Output

When using the GTL, you focus primarily on defining template definitions that produce specific graphs and generate a particular output layout. Ultimately, you must also tailor the graphical environment to get the exact output that you desire. The ODS GRAPHICS statement is available for tailoring the graphical environment, and ODS styles enable you to manage the output appearance.

ODS GRAPHICS Statement

The ODS GRAPHICS statement is used to modify the environment in which graphics templates are executed. The ODS GRAPHICS statement is used to control

whether ODS graphics is enabled
the type and name of the image created
the size of the image
whether features such as scaling and anti-aliasing are used.

The following ODS GRAPHICS statement uses the HEIGHT= and WIDTH= options to set an aspect ratio for the output image.

ods graphics on / height=175px width=200px;
 proc sgrender data=sashelp.class
               template=scatter;
 run;
ods graphics off;

For more information about using the ODS GRAPHICS statement in GTL, see SAS Graph Template Language: User's Guide. For a more complete discussion of the ODS GRAPHICS statement, see SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide.

ODS Styles

When any graphics template is executed, there is always an ODS style in effect that governs the appearance of the output. The following ODS statement sends graphics output to the RTF output destination using the LISTING style:

ods rtf style=listing;

ods graphics on / height=175px width=200px border=off;
 proc sgrender data=sashelp.class
               template=scatter;
   run;
ods graphics off;

ods rtf close;

Support for ODS styles is highly integrated into GTL syntax. By default, the graphical appearance features of most plot and text statements are mapped to corresponding style elements and associated attributes. Because of this, your output tables and graphs always have a reasonable overall appearance. Moreover, output for a given ODS destination has a consistent look (for example, table colors and graph colors don’t clash).

The following figures show how a graph’s appearance can be changed by using references to style elements to set the graph’s appearance options. This technique permits changes in graph appearance by style modification instead of graphical template modification. The graphs in the figures are generated with the following GTL statement:

contourplotparm x=x y=y z=density / 
  contourtype=fill nhint=9
  colormodel=ThreeColorRamp ;

The following style template shows the definition for the ThreeColorRamp style element:

style ThreeColorRamp /  
  endcolor     = GraphColors("gramp3cend")                          
  neutralcolor = GraphColors("gramp3cneutral")              
  startcolor   = GraphColors("gramp3cstart");

For more information about the use of ODS styles in GTL, see SAS Graph Template Language: User's Guide. For a more complete discussion of ODS styles, see SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide. The SAS/STAT user’s guide also has a detailed discussion for using styles with ODS Graphics.