> * metafont: This one I don't even imagine how to use it.
I guess you mean
print -meta fig1.emf
Any vector graphics software on windows can deal with it.
As for emf, I can convince my students to use LaTeX for reports, but for presentations I have harder time to make them drop Power Point. So yes support for emf is important.
Another remark: most often I still use the the gnuplot graphics_toolkit
as other graphics toolkits (fltk, qt) still show problems (e.g. 3d plot
like mesh, when exporting).
Yes printing 3D figures to vector formats with gl2ps is often not as good as with gnuplot. On the other hand files are so huge that I prefer to use raster formats for 3D plot (and in practice I seldom need 3D plots).
If you have suggestions for other toolchains, I'm happy to test, but for
the moment "-meta" is an essential feature of octave.
If I want to rework a plot by hand, I use Inkscape which is one of my favorite software. I am no graphics expert so it does all I need and much more.
Pantxo