How to automate generation of image files?

Question

I need to generate a large number of figures as PNG files, and I'm trying to decide whether Mathematica would be the quickest way to do this.

All the figures have the same basic structure, and I'm confident that it will be easy to generate them in Mathematica, but I don't know how to automate the step that produces the PNG file. (This is an operation that I normally do from the GUI/frontend, but in this case there are too many images for this approach.)

So, to be a bit more specific, suppose that I have a function that, given the path to a file, will read that data in the file, and produce a graphic representation of it, what must I add to that function so that, instead of displaying the image in the frontend, it will save the corresponding PNG to disk?

Answer 1

Let's suppose that these are your imported data (three sets of random numbers):

importedData = Table[RandomReal[{0, 1}, {10, 2}], {3}];

Now we can directly produce and export the PNG files:

Table[
  Export[
    "plot_" <> ToString[i] <> ".png", 
    ListPlot[importedData[[i]]], 
    "PNG"
  ], 
  {i, Length[importedData]}
]

{"plot_1.png", "plot_2.png", "plot_3.png"}

"plot_" <> ToString[i] <> ".png" can be replaced by StringTemplate["plot_``.png"] @i

Answer 2

To export a sequence of plots, you don't need to do the sequential numbering by hand (or by using ToString). Instead, there is the Export option "VideoFrames" that does the numbering automatically:

plots = 
  Table[Plot[Sin[x + a], {x, 0, Pi}, 
    PlotRange -> {{0, Pi}, {-1.1, 1.1}}], {a, 0, Pi, .1}];

Quiet[CreateDirectory["output"]];
SetDirectory["output"];

Export["plot001.png", plots, "VideoFrames"];

FileNames[]

(*
==> {"plot001.png", "plot002.png", "plot003.png", "plot004.png", \
"plot005.png", "plot006.png", "plot007.png", "plot008.png", \
"plot009.png", "plot010.png", "plot011.png", "plot012.png", \
"plot013.png", "plot014.png", "plot015.png", "plot016.png", \
"plot017.png", "plot018.png", "plot019.png", "plot020.png", \
"plot021.png", "plot022.png", "plot023.png", "plot024.png", \
"plot025.png", "plot026.png", "plot027.png", "plot028.png", \
"plot029.png", "plot030.png", "plot031.png", "plot032.png"}
*)

ResetDirectory[];

The number of digits in the numbered output files is determined from the number you specify in the first file name.