Plotting SVGs in R

Methods

We would like to plot each of the 50 state flags in R. SVG flags of the 50 states were downloaded from Wikimedia. They were converted to PS using python, then to XML using grImport. They were read into R and plotted using both the PNG and PDF graphics devices. SVG, PS, and PDF output was converted to PNG for display on this web page using ImageMagick convert. To redo the analysis, execute the following code in a shell:

svn checkout svn://svn.r-forge.r-project.org/svnroot/directlabels/pkg/directlabels/etc/flags
cd flags
make

Results and discussion

The images were faithfully translated into PS using python. Can this be done in R?
There are some problems with the conversion to XML, as evidenced by the NA entries below, for which the PostScriptTrace function gave an error. Can these be fixed?
For the graphics that were converted to XML, it is clear that the PDF graphics device renders them better than the PNG graphics device. Is this a problem?
The majority of flags are not rendered correctly in R. Can this be fixed?

<% for (name in names(out)) { -%> <%= paste('', sep = '') %> <% } -%> <% for (i in 1:nrow(out)) { -%> <% for (j in 1:ncol(out)) { -%> <% } -%> <% } -%>

', name ,'
<%= as.character(out[i, j]) %>

Code by Toby Dylan Hocking, executed on <%= date() %>.