How can I make ANY vector graphics with graphics2D and save on clipboard?

Question

I am at my wits end here, and need some help. Simply put, I have a program that creates a basic x-y graph, drawn in a jpanel. I want to create the graph as a vector (emf, eps, svg, I don't care anymore, any of them would be good). But, all I get is a jpg or bitmap.
I tried using the infamous FreeHEP programs, but it won't recognize the output as anything but "image" which means bitmap/jpg.
     The user enters x/y data, clicks a button, which crreates a jpanel thusly:
public class GraphMaker extends JPanel {
static BufferedImage image = new BufferedImage(600, 500, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
GraphMaker(double[] xVals, double[] yVals, double[] sems){
setPreferredSize(new Dimension (600,500));     
symSize = 10;
XminV = 0;
XmaxV = 0;
// code here just converts input x and y's to pixel coordinates, spacing of ticks, etc...
for (int i =0;i < ArLn; i++){
gX[i] = xO + (gX[i] * xRat);
gX[i] -= xStart;
gY[i] = gY[i] * yRat;
gY[i] = yEnd - gY;
semVal[i] = semVal[i]*yRat;
     Ymin = yEnd - (Ymin*yRat);
     Ymax = yEnd - (Ymax*yRat);
BufferedImage anImage = new BufferedImage(600, 500, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
Graphics2D g2 = anImage.createGraphics();
g2.setBackground(white);
g2.setColor( Color.WHITE );
g2.fillRect(0,0,600,500);
g2.setStroke(stroke);
// here I use the values to draw lines and circles - nothing spectacular:
          g2.setPaint(Color.blue);
          int ii = 0;
          for ( int j = 0; j < ArLn[ii]; j++ ) {
g2.fill(new Ellipse2D.Float(LgX[ii][j] - symOffst, gY[ii][j]-symOffst, symSize,symSize));
g2.draw(new Line2D.Float(LgX[ii][j],(gY[ii][j]-semVal[ii][j]),LgX[ii][j],(gY[ii][j]+semVal[ii][j])));
g2.draw(new Line2D.Float(LgX[ii][j]-2.0f,(gY[ii][j]-semVal[ii][j]),LgX[ii][j]+2.0f,(gY[ii][j]-semVal[ii][j])));
g2.draw(new Line2D.Float(LgX[ii][j]-2.0f,(gY[ii][j]+semVal[ii][j]),LgX[ii][j]+2.0f,(gY[ii][j]+semVal[ii][j])));
                    g2.draw(new Line2D.Float(xLoVal[ii],yLoVal[ii],xHiVal[ii],yHiVal[ii]));
image = anImage;
And, when the user clicks on the "copy" button, invokes this:
public class Freep implements Transferable, ClipboardOwner {
     public static final DataFlavor POSTSCRIPT_FLAVOR = new DataFlavor("application/postscript", "Postscript");
     private static DataFlavor[] supportedFlavors = {
          DataFlavor.imageFlavor,
          POSTSCRIPT_FLAVOR,
          DataFlavor.stringFlavor
     private static JPanel chart;
     private int width;
     private int height;
     public Freep(JPanel theGraph, int width, int height) {
          this.theGraph = Graphs;
          this.width = width;
          this.height = height;
//******This is the key method right here: It is ALWAYS imageFlavor, never anything else. How do I make this an EPS flavor?
     public Object getTransferData(DataFlavor flavor) throws UnsupportedFlavorException, IOException {
if (flavor.equals(DataFlavor.imageFlavor)) {
return GraphMaker.image;
else if (flavor.equals(POSTSCRIPT_FLAVOR)) {
               return new ByteArrayInputStream(epsOutputStream().toByteArray());
else if (flavor.equals(DataFlavor.stringFlavor)) {
               return epsOutputStream().toString();
          } else{
               throw new UnsupportedFlavorException(flavor);
     private ByteArrayOutputStream epsOutputStream() throws IOException {
EPSDocumentGraphics2D g2d = new EPSDocumentGraphics2D(false);
g2d.setGraphicContext(new org.apache.xmlgraphics.java2d.GraphicContext());
ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
     public DataFlavor[] getTransferDataFlavors() {
          return supportedFlavors;
     public boolean isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor flavor) {
          for(DataFlavor f : supportedFlavors) {
               if (f.equals(flavor))
                    return true;
          return false;
     public void lostOwnership(Clipboard arg, Transferable arg1) {
The same happens with FreeHEP - I want the flavor to be EMF, but the program sees an image so it is always imageFlavor. I know I am missing something, but what, I don't know.
thanks for your help.

Answer 1

I don't think there's a built-in solution. One workaround I've seen is to create a dummy graphics class that overrides the desired drawing functions. Instead of actually drawing pixels, the object writes postscript commands to a buffer. There also seems to be commercial code that does exactly this.