Gridlines when exporting .pdf in Word 2016

Hi,

When importing an emf figure in Word 2016 the gridlines look fine but when exporting the document in pdf the transparency is wrong. Has anyone ever experienced this issure with emf files generated with MATLAB?

While in Word:

Exported in pdf through Word

[Sambit Senapati]

Is the image file in PNG format that is used in word? or is it in any other format?

Which version of MATLAB?

[Jan]

@Sambit: The OP wrote "EMF file".

@MichailM: What about using EPS files for the export? This worked perfectly with Word. Although on the screen only the poor TIFF preview is displayed, the export to PDF or paper produces nice vector graphics.

[MichailM]

@Sambit Senapati I export from Matlab R2019b in .emf and import in the latest wWord version (Office365). After that I export the document in .pdf.

@Jan Generally I do not prefer the eps+Word combination. When I import an .eps the image is not displayed at all.

[Jan]

@MichailM: Did you embed a TIFF preview in the created EPS file? Such a preview is a raster image, but at least it is visible in Word. When printing to paper or to a PDF the vector graphics are included.

Answer 1

[Jan]

You can replace the grid my drawing the lines manually with the wanted color. Would this solve the problem?

aAxesH = axes('NextPlot', 'add');
plot(1:10);

GridStyle.Color     = [0.5, 0.5, 0.5];
GridStyle.LineStyle = '-';
GridStyle.HitTest   = 'off';

Child   = get(aAxes, 'Children');
 
XTick   = get(aAxes, 'XTick');
YTick   = get(aAxes, 'YTick');
XLimit  = get(aAxes, 'XLim');
YLimit  = get(aAxes, 'YLim');
newGrid = cat(1, ...
    line([XTick; XTick], YLimit, 'Parent', aAxes, GridStyle), ...
    line(XLimit, [YTick; YTick], 'Parent', aAxes, GridStyle));
 
set(aAxes, 'Children', [Child; newGrid]);  % See: uistack % [EDITED: vChild -> 'Children']

[MichailM]

I tried that version of your solution

aAxes = axes('NextPlot', 'add');
plot(1:10);
GridStyle.Color     = [0.5, 0.5, 0.5];
GridStyle.LineStyle = '-';
GridStyle.HitTest   = 'off';
Child   = get(aAxes, 'Children');
 
XTick   = get(aAxes, 'XTick');
YTick   = get(aAxes, 'YTick');
XLimit  = get(aAxes, 'XLim');
YLimit  = get(aAxes, 'YLim');
newGrid = cat(1, ...
    line([XTick; XTick], YLimit, 'Parent', aAxes, GridStyle), ...
    line(XLimit, [YTick; YTick], 'Parent', aAxes, GridStyle));
 
set(aAxes, Child, [Child; newGrid]);  % See: uistack

and got the error below for the very last line

Error using matlab.graphics.axis.Axes/set
Invalid parameter/value pair arguments.

By removing it it was fine. A minor issue with that solution is that the figure box boundaries have the same color as the gridlines.

In your solution apart from drawing manually the gridliness you also adjust their color. In my turn I tried to adjust the color and opacity right after the "grid on" and seems to solve the problem. Here is an example:

f = 50;
T = 1/f;
w = 2*pi*f;
t = linspace(0,2*T,1000);
y = sin(w*t);

plot(t,y,'linewidth',2)
grid on
ax = gca;
ax.GridLineStyle = '-';
ax.GridColor = [0.9 0.9 0.9]; % RGB
ax.GridAlpha = 1; % Always at 1 so it keeps the exact grayscale set in the previous line
ax.XColor = 'k';
ax.YColor = 'k';

[Jan]

@MichailM: My suggested code contained a typo:

% Was:
set(aAxes, vChild, [Child; newGrid]);  % See: uistack
% Should be:
set(aAxes, 'Children', [Child; newGrid]);  % See: uistack