Attempting to export tikz to eps

Question

So, after having read the below thread:

Attempt to export EPS figures from TikZ fails

I am able to generate .dvi versions of my figures. However, I need .eps, and it seems that the question above only covers getting the externalize library to work. It does so now, with no errormessages. But there is no eps-output.

Reading the manual, it seems I have to add "pdftops -eps {pdf file} {eps file}" to the "system call option". Below is seen my attempt at doing so:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

% set up externalization
\usetikzlibrary{external}
\tikzset{external/system call={latex \tikzexternalcheckshellescape -halt-on-error
-interaction=batchmode -jobname "\image" "\texsource" && 
dvips -o "\image".ps "\image".dvi pdftops -eps "\image".pdf "\image".eps}}
\tikzexternalize[shell escape=-enable-write18] % MikTeX uses a -enable-write18 instead of --shell-escape.

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[fill=blue] (0,0) circle (1cm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

as you can see, having no idea what to put in place of {some file}, I just copied the form of what was already there. The above does not generate any errors, nor any .eps-files.

I am outputting to .ps format.

I hope someone can explain to me how to add the proper option =)

Answer 1

You were missing an && before the pdftoeps, your quotation marks were in the wrong place (you had "\image".ps instead of "image.ps"), and pdftoeps is the wrong command to use to convert a postscript file to an encapsulated postscript file. On my system, I have a command called ps2epsi which works. I also tried it with ps2eps which also works (don't know the difference!). Admittedly, I'm testing this on Linux so can't be absolutely sure that this will work for you with MikTeX, but give this a go and see if it works:

\documentclass{article}
%\url{http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/25524/86}
\usepackage{tikz}

% set up externalization
\usetikzlibrary{external}
\tikzset{external/system call={latex \tikzexternalcheckshellescape -halt-on-error
-interaction=batchmode -jobname "\image" "\texsource" && 
dvips "\image.dvi" && ps2epsi "\image.ps"}}
\tikzexternalize[shell escape=-enable-write18] % MikTeX uses a -enable-write18 instead of --shell-escape.

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[fill=blue] (0,0) circle (1cm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

(NB: Anyone testing this on Linux should comment out the optional argument to \tikzexternalize.)

Answer 2

Step 1

Create a batch file as follows:

rem batch.bat takes an input file name WITHOUT extension.

del %1.pdf
del %1.eps

pdflatex %1
pdftops -level3 -eps %1.pdf

del %1.aux
del %1.log

For simplicity, save it in the same directory in which your input file exists.

Step 2

Create a test input file as follows.

% test.tex
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}
\PreviewBorder=0pt
\PreviewEnvironment{tikzpicture}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[fill=blue] (0,0) circle (1cm);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

For simplicity, save it in the same directory in which batch.bat exists.

Step 3

Open MS-DOS prompt by pressing Win+R, typing cmd and hitting ENTER. The MS-DOS prompt brings up and navigate to your input file directory. Afterwards, type

and hit ENTER. Done, you will get both PDF and EPS outputs.