How to save figures to pdf as raster images in matplotlib

matplotlib, pdf, python, raster

Solution

You can force individual figure elements to be rasterized like this:

text(1,1,'foobar',rasterized=True)

Problem

I have some complex graphs made using matplotlib. Saving them to a pdf using the savefig command uses a vector format, and the pdf takes ages to open. Is there any way to save the figure to pdf as a raster image to get around this problem?

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