttype': 3,
 'pdf.inheritcolor': False,
 'pdf.use14corefonts': False,
 'plugins.directory': '.matplotlib_plugins',
 'polaraxes.grid': True,
 'ps.distiller.res': 6000,
 'ps.fonttype': 3,
 'ps.papersize': 'letter',
 'ps.useafm': False,
 'ps.usedistiller': False,
 'savefig.dpi': 100,
 'savefig.edgecolor': 'w',
 'savefig.facecolor': 'w',
 'savefig.orientation': 'portrait',
 'svg.embed_char_paths': True,
 'svg.image_inline': True,
 'svg.image_noscale': False,
 'text.color': 'k',
 'text.dvipnghack': None,
 'text.fontangle': 'normal',
 'text.fontsize': 'medium',
 'text.fontstyle': 'normal',
 'text.fontvariant': 'normal',
 'text.fontweight': 'normal',
 'text.latex.preamble': [''],
 'text.latex.unicode': False,
 'text.usetex': False,
 'timezone': 'UTC',
 'tk.pythoninspect': False,
 'tk.window_focus': False,
 'toolbar': 'toolbar2',
 'units': False,
 'verbose.fileo': 'sys.stdout',
 'verbose.level': 'silent',
 'xtick.color': 'k',
 'xtick.direction': 'in',
 'xtick.labelsize': 'medium',
 'xtick.major.pad': 4,
 'xtick.major.size': 4,
 'xtick.minor.pad': 4,
 'xtick.minor.size': 2,
 'ytick.color': 'k',
 'ytick.direction': 'in',
 'ytick.labelsize': 'medium',
 'ytick.major.pad': 4,
 'ytick.major.size': 4,
 'ytick.minor.pad': 4,
 'ytick.minor.size': 2}