Graphs created by SAS/GRAPH have gained the reputation of looking ugly.
However, in many cases, this is due to the fonts used. SAS has a lot of
its own fonts but these are mostly software fonts and do not look good.
You might have used the fonts "simplex" and "duplex" and been disappointed
in the results. However, if you are working on a PC, then there are a lot
of other fonts you can use and these can look a lot better and give more
readable text.
Your source of fonts
If you click on "Start" and then "Control Panel" you will either see just
a few categoories or you will see a lot of icons. If you are only seeing
a few categories then switch to "Classic View" to see the full list of
icons and then double click on "Fonts". You might then want to choose the
"Details" view in the "View" pull-down menu. SAS can use a lot of the TrueType
fonts you will see listed there. Here you will see some of the fonts that
are commony used such as "Arial" and "Times New Roman".
proc gtestit
You can use "proc gtestit" to test out different goptions to see how they
affect the look of graphics display. Here is a bit of code you can play
around with. Look in the log for the message about where it wrote the html
page to. Also, if SAS had a problem with the font as it will use "simplex"
in these cases. Note that these TrueType fonts must be specified in single
quotes, unlike the sas fonts which do not need quotes. When using a
modified font such as "bold" then use a slash before the modifier
in this way - 'Arial / Bold'.
For this particular setting, it created the following html page.
Conclusion
Getting your SAS/GRAPH output to look right requires choosing your goptions
carefully and using the best fonts available. Some experimentation is needed.