MATLAB: Do I receive the error ‘Illegal device option’ when using the PRINT command in MATLAB 7.8 (R2009a)

Question

When I execute the following command

print('-dpdf ', 'test.pdf')

I get the error

 ??? Error using ==> print at 315
 Illegal device option, '-dpdf ', specified.

However, no error occurs if I use the following syntax:

print -dpdf test.pdf

Answer 1

This error occurs because of the space in '-dpdf'. The following command does not result in the error:

     print('-dpdf', 'test.pdf')

There is an inconsistency in the PRINT command, because the following command, with a space in '-depsc ', also does not result in an error:

print('-depsc ', 'test.eps')