Losing some transparency when saving to pdf

ROOT
1

Hi, I have this test case where I’m plotting two simple scatter plots with semi-transparent markers.

Here’s the output (sorry for the odd tiled image, forum prevents two uploads for new users…). On top when I view it from GUI, rendered correctly. Bottom the same plot saved as pdf and rendered with evince. See the wrong transparency on the blue plot.

root
root.png600×1133 205 KB

I’m pretty new with ROOT, looks like a bug to me, but I could totally be doing something wrong. Here’s the code, compiling it with

clang++ -Wall `root-config --cflags --libs` -lGL -o testalpha testalpha.C

By the way, is there a way to get automatic canvas ranges to extend to both scatterplots when drawing from TTree::Draw?

#include <TROOT.h>
#include <TRandom3.h>
#include <TStyle.h>
#include <TCanvas.h>
#include <TNtuple.h>
#include <TApplication.h>

void testalpha() {
    TNtuple *ntu=new TNtuple("ntu", "ntu", "a:b:c:d");

    for (int i=0; i < 5000; i++) {
        double a = gRandom->Gaus()-1;
        double b = gRandom->Gaus()-1;
        double c = gRandom->Gaus()+1;
        double d = gRandom->Gaus()+1;

        ntu->Fill(a, b, c, d);
    }

    auto c = new TCanvas("ctest", "", 600, 600);
    ntu->SetMarkerStyle(20);
    ntu->SetMarkerColorAlpha(kBlue, .2);
    ntu->Draw("a:b");
    ntu->SetMarkerStyle(20);
    ntu->SetMarkerColorAlpha(kRed, .2);
    ntu->Draw("c:d", "", "same");

    c->Draw();
    c->SaveAs("testalpha.pdf");
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
    TApplication app("app", &argc, argv);
    gStyle->SetCanvasPreferGL(true);
    testalpha();
    app.Run();

    return 0;
}

ROOT Version: 6.19/01 (heads/master@v6-19-01-562-g07764afae9)
Platform: Ubuntu 18.10
Compiler: clang++ 7.0.0

2

Yes i see this effect too … I need to investigate

3

Thank you, no particular hurry here

4

To keep track here is what I found. The following shorter exemple reproduces the issue:

void testalpha() {
    TNtuple *ntu=new TNtuple("ntu", "ntu", "a:b:c:d");

    for (int i=0; i < 500; i++) {
        double a = gRandom->Gaus()-1;
        double b = gRandom->Gaus()-1;
        double c = gRandom->Gaus()+1;
        double d = gRandom->Gaus()+1;

        ntu->Fill(a, b, c, d);
    }

    auto c = new TCanvas("ctest", "", 600, 600);
//    double x2=5; // not ok
    double x2=4; //  ok

    c->DrawFrame(-5,-4,x2,5);
    ntu->SetMarkerStyle(20);
    ntu->SetMarkerColorAlpha(kBlue, .2111);
    ntu->Draw("c:d","","same");

    c->SaveAs("testalpha.pdf");
}

changing the value of x2 make it work … or not …
Really weird…

5

Can confirm it, definitely weird… thanks for looking into it. It also seems something that happens with the first histogram only, if I keep adding semitransparent scatter plots on top of the first one they all get rendered properly while the first one looks flattened or something.
Not familiar with ROOT development process, would you like me to move the issue to jira?

6

for some reasons it seems the range of the histogram is involved. I am investigating. Yes making a Jira ticket might help to follow it. Thanks

7

I think I found the problem. I need to finalise the proper fix.

8

Great!
Moved the issue here: https://sft.its.cern.ch/jira/browse/ROOT-10247

Please let me know if I can be of any help with the debugging and/or testing process. Thanks again.

9

Thanks. No that’s ok. I know what it is … on the way to fix it

10

Now fixed in master. Thanks for reporting.