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Thesis figures and diagrams

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  • 09-02-2012 11:26am
    #1
    fox65
    Registered Users Posts: 144 ✭✭


    Quick question,
    How does everyone make their diagrams for their thesis, mine is a chemistry one,

    I've fiddled with dia, and program's like that. I know people before me used power pooint to make theirs.
    What does everyone on here use


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    #2
    djpbarry
    Registered Users Posts: 13,104 ✭✭✭✭djpbarry


    My PhD was in biotech/bioengineering and I used LaTeX for pretty much everything - I highly recommend it. It even has chemistry packages:

    http://mirror.ox.ac.uk/sites/ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/chemstyle/chemstyle.pdf

    I also used Inkscape on occasion to do illustrations:

    http://inkscape.org


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    #3
    fox65
    Registered Users Posts: 144 ✭✭fox65


    Thanks for that. How is it with regards to symbols. Does it go use its own symbol set or can I use any one from the windows character map
    . Some have a limited symbol set, and it's very frustrating!


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    #4
    djpbarry
    Registered Users Posts: 13,104 ✭✭✭✭djpbarry


    fox65 wrote: »
    Thanks for that. How is it with regards to symbols. Does it go use its own symbol set or can I use any one from the windows character map
    . Some have a limited symbol set, and it's very frustrating!
    LaTeX generally doesn't use Windows fonts. However, I have yet to encounter a symbol that I could not produce using LaTeX.

    Try this:

    http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html

    Draw a symbol and it will tell you if LaTeX can generate it.

    You may also be interested in the LaTeX forum:

    http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1286


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    #5
    fox65
    Registered Users Posts: 144 ✭✭fox65


    Thanks dj, i'm looking into both of them now. What would you recommend for the format for the image? I'm using word to compile my thesis

    I'm using png at the moment.


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    #6
    djpbarry
    Registered Users Posts: 13,104 ✭✭✭✭djpbarry


    fox65 wrote: »
    Thanks dj, i'm looking into both of them now. What would you recommend for the format for the image? I'm using word to compile my thesis
    I think you misunderstand me - LaTeX would be a system used to prepare the entire document (the output is a PDF):

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX

    Whether you want to pursue it really depends on what stage of your thesis you're at, but it's worth investing the time in learning it in my opinion. Word just isn't designed to deal with most technical/academic documents.


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    #7
    fox65
    Registered Users Posts: 144 ✭✭fox65


    I gathered that re LaTex. I was talking re inkscape. Looks very clean.

    On LaTex, i will look into. Thanks


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    #8
    djpbarry
    Registered Users Posts: 13,104 ✭✭✭✭djpbarry


    fox65 wrote: »
    I gathered that re LaTex. I was talking re inkscape.
    Oh sorry. Well, inkscape is used for producing vector graphics (like Adobe Illustrator), so to take full advantage of that, you would export the files as PDF's or something similar. Although you can also export as PNG's.


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    #9
    Ostrom
    Registered Users Posts: 3,483 ✭✭✭Ostrom


    djpbarry wrote: »
    I also used Inkscape on occasion to do illustrations:

    http://inkscape.org

    Any thoughts on relative benefits / ease of use compared to illustrator?


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    #10
    djpbarry
    Registered Users Posts: 13,104 ✭✭✭✭djpbarry


    efla wrote: »
    Any thoughts on relative benefits / ease of use compared to illustrator?
    Well, it's free, so that's a big plus! I think the interface is also much more user-friendly than illustrator. It also has an option to export a drawing as a PDF with all text saved in a seperate tex file, which can then be easily edited and compiled with pdflatex so you end up with nice tex equations/fonts on your nice illustration!

    It is however prone to freezing and/or crashing when working with large files.


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