[Tex/LaTex] Export eps figures from TikZ II

tikz-externaltikz-pgf

This question is a very similar to Export eps figures from TikZ however the solution that has been accepted there does NOT appear to be working for me.

I have also tried the example from the pgfmanual (v2.10) on page 344. It works to create pdf's but I have not been able to get the part working that is needed to generate eps files (described on page 345)

I have tried it on two different machines but both are running mac os 10.9.2 with TeXLive-2013 and TeXShop.

After I had tried the example provided in the pgfmanual and could not produce eps files with it (at all) I used the code provided Caramdir provided (version for unix systems on top). I used latex -shell-escape to run the code and all seemed fine. However I have not been able to open the generated .eps file with either "preview", "word for mac (desperate attempt)" or "adobe illustrator (win 7)". The first two would present me with an error message and the later show me an empty white space. The odd thing is however that if I open the eps file with texshop it seems to be able to convert the file into a pdf document and display it (also works if I manually rename the file first).

I have tried with a few different version but always got the same results. Below is the last code I have tried:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

% set up externalization
\usetikzlibrary{external}
\tikzset{external/system call={latex \tikzexternalcheckshellescape -halt-on-error
-interaction=batchmode -jobname "\image" "\texsource";
dvips -o "\image".ps "\image".dvi;
ps2eps "\image.ps"}}
\tikzexternalize
 %  activate!
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node {root}
    child {node {left}}
    child {node {right}
      child {node {child}}
      child {node {child}}
    };
\end{tikzpicture}
A simple image is \tikz \fill (0,0) circle(5pt);.
\end{document}

I am not dead set on using this approach to produce eps versions of my tikzpictures so I am happy for any other idea to create the pictures.

One more thing that is likely of little consequence: I have placed all my tikz images in separate files using the standalone package. I hope this will not cause any problems. Or do I need to be concerned?

Could the cause also be an improper installation of pdftoeps? The problem is the link provided seems to be broken.

Possible solution found?

I have just found this question. It does not have an accepted answer but I gave the one by pluton a go never the less. Everything worked just as before but I did not get a eps file. Luckily one of the comments caught my attention (also by pluton) that the result would be a *.ps file but could just be renamed to *.eps. This seams to work for his approach as well as the code I posted above.

Is there a problem with this approach? Is *.ps and *.eps interchangeable?

Best Answer

This approach is not working quite correctly either. For some reason I do get an error message in some pictures. In these cases the \end{tikzpiture} seems to be overlooked. However I do get a readable .eps file.

It appears that the code in the question is nearly right. It will produce both a *.ps as well as a *.eps file. Neither of them will however behave as expected.

The following code will create the desired *.eps files (all changes in \tikzset{...}):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

% set up externalization
\usetikzlibrary{external}
\tikzset{external/system call={latex \tikzexternalcheckshellescape -halt-on-error
-interaction=batchmode -jobname "\image" "\texsource";
dvips -o "\image".eps "\image".dvi}}

\tikzexternalize %  activate!

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node {root}
    child {node {left}}
    child {node {right}
      child {node {child}}
      child {node {child}}
    };
\end{tikzpicture}
A simple image is \tikz \fill (0,0) circle(5pt);.
\end{document}
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