Vector graphics are different to bitmap graphics, and tend to be smaller, and scale to both small and large sizes without becoming “jaggy”. This makes things very difficult, and while I prefer to use Apple’s Keynote program, presenting at scientific meetings tends to require Powerpoint. PDF is a great format, fully supported on the Mac, but Microsoft Word and Microsoft Powerpoint do not support PDF properly. My semi-automated system for generating these using complex R scripts to fetch the latest data from PostgreSQL, perform analysis, and then generates PDF and Postscript files for inclusion into LaTeX documents. I generate all my research graphics, charts, tables etc. Freely available PDF software includes xpdf and ghostscript, and source code is fully available under a GNU GPL open source license. Searching for PDF software using Google is fraught with difficulty - one ends up with endless links to commercial sites, who charge lots of money, mislead users into paying for software that is similar to, or even uses free software. I explain how to do this using totally free software. It is often necessary to batch convert PDF documents and graphics into other formats.
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