# [FAQ] Latex and Postscript Figures

## Questions

How do I change the line thickness in Matlab postscript figures

Matlab will generate postscript files that can be easily edited. Search the file for the /`SO /DO` definitions and replace the lines with this:

```/SO { [] 0 setdash } bdef /DO { [2 dpi2point mul 3 dpi2point mul] 0 setdash } bdef /DA { [6 dpi2point mul] 0 setdash } bdef /DD { [.5 dpi2point mul 4 dpi2point mul 6 dpi2point mul 4 dpi2point mul] 0 setdash } bdef ```

This will change the line styles so that they are easier to see when the figure is reduced in size for journal papers.

The axes labels are clipped in my Matlab figure, how do I fix it?

Edit the postscript file and find the string

`%%PageBoundingBox:`

and change the coordinates `llx lly urx ury` , where `ll` is lower left corner and `ur` is upper right corner. To determine the coordinates, use ghostview with the bounding box markers turned on. Also look for the lines something like:

`portraitMode 0432 7344 csm`

0 28 6894 5156 MR c np
85 dict begin %Colortable dictionary
/c0 { 0 0 0 sr} bdef
/c1 { 1 1 1 sr} bdef

and change the 4 numbers before the `MR`. The `c` character was defined earlier as

```% operator abbreviations /c /clip ldef ```

so the figure is clipped at the coordinates before the `MR`. The format for the coordinate is `ulx uly lrx lry`, where `ul` is upper left and `lr` is lower right.

My postscript MS Excel chart doesn’t display properly

To generate postscript output from Excel, you normally print the chart to a file using a postscript printer driver. After you have set the page bounding boxes to enclose the figure, remove all occurrences of “`setpagedevice`“.