# Issue with saving plot as pdf

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/issue-with-saving-plot-as-pdf/104147>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Tags:** question, plots\
**Created:** [September 22, 2023, 11:25am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/issue-with-saving-plot-as-pdf/104147 "2023-09-22T11:25:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sahil\_Khan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/sahil_khan/32/47573_2.png) [@Sahil\_Khan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Sahil_Khan)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 11:25am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/issue-with-saving-plot-as-pdf/104147/1 "2023-09-22T11:25:59Z")

</div>

yerror bar in plot generated on vs code shows different level of thickness for yerror bar in comparision to saved pdf file.

In vs code :

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/5/6/5643cdc091d4123d67c04a388e08678dbb1de0cb.png)

In pdf format: (you can notice thickness has increased)

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/c/5/c52fe87d31d75c36f2db06cfdfdcdae016234dbe.png)

In png format (it looks fine in this format)

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/5/4/547b7dbc69c8c142058bc2bc7687c8817b921d0b.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hendri54](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/hendri54/32/9621_2.png) [@hendri54](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/hendri54)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 11:54am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/issue-with-saving-plot-as-pdf/104147/2 "2023-09-22T11:54:36Z")

</div>

Please provide a MWE and information on the platform you are running on.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sahil\_Khan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/sahil_khan/32/47573_2.png) [@Sahil\_Khan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Sahil_Khan)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 1:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/issue-with-saving-plot-as-pdf/104147/4 "2023-09-22T13:39:00Z")

</div>

using VS code and Julia version 1.9.3

```julia
#MWE

using StatsPlots, CSV, Distributions, Measures, DataFrames

fake_norm_data = DataFrame(V = repeat(["A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F", "G","H", "I"], inner = 51, outer = 1), 
X = repeat(["a", "b", "c", "d", "d", "f", "i", "j", "k", "l", "m", "n", "o", "p", "q", "r", "s"], inner = 1, outer = 27),
Z = repeat(["2M", "3M", "5M"] , outer = 9, inner = 17), 
Y = rand(0:0.1:2, 459),
W = rand(0:0.01:0.1, 459))

p1 = groupedbar(fake_norm_data.X[1:51], fake_norm_data.Y[1:51], group = fake_norm_data.Z[1:51], yerror = fake_norm_data.W[1:51], msw = 0.6, alpha = 0.9, xrotation = 45, title = "Target - A", bottom_margin = 7mm, left_margin=5mm, legend = :outertopright)

p2 = groupedbar(fake_norm_data.X[52:102], fake_norm_data.Y[52:102], group = fake_norm_data.Z[52:102], yerror = fake_norm_data.W[52:102], msw = 0.6, alpha = 0.9, xrotation = 45, title = "Target - B", bottom_margin = 7mm, left_margin=5mm, legend = :outertopright)

p3 = groupedbar(fake_norm_data.X[103:153], fake_norm_data.Y[103:153], group = fake_norm_data.Z[103:153], yerror = fake_norm_data.W[103:153], msw = 0.6, alpha = 0.9, xrotation = 45, title = "Target - C", bottom_margin = 7mm, left_margin=5mm, legend = :outertopright)

p4 = groupedbar(fake_norm_data.X[154:204], fake_norm_data.Y[154:204], group = fake_norm_data.Z[154:204], yerror = fake_norm_data.W[154:204], msw = 0.6, alpha = 0.9, xrotation = 45, title = "Target - D", bottom_margin = 7mm, left_margin=5mm, legend = :outertopright)

p5 = groupedbar(fake_norm_data.X[205:255], fake_norm_data.Y[205:255], group = fake_norm_data.Z[205:255], yerror = fake_norm_data.W[205:255], msw = 0.6, alpha = 0.9, xrotation = 45, title = "Target - E", bottom_margin = 7mm, left_margin=5mm, legend = :outertopright)

p6 = groupedbar(fake_norm_data.X[256:306], fake_norm_data.Y[256:306], group = fake_norm_data.Z[256:306], yerror = fake_norm_data.W[256:306], msw = 0.6, alpha = 0.9, xrotation = 45, title = "Target - F", bottom_margin = 7mm, left_margin=5mm, legend = :outertopright)

p7 = groupedbar(fake_norm_data.X[307:357], fake_norm_data.Y[307:357], group = fake_norm_data.Z[307:357], yerror = fake_norm_data.W[307:357], msw = 0.6, alpha = 0.9, xrotation = 45, title = "Target - G", bottom_margin = 7mm, left_margin=5mm, legend = :outertopright)

p8 = groupedbar(fake_norm_data.X[358:408], fake_norm_data.Y[358:408], group = fake_norm_data.Z[358:408], yerror = fake_norm_data.W[358:408], msw = 0.6, alpha = 0.9, xrotation = 45, title = "Target - H", bottom_margin = 7mm, left_margin=5mm, legend = :outertopright)

p9 = groupedbar(fake_norm_data.X[409:459], fake_norm_data.Y[409:459], group = fake_norm_data.Z[409:459], yerror = fake_norm_data.W[409:459], msw = 0.6, alpha = 0.9, xrotation = 45, title = "Target - I", bottom_margin = 7mm, left_margin=5mm, legend = :outertopright)

plot( p1, p2, p3, p4, p5, p6, p7, p8, p9, layout = (3,3), size = (1600, 1200), left_margin=10mm, dpi = 300)

savefig("/path/dummy1_plot.png")
savefig("/path/dummy2_plot.pdf")

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![blob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ebca7d/32.png) [@blob](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/blob)\
**Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 2:47pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/issue-with-saving-plot-as-pdf/104147/5 "2023-09-22T14:47:41Z")

</div>

The default backend gr() [doesn’t support the dpi attribute](https://docs.juliaplots.org/latest/gallery/gr/generated/gr/#gr_attributes), so I am guessing it just ignores it and we get a weird looking plot.

Using pythonplot() as backend worked and I got:

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/5/0/50ac77d0c26c965495c1801baefeed9ca4163f79.png)

NB, using inspectdr(), which also supports dpi, gets the error bars correctly, but messes up the grid and sizes:

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/9/5/959a2be49354782f0a2ff60cab08496c607d1da2.png)

For the record,

```julia
savefig("/path/dummy2_plot.svg")

```

and then manually to pdf worked fine as well (but I specified the dpi manually), so I am assuming the problem is in passing the pdf settings.