How do I set the resolution when converting dot files (graphviz) to images?

Question

I tried

$ dot -Tpng rel_graph.gv > rel_graph.png

but the resulting image has a very low quality.

score 104 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 12 '10 at 18:53

104

Use the dpi attribute.

Example:

graph G { 
  graph [ dpi = 300 ]; 
  /* The rest of your graph here. */ 
}

answered Oct 12 '10 at 18:53

MarcP

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The negative side of this approach is that there is absolutely no anti-aliasing produced. With low resolution (like 72 dpi, for example) your output image will look very "dotted" – yegor256 Feb 21 '11 at 12:27
4

@yegor256 maybe they changed over the time, I see anti-aliasing on both 72 dpi and 300 dpi. – Emperor Orionii Apr 18 '13 at 08:34
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@einpoklum yes it does – mgttlinger Jun 05 '14 at 06:31
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The equivalent `-Gdpi=300` on the command line is also useful in some situations. – MvG Jul 07 '15 at 20:58

score 60 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 20 '18 at 00:43

60

dot -Tpng -Gdpi=300 foo.gv > foo110percent.png

Use option -Gdpi.

You can find more information here.

edited Jan 20 '18 at 00:43

DarenW

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answered Feb 20 '17 at 13:24

x2yline

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`dot -Tpng -Gdpi=300 foo.gv -o foo110percent.png` Note: You can change the output format by varying the extension of the filename specified with `-o` see: http://www.graphviz.org/doc/info/output.html – Michael James Kali Galarnyk Sep 29 '18 at 19:34

RobV · Answer 3 · 2015-07-08T09:41:39.517

12

I find GraphViz draws nice Graphs but the resolution tends to be reasonably low, you could try outputting to SVG and then using some other image package to scale the image appropriately and then save to a pixel based format like PNG. This might give you better resolution but I've never tried it personally, I tend to mainly just create SVG files I can then view with a browser.

Just change the -T parameter to -Tsvg

dot -Tsvg rel_graph.gv > rel_graph.svg

There is some stuff in the Dot Guide http://www.graphviz.org/pdf/dotguide.pdf about scaling of Graphs but it's not very clear about how that affects resolution, you could also experiment with those settings and see if that improves things.

edited Jul 08 '15 at 09:41

answered Aug 17 '09 at 09:20

RobV

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Saving the SVG data to a `*.png` file seems like a *bad* idea to me… – MvG Jul 07 '15 at 20:59
@MvG Dumb typo on my part, think I copy pasted this from the OP question and didn't do a full `png` to `svg` change – RobV Jul 08 '15 at 09:42

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 01 '22 at 19:05

I think antialiasing is driver-dependent. For example, we hardcode cairo_font_options_set_antialias(options,CAIRO_ANTIALIAS_GRAY); but I don't see anything about explicit smoothing or antialiasing in other graphics primitives or any mention of antialiasing or smoothing in any other drivers.

How do I set the resolution when converting dot files (graphviz) to images?

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