Export R plot to Illustrator or Inkscape

Have you ever exported an R plot as a PDF and tried to edit it further by importing the PDF into a vector graphics program like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape? What typically happens is the points on the plot get converted into text of some sort, usually the letter “q”. To avoid this problem simply export your file as a postscript and it works like a charm in either Illustrator or Inkscape.

I find this approach quite useful when I want to annotate plots with greater precision and control than is possible in R.