ODS Graphics and SAS/GRAPH

GTL has a layout-centric architecture. Each graph comprises components such as plots, insets, and legends that can be combined in flexible ways inside layout containers that can build complex graphs.

Several layout types are available, some that produce a graph in a single cell and others that produce a graph as a panel of cells. In most cases, the components used in the single-cell graphs can also be used in the multi-cell graphs.

Axes, backgrounds, titles, legends, and the other components in a graph are managed by the containers and do not belong to an individual plot.

Global options are specified in the ODS GRAPHICS statement or in the ODS DESTINATION statement. GTL does not use the traditional SAS/GRAPH global statements, such as SYMBOL, PATTERN, AXIS, LEGEND, and GOPTIONS. Also, SAS TITLE and FOOTNOTE statements do not appear in the graph. GTL has its own statements for titles and footnotes. (However, the specialized SGPLOT, SGPANEL, and SGLATTICE procedures are specified with SAS/GRAPH syntax and do accommodate the TITLE and FOOTNOTE statements. They generate GTL behind the scene.)

A plot statement is available for generating each plot type so that you do not have to specify the plot type by setting an interpolation option on a SYMBOL statement.

All graphical attributes for markers, lines, color, and so on, are derived by default from the active ODS Style. For more information on ODS styles, see Managing Graph Appearance: General Principles.

GTL supports the use of transparency and anti-aliasing for creating modern graphs.

The rendering technology for GTL is not based on device drivers. The graphics area is not partitioned in cell-based units. Graphical content gracefully scales up and down as the size of the output is changed.

Markers, lines, and fonts are scaled using DPI.

GTL produces all output in industry standard output formats, such as PNG, GIF, JPEG, and so on. GTL does not create GRSEG entries in a catalog.

The Annotate facility is not supported by the GTL (although you can annotate ODS Graphics output using the ODS Graphics Editor).