graph Application
plot Program
pic2plot Program
tek2plot Program
plotfont Utility
spline Program
ode Program
ode
ode
ode command-line options
ode input language formally specified
ode and solving differential equations
libplot, a 2-D Vector Graphics Library
The GNU plotting utilities consist of eight command-line programs: the
graphics programs graph, plot, pic2plot,
tek2plot, and plotfont, and the mathematical programs
spline, ode, and double. Distributed with these
programs is GNU libplot, the library on which the graphics
programs are based. GNU libplot is a function library for
device-independent two-dimensional vector graphics, including vector
graphics animations under the X Window System. There are bindings
for both C and C++.
The graphics programs and GNU libplot can export vector graphics
in the following formats.
xv and the free
ImageMagick package.
xv and the ImageMagick package.
idraw-editable Postscript format. Files in this format
may be sent to a Postscript printer, imported into another document, or
edited with the free idraw drawing editor. See section 9.6 How to get idraw.
xfig drawing editor. See section 9.7 How to get xfig.
xterm terminal
emulator program and the MS-DOS version of kermit.
plot program can translate it to any of the preceding formats.
Of the command-line graphics programs, the best known is graph,
which is an application for plotting two-dimensional scientific data.
It reads one or more data files containing datasets, and outputs a plot.
The above output formats are supported. The corresponding commands are
graph -T X, graph -T pnm, graph -T gif,
graph -T ai, graph -T ps, graph -T cgm, graph
-T fig, graph -T pcl, graph -T hpgl, graph -T tek,
and graph. graph without a `-T' option (referred to
as `raw graph') produces output in GNU metafile format.
graph can read datasets in both ASCII and binary format, and
datasets in the `table' format produced by the plotting program
gnuplot. It produces a plot with or without axes and labels.
You may specify labels and ranges for the axes, and the size and
position of the plot on the display. The labels may contain subscripts
and subscripts, Greek letters, and other special symbols; there is also
support for Cyrillic script (i.e., Russian) and Japanese. You may
specify the type of marker symbol used for each dataset, and such
parameters as the style and thickness of the line (if any) used to
connect points in a dataset. The plotting of filled regions is
supported, as is the drawing of error bars. graph provides full
support for multiplotting. With a single invocation of graph,
you may produce a multiplot consisting of many plots, either side by
side or inset. Each plot will have its own axes and data.
graph -T X, graph -T tek, and raw graph have a
feature that most plotting programs do not have. They can accept input
from a pipe, and plot data points to the output in real time. For this
to occur, the user must specify ranges for both axes, so that
graph does not need to wait until the end of the input before
determining them.
The plot program is a so-called plot filter. It can translate
GNU graphics metafiles (produced for example by raw graph)
into any supported output format. The corresponding commands are
plot -T X, plot -T pnm, plot -T gif, plot
-T ai, plot -T ps, plot -T cgm, plot -T fig,
plot -T pcl, plot -T hpgl, plot -T tek, and
plot. The plot program is useful if you wish to produce
output in several different formats while invoking graph only
once. It is also useful if you wish to translate files in the
traditional `plot(5)' format produced by, e.g., the non-GNU versions of
graph provided with some operating systems. GNU metafile format
is compatible with plot(5) format.
The pic2plot program can translate from the pic language to any
supported output format. The pic language, which was invented at Bell
Laboratories, is used for creating box-and-arrow diagrams of the kind
frequently found in technical papers and textbooks. The corresponding
commands are pic2plot -T X, pic2plot -T pnm,
pic2plot -T gif, pic2plot -T ai, pic2plot -T ps,
pic2plot -T cgm, pic2plot -T fig, pic2plot -T pcl,
pic2plot -T hpgl, pic2plot -T tek, and pic2plot.
The tek2plot program can translate from Tektronix format to any
supported output format. The corresponding commands are tek2plot
-T X, tek2plot -T pnm, tek2plot -T gif,
tek2plot -T ai, tek2plot -T ps, tek2plot -T cgm,
tek2plot -T fig, tek2plot -T pcl, tek2plot -T hpgl,
and tek2plot. tek2plot is useful if you have an older
application that produces drawings in Tektronix format.
The plotfont program is a simple utility that displays a
character map for any font that is available to graph,
plot, pic2plot, or tek2plot. The 35 standard
Postscript fonts are available if the `-T X', `-T ai',
`-T ps', `-T cgm', or `-T fig' options are used. The 45
standard PCL 5 fonts (i.e., "LaserJet" fonts) are available if the
`-T ai', `-T pcl' or `-T hpgl' options are used. In the
latter two cases (`-T pcl' and `-T hpgl'), a number of
Hewlett--Packard vector fonts are available as well. A set of
22 Hershey vector fonts, including Cyrillic fonts and a Japanese font,
is always available. When producing output for an X Window System
display, any of the graphics programs can use scalable X fonts.
Of the command-line mathematical programs, spline does spline
interpolation of scalar or vector-valued data. It normally uses either
cubic spline interpolation or exponential splines in tension, but like
graph it can function as a real-time filter under some
circumstances. Besides splining datasets, it can construct curves,
either open or closed, through arbitrarily chosen points in
d-dimensional space. ode provides the ability to
integrate an ordinary differential equation or a system of ordinary
differential equations, when provided with an explicit expression for
each equation. It supplements the plotting program gnuplot,
which can plot functions but not integrate ordinary differential
equations. The final command-line mathematical program, double,
is a filter for converting, scaling and cutting binary or ASCII data
streams. It is still under development and is not yet documented.
The GNU libplot function library, on which the command-line
graphics programs are based, is discussed at length elsewhere in
this documentation. It gives C and C++ programs the ability to
draw such objects as lines, open and closed polylines, arcs (both
circular and elliptic), quadratic and cubic Bezier curves, circles and
ellipses, points (i.e., pixels), marker symbols, and text strings. The
filling of objects other than points, marker symbols, and text strings
is supported (fill color, as well as pen color, can be set
arbitrarily). Text strings can be drawn in any of a large number of
fonts. The 35 standard Postscript fonts are supported by the X
Window System, Illustrator, Postscript, CGM, and xfig drivers,
and the 45 standard PCL 5 fonts are supported by the Illustrator,
PCL 5 and HP-GL/2 drivers. The latter two also support a number of
Hewlett--Packard vector fonts. All drivers, including the PNM, GIF,
Tektronix and metafile drivers, support a set of 22 Hershey vector
fonts.
The support for drawing text strings is extensive. Text strings may
include subscripts and superscripts, and may include characters chosen
from more than one font in a typeface. Many non-alphanumeric characters
may be included. The entire collection of over 1700 `Hershey glyphs'
digitized by Allen V. Hershey at the U.S. Naval Surface Weapons
Center, which includes many curious symbols, is built into GNU
libplot. Text strings in the so-called EUC-JP encoding (the
Extended Unix Code for Japanese) can be also be drawn. Such strings may
include both syllabic Japanese characters (Hiragana and Katakana) and
ideographic Japanese characters (Kanji). GNU libplot contains a
library of 603 Kanji, including 596 of the 2965 frequently used
Level 1 Kanji.
graph Application
Each invocation of graph reads one or more datasets from files
named on the command line or from standard input, and prepares a plot.
There are many command-line options for adjusting the visual appearance
of the plot.
See section 2.6 graph command-line options, for documentation on all options.
The following sections explain how to use the most frequently used
options, by giving examples.
graph
By default, graph reads ASCII data from the files specified on
the command line, or from standard input if no files are specified. The
data are pairs of numbers, interpreted as the x and y
coordinates of data points. An example would be:
0.0 0.0 1.0 0.2 2.0 0.0 3.0 0.4 4.0 0.2 5.0 0.6
Data points do not need to be on different lines, nor do the x and y coordinates of a data point need to be on the same line. However, there should be no blank lines in the input if it is to be viewed as forming a single dataset.
To plot such a dataset with graph, you could do
graph -T ps datafile > plot.ps
or equivalently
graph -T ps < datafile > plot.ps
Either of these would produce an encapsulated Postscript file
`plot.ps', which could be included in another document, displayed
on a screen, sent to a printer, or edited with the free idraw
drawing editor. The `--page-size' option, or equivalently the
PAGESIZE environment variable, specifies the size of the page on
which the plot will be positioned. The default is "letter", i.e.,
8.5in by 11in, but "a4" or other ISO or ANSI page sizes
could equally well be specified. See section C Page Sizes and Viewport Sizes.
Similarly, you would do
graph -T cgm < datafile > plot.cgm
to produce a WebCGM file that could be displayed in a Web browser with a WebCGM plug-in, or
graph -T fig < datafile > plot.fig
to produce a file `plot.fig' in Fig format that could be edited
with the free xfig drawing editor, or
graph -T ai < datafile > plot.ai
to produce a file `plot.ai' that could be edited with Adobe Illustrator. If you do
graph -T hpgl < datafile > plot.plt
you will produce a file `plot.plt' in the Hewlett--Packard Graphics
Language (HP-GL/2) that may be sent to a Hewlett--Packard plotter.
Similarly, you would use graph -T pcl to produce a file in PCL
5 format that may be printed on a LaserJet or other laser printer.
You would use graph -T X to pop up a window on an X
Window System display, and display the plot in it. For that, you
would do
graph -T X < datafile
If you use graph -T X, no output file will be produced: only
a window. The window will vanish if you type `q' or click your
mouse in it.
You may also use graph -T pnm to produce a PNM file (a "portable
anymap"), and graph -T gif to produce a pseudo-GIF file. If the
free image display application xv is available on your system,
you could use either of the two commands
graph -T pnm < datafile | xv - graph -T gif < datafile | xv -
to view the output file.
Another thing you can do is use graph -T tek to display a plot on
a device that can emulate a Tektronix 4014 graphics terminal.
xterm, the X Window System terminal emulator, can do this.
Within an xterm window, you would type
graph -T tek < datafile
xterm normally emulates a VT100 terminal, but when this command
is issued from within it, it will pop up a second window
(a `Tektronix window') and draw the plot in it. The Japanese
terminal emulator kterm should be able to do the same, provided
that it is correctly installed. Another piece of software that can
emulate a Tektronix 4014 terminal is the MS-DOS version of kermit.
graph may behave differently depending on the environment in
which it is invoked. We have already mentioned the PAGESIZE
environment variable, which affects the operation of graph -T ai,
graph -T ps, graph -T cgm, graph -T fig,
graph -T pcl, and graph -T hpgl. Similarly, the
BITMAPSIZE environment variable affects the operation of
graph -T X, graph -T pnm, and graph -T gif.
The DISPLAY environment variable affects the operation of
graph -T X, and the TERM environment variable affects
the operation of graph -T tek. There are also several
environment variables that affect the operation of graph -T pcl
and graph -T hpgl. For a complete discussion of the effects of
the environment on graph, see section 2.7 Environment variables. The
following remarks apply irrespective of which output format is
specified.
By default, successive points in the dataset are joined by solid line segments, which form a polygonal line or polyline that we call simply a `line'. You may choose the style of line (the `linemode') with the `-m' option:
graph -T ps -m 2 < datafile > plot.ps
Here `-m 2' indicates that linemode #2 should be used. If the dataset is rendered in monochrome, which is the default, the line can be drawn in one of five distinct styles. Linemodes #1 through #5 signify solid, dotted, dotdashed, shortdashed, and longdashed; thereafter the sequence repeats. If the `-C' option is used, the dataset will be rendered in color. For colored datasets, the line can be drawn in one of 25 distinct styles. Linemodes #1 through #5 signify red, green, blue, magenta, and cyan; all are solid. Linemodes #6 through #10 signify the same five colors, but dotted rather than solid. Linemodes #11 through #16 signify the same five colors, but dotdashed, and so forth. After linemode #25, the sequence repeats. Linemode #0, irrespective of whether the rendering is in monochrome or color, means that the line is not drawn.
You may wish to fill the polygon bounded by the line (i.e., shade it, or fill it with a solid color). For this, you would use the `-q' option. For example,
echo .1 .1 .1 .9 .9 .9 .9 .1 .1 .1 |
graph -T ps -C -m 1 -q 0.3 > plot.ps
will plot a square region with vertices (0.1,0.1), (0.1,0.9), (0.9,0.9), and (0.9,0.1). The repetition of the first vertex (0.1,0.1) at the end of the sequence of vertices ensures that the square will be closed: all four segments of its boundary will be drawn. The square will be drawn in red, since the colored version of linemode #1 is requested. The interior of the square will be filled with red to an intensity of 30%, as the `-q 0.3' option specifies. If the intensity were 1.0, the region would be filled with solid color, and if it were 0.0, the region would be filled with white. If the intensity were negative, the region would be unfilled, or transparent (the default).
You may specify the thickness (`width') of the line, whether it is filled or not, by using the `-W' option. For example, `-W 0.01' specifies that the line should have a thickness equal to 0.01 times the size of the graphics display. Also, you may put symbols at each data point along the line by doing, for example,
graph -T ps -S 3 0.1 < datafile > plot.ps
where the first argument 3 indicates which symbol to plot. The optional second argument 0.1 specifies the symbol size as a fraction of the size of the `plotting box': the square within which the plot is drawn. Symbol #1 is a dot, symbol #2 is a plus sign, symbol #3 is an asterisk, symbol #4 is a circle, symbol #5 is a cross, and so forth. (See section A.5 Available marker symbols.) Symbols 1 through 31 are the same for all display types, and the color of a symbol will be the same as the color of the line it is plotted along.
Actually, you would probably not want to plot symbols at each point in the dataset unless you turn off the line joining the points. For this purpose, the `negative linemode' concept is useful. A line whose linemode is negative is not visible; however, any symbols plotted along it will have the color associated with the corresponding positive linemode. So, for example,
graph -T ps -C -m -3 -S 4 < datafile > plot.ps
will plot a blue circle at each data point. The circles will not be joined by line segments. By adding the optional second argument to the `-S' option, you may adjust the size of the circles.
graph will automatically generate abscissa (i.e., x)
values for you if you use the `-a' option. If this option is
used, no abscissa values should be given in the data file. The data
points will be taken to be regularly spaced along the abscissa. The two
arguments following `-a' on the command line will be taken as the
sampling interval and the abscissa value of the first data point. If
they are absent, they default to 1.0 and 0.0 respectively. For
example, the command
echo 0 1 0 | graph -T ps -a > plot.ps
produces exactly the same plot as
echo 0 0 1 1 2 0 | graph -T ps > plot.ps
If the `-I e' option is specified, graph will plot data with
error bars. In this case the dataset should consist of triples
(x,y,error), rather than pairs (x,y). A
vertical error bar of the appropriate length will be plotted at each
data point. You would plot a symbol at each data point, along with the
error bar, by using the `-S' option in the usual way. The symbol
will be the same for each point in the dataset. You may use the
`-a' option in conjunction with `-I e', if you wish. If
you do, the dataset should contain no abscissa (i.e., x)
values.
By default, the limits on the x and y axes, and the spacing between the labeled ticks on each axis, are computed automatically. You may wish to set them manually. You would accomplish this with the `-x' and `-y' options.
echo 0 0 1 1 2 0 | graph -T ps -x -1 3 -y -1 2 > plot.ps
will produce a plot in which the x axis extends from -1
to 3, and the y axis from -1 to 2. By default,
graph tries to place about six numbered ticks on each axis. By
including an optional third argument to either `-x' or `-y',
you may manually set the spacing of the labeled ticks. For example,
using `-y -1 2 1' rather than `-y -1 2' will produce a
y axis with labeled ticks at -1, 0, 1, and 2,
rather than at the locations that graph would choose by default,
which would be -1, -0.5, 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2. In
general, if a third argument is present then labeled ticks will be
placed at each of its integer multiples.
To make an axis logarithmic, you would use the `-l' option. For example,
echo 1 1 2 3 3 1 | graph -T ps -l x > plot.ps
will produce a plot in which the x axis is logarithmic, but the y axis is linear. To make both axes logarithmic, you would use `-l x -l y'. By default, the upper and lower limits on a logarithmic axis are powers of ten, and there are tick marks at each power of ten and at its integer multiples. The tick marks at the powers of ten are labeled. If the axis spans more than five orders of magnitude, the tick marks at the integer multiples are omitted.
If you have an unusually short logarithmic axis, you may need to increase the number of labeled ticks. To do this, you should specify a tick spacing manually. For example, `-l x -x 1 9 2' would produce a plot in which the x axis is logarithmic and extends from 1 to 9. Labeled ticks would be located at each integer multiple of 2, i.e., at 2, 4, 6, and 8.
You would label the x and y axes with the `-X' and `-Y' options, respectively. For example,
echo 1 1 2 3 3 1 | graph -T ps -l x -X "A Logarithmic Axis" > plot.ps
will label the log axis in the preceding example. By default, the label for the y axis (if any) will be rotated 90 degrees, unless you use the `--toggle-rotate-y-label' option. You may specify a `top label', or title for the plot, by using the `-L' option. Doing, for example,
echo 1 1 2 3 3 1 | graph -T ps -l x -L "A Simple Example" > plot.ps
will produce a plot with a title on top.
The font size of the x axis and y axis labels may be specified with the `-f' option, and the font size of the title with the `--title-font-size' option. For example,
echo 1 1 2 3 3 1 | graph -T ps -X "Abscissa" -f 0.1 > plot.ps
will produce a plot in which the font size of the x axis label, and each of the numerical tick labels, is very large (0.1 times the size of the plotting box, i.e., the square within which the plot is drawn).
The font in which the labels specified with the `-X', `-Y',
and `-L' options are drawn can be specified with the `-F'
option. For example, `-F Times-Roman' will make the labels appear
in Times-Roman instead of the default font (which is Helvetica, unless
`-T pnm', `-T gif', `-T pcl', `-T hpgl' or `-T
tek' is specified). Font names are case-insensitive, so `-F
times-roman' will work equally well. The available fonts include 35
Postscript fonts (for all variants of graph other than
graph -T pnm, graph -T gif, graph -T pcl,
graph -T hpgl and graph -T tek), 45 PCL 5 fonts (for
graph -T ai, graph -T pcl and graph -T hpgl), a
number of Hewlett--Packard vector fonts (for graph -T pcl and
graph -T hpgl), and 22 Hershey vector fonts. The Hershey fonts
include HersheyCyrillic, for Russian, and HersheyEUC, for Japanese. For
a discussion of the available fonts, see section A.1 Available text fonts. The
plotfont utility will produce a character map of any available
font. See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
The format of the labels drawn with the `-X', `-Y', and `-L' options may be quite intricate. Subscripts, superscripts, square roots, and switching fonts within a typeface are all allowed. The above examples do not illustrate this, but for details, see section A.4 Text string format and escape sequences.
Each of the preceding examples produces a plot containing the default sort of grid (a square plotting box, with ticks and labels drawn along its lower edge and its left edge). There are actually several sorts of grid you may request. The `-g 0', `-g 1', `-g 2', and `-g 3' options yield successively fancier grids. What they yield, respectively, is no grid at all, a pair of axes with ticks and labels, a square plotting box with ticks and labels, and a square plotting box with ticks, labels, and grid lines. As you can check, `-g 2' is the default. There is also a `-g 4' option, which yields a slightly different sort of grid: a pair of axes that cross at the origin. This last sort of grid is useful when the x or y coordinates of the data points you are plotting are both positive and negative.
To alter the linear dimensions of the plotting box, and also to position it in a different part of the graphics display, you could do something like
graph -T ps -h .3 -w .6 -r .1 -u .1 < datafile > plot.ps
Here the `-h' and `-w' options specify the height and width of the plotting box, and the `-r' and `-u' options indicate how far up and to the right the lower left corner of the plotting box should be positioned. All dimensions are expressed as fractions of the size of the graphics display. By default, the height and width of the plotting box equal 0.6, and the `upward shift' and the `rightward shift' equal 0.2. So the above example will produce a plot that is half as tall as usual. Compared to its usual position, the plot will be shifted slightly downward and to the left.
Several command-line options specify sizes or dimensions as fractions of the size of the plotting box. For example, `-S 3 .01' specifies that the marker symbols for the following dataset should be of type #3, and should have a font size equal to 0.01, i.e., 0.01 times the minimum dimension (height or width) of the plotting box. If the `-h' or `-w' options are employed to expand or contract the plot, such sizes or dimensions will scale in tandem. That is presumably the right thing to do.
To rotate your plot by 90 degrees counterclockwise, you would add
`--rotation 90' to the graph command line. You may also
specify `--rotation 180', to produce an upside-down plot, or
`--rotation 270'. The `--rotation' option may be combined
with the `-h', `-w', `-r', and `-u' options. If
they appear together, the `--rotation' option takes effect first.
That is because `--rotation' specifies the rotation angle of the
graphics display, while the other options specify how the plotting box
should be positioned within the graphics display. The two sorts of
positioning are logically distinct.
The graphics display (sometimes called the `viewport') is an
abstraction. For graph -T X, it is a popped-up window on an
X display. For graph -T pnm and graph -T gif, it is a
square or rectangular bitmap. In these three cases, the size of the
graphics display can be set by using the `--bitmap-size' option, or
by setting the BITMAPSIZE environment variable. For graph
-T tek, the graphics display is a square region occupying the central
part of a Tektronix display. (Tektronix displays are 4/3 times as wide
as they are high.) For graph -T ai, graph -T ps,
graph -T pcl, and graph -T fig, by default it is a
8-inch square centered on an 8.5in by 11in page (US
letter size). For graph -T hpgl, it is an 8-inch square, which
by default is not centered. For graph -T cgm, the graphics
display is an 8-inch square, though if the WebCGM output file is placed
in a Web page, it may be scaled arbitrarily.
The page type, which determines the graphics display size used by
graph -T ai, graph -T ps, graph -T cgm, graph
-T fig, graph -T pcl, and graph -T hpgl can be set by
using the `--page-size' option, or by setting the environment
variable PAGESIZE. For example, setting PAGESIZE to
"a4" would select a graphics display size appropriate to an A4-size page
(21cm by 29.7cm). The position of the graphics display on
the page, relative to its default position, can be adjusted by
specifying an offset vector. For example, PAGESIZE could be
specified as "letter,yoffset=1.2in", or
"a4,xoffset=-5mm,yoffset=2.0cm". graph -T cgm ignores the
offset vector, since WebCGM format has no notion of the size of the Web
page on which the graphics display will ultimately be positioned. For
more information on page types, see section C Page Sizes and Viewport Sizes.
It is frequently the case that several datasets need to be displayed on the same plot. If so, you may wish to distinguish the points in different datasets by joining them by lines of different types, or by using marker symbols of different types.
A more complicated example would be the following. You may have a file containing a dataset that is the result of experimental observations, and a file containing closely spaced points that trace out a theoretical curve. The second file is a dataset in its own right. You would presumably plot it with line segments joining successive data points, so as to trace out the theoretical curve. But the first dataset, resulting from experiment, would be plotted without such line segments. In fact, a marker symbol would be plotted at each of its points.
These examples, and others like them, led us to define a set of seven attributes that define the way a dataset should be plotted. These attributes, which can be set by command-line options, are the following.
Color/monochrome (a choice of one or the other) is the simplest. The choice is toggled with the `-C' option. The `linemode' (i.e., line style) specifies how the line segments joining successive points should be drawn; it is specified with the `-m' option. Linemode #0 means no linemode at all, for example. `Linewidth' means line thickness; it is specified with the `-W' option. `Symbol type' and `symbol size', which are specified with the `-S' option, specify the symbol plotted at each point of the dataset. `Symbol font name' refers to the font from which marker symbols #32 and above, which are taken to be characters rather than geometric symbols, are selected. It is set with the `--symbol-font-name' option, and is relevant only if `-S' is used to request such special marker symbols. Finally, the polygonal line joining the points in a dataset may be filled, to create a filled or shaded polygon. The `fill fraction' is set with the `-q' option. A negative fill fraction means no fill, or transparent; zero means white, and 1.0 means solid, or fully colored.
The preceding seven attributes refer to the way in which datasets are plotted. Datasets may also differ from one another in the way in which they are read from files. The dataset(s) in a file may or may not contain error bars, for example. If a file contains data with error bars, the `-I e' option should occur on the command line before the file name. (The `-I' option specifies the input format for the following files.)
The following illustrates how datasets in three different input files could be plotted simultaneously.
graph -T ps -m 0 -S 3 file1 -C -m 3 file2 -C -W 0.02 file3 > output.ps
The dataset in file1 will be plotted in linemode #0, so
successive points will not be joined by lines. But symbol #3 (an
asterisk) will be plotted at each point. The dataset in file2
will be plotted in color, and linemode #3 will be used. In color
plotting, linemode #3 is interpreted as a solid blue line. The second
`-C' on the command line turns off color for file3. The
points in the third dataset will be joined by a black line with
thickness 0.02, as a fraction of the size (i.e., minimum dimension) of
the graphics display.
The above command line could be made even more complicated by specifying additional options (e.g., `-q' or `-I') before each file. In fact the command line could also include such standard options as `-x' or `-y', which specify the range of each axis. Such options, which refer to the plot as a whole rather than to individual datasets, should appear before the first file name. For example, you could do
graph -T ps -x 0 1 0.5 -m 0 -S 3 file1 -C -m 3 file2 > output.ps
Note that it is possible to include the special file name `-',
which refers to standard input, on the command line. So you may pipe
the output of another program into graph. You may even generate
a plot in part from piped output, and in part from files.
Each input file may include more than one dataset. If so, the command line options preceding a file on the command line will take effect for all datasets in that file. There are two exceptions to this. By default, the linemode is incremented (`bumped') from one dataset to the next. This feature is usually quite convenient. For example, if you do
graph -T ps -m 3 file1 > output.ps
the first dataset in file1 will appear in linemode #3, the second
in linemode #4, etc. In fact, if you do
graph -T ps file1 file2 ... > output.ps
without specifying linemode explicitly, the successive datasets read from the files on the command line will appear in linemode #1, linemode #2, .... If you do not like this feature, you may turn it off, or in general toggle it, by using the `-B' option.
You may also control manually the linemode and symbol type used for the datasets within any file. You would do this by including directives in the file itself, rather than on the command line. For example, if the line
#m=-5,S=10
appeared in an ASCII-format input file, it would be interpreted as a
directive to switch to linemode #-5 and symbol type #10 for the
following dataset. Future releases of graph may provide the
ability to set each of the seven dataset attributes in this way.
It is occasionally useful to display several plots at once on a single page, or on a single graphics display. We call such a composite plot a multiplot. One common sort of multiplot is a small plot inset into a larger one. Another sort is two or more plots side by side.
graph can draw multiplots consisting of an arbitrarily large
number of plots. When multiplotting, graph draws each plot in
its own `virtual display'. When an ordinary plot is drawn, the virtual
display is the same as the physical display. But when a plot of a
multiplot is drawn, the virtual display may be any smaller square
region. The following two-plot example illustrates the idea.
graph -T X datafile1 --reposition .35 .35 .3 datafile2
Here datafile1 is plotted in the usual way. The
`--reposition' option, which serves as a separator between plots,
specifies that the second plot will be drawn in a virtual display. For
the purposes of the `--reposition' option, the physical display is
a square with lower left corner (0.0,0.0) and upper right corner
(1.0,1.0). In those coordinates the virtual display will be a
square of size 0.3, with lower left corner (0.35,0.35). So the
second plot will be inset into the first.
Just as the `-w', `-h', `-r', and `-u' options may be used to set the size and position of a plotting box within the physical display, so they may be used to set the size and position of a plotting box within a virtual display. For example,
graph -T X datafile1 --reposition .35 .35 .3 -w .4 -r .3 datafile2
will yield a two-plot multiplot in which the second plot is significantly different. Its plotting box will have a width only 0.4 times the width of the virtual display. However, the plotting box will be centered within the virtual display, since the distance between the left edge of the plotting box and the left edge of the virtual display will be 0.3 times the width of the virtual display.
By convention, before each plot of a multiplot other than the first is drawn, a `blankout region' surrounding its plotting box is erased. (That is, it is filled with white, or whatever the background color is.) This erasure prevents the plots from overlapping and producing a messy result. By default, the blankout region is a rectangular region 30% larger in each dimension than the plotting box for the plot. That is appropriate if the plot is a small one that is inset into the first plot. It may not be appropriate, however, if you are preparing a multiplot in which several plots appear side by side. You may use the `--blankout' option to adjust this parameter. For example, specifying `--blankout 1.0' will make the blankout region for a plot coincide with its plotting box. Specifying `--blankout 0.0' will prevent any blanking out from occurring. The blankout parameter may be set more than once, so as to differ from plot to plot.
It should be emphasized that every plot in a multiplot is a plot in its
own right. All the usual options (`-m', `-S', `-x',
`-y', etc.) can be applied to each plot separately. The options
for a plot should occur on the graph command line immediately
after the `--reposition' option that applies to it. Each plot may
be prepared from more than a single dataset, also. The names of the
data files for each plot should occur on the command line before the
following `--reposition' option, if any.
By default, graph reads datasets in ASCII format. But it can
also read datasets in any of three binary formats (single precision
floating point, double precision floating point, and integer).
These three input formats are specified by the `-I d', `-I f',
and `-I i' options, respectively.
There are two advantages to using binary data: 1) graph runs
significantly faster because the computational overhead for converting
data from ASCII to binary is eliminated, and 2) the input files may
be significantly smaller. If you have very large datasets, using
binary format may reduce storage and runtime costs.
For example, you may create a single precision binary dataset as output from a C language program:
#include <stdio.h>
void write_point (float x, float y)
{
fwrite(&x, sizeof (float), 1, stdout);
fwrite(&y, sizeof (float), 1, stdout);
}
You may plot data written this way by doing:
graph -T ps -I f < binary_datafile > plot.ps
@ifnottex
The inclusion of multiple datasets within a single binary file is
supported. If a binary file contains more than a single dataset,
successive datasets should be separated by a single occurrence of the
the largest possible number. For single precision datasets this is the
quantity FLT_MAX, for double precision datasets it is the
quantity DBL_MAX, and for integer datasets it is the quantity
INT_MAX. On most machines FLT_MAX is approximately
3.4x10^38, DBL_MAX is approximately 1.8x10^308, and
INT_MAX is 2^32-1.
If you are reading datasets from more than one file, it is not required that the files be in the same format. For example,
graph -T ps -I f binary_datafile -I a ascii_datafile > plot.ps
will read binary_datafile in `f' (binary single precision)
format, and datafile in `a' (normal ASCII) format.
There is currently no support for reading and plotting binary data with
error bars. If you have data with error bars, you should supply the data
to graph in ASCII, and use the `-I e' option.
graph can also read data files in the ASCII `table' format
produced by the gnuplot plotting program. For this, you should
use the `-I g' option. Such a data file may consist of more than
one dataset.
To sum up: there are six supported data formats, `a' (normal
ASCII), `e' (ASCII with error bars), `g' (the ASCII `table'
format produced by gnuplot), `f' (binary single precision),
`d' (binary double precision), and `i' (binary integer).
Input files may be in any of these six formats.
graph command-line options
The graph program reads one or more datasets from files named on
the command line or from standard input, and prepares a plot. The
output format or display type is specified with the `-T' option.
By default, graph reads ASCII data from the files specified on
the command line. The data are pairs of numbers, interpreted as the
x and y coordinates of data points. If no files are
specified, or the file name `-' is specified, the standard
input is read. An output file is written to standard output, unless the
`-T X' option is specified. In that case the graph is
displayed in a popped-up window on an X Window System display, and
there is no output file.
There are many command-line options for adjusting the visual appearance of the plot. The relative order of file names and command-line options is important. Only the options that precede a file name on the command line take effect for that file.
The following sections list the possible options. Each option that takes an argument is followed, in parentheses, by the type and default value of the argument. There are five sorts of option.
graph, i.e., relevant only if no
display type or output format is specified with the `-T' option.
(See section 2.6.4 Raw graph options.)
@ifnottex
The behavior of graph is also affected by a number of environment
variables, so there is a section discussing them as well.
The following options affect an entire plot. They should normally occur at most once, and should appear on the command line before the first file name. If a multiplot is being drawn, they may (with the exception of the `-T' option) occur more than once. If so, the second and later occurrences should be placed on the command line immediately after each `--reposition x y' option, which separates the plots in a multiplot.
idraw-editable Postscript, the WebCGM format for Web-based vector
graphics, the format used by the xfig drawing editor, the
Hewlett--Packard PCL 5 printer language, the Hewlett--Packard
Graphics Language (by default, HP-GL/2), Tektronix format, and
device-independent GNU graphics metafile format.
graph -T pcl, for which
"Univers" is the default, and graph -T pnm, graph -T gif,
graph -T hpgl, graph -T tek, and raw graph, for all
of which "HersheySerif" is the default.) Set the font used for the axis
and tick labels, and for the plot title (if any), to be
font_name. The choice of font for the plot title may be
overridden with the `--title-font-name' option (see below). Font
names are case-insensitive. If the specified font is not available,
the default font will be used. Which fonts are available depends on
which `-T' option is used. For a list of all fonts, see section A.1 Available text fonts. The plotfont utility will produce a character map of any
available font. See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
gnuplot plotting program. Clip mode 0 means that a
line segment joining two data points will be plotted only if neither
point is outside the plotting box. Clip mode 1 means that it will
be plotted if no more than one of the two points is outside, and clip
mode 2 means that it will be plotted even if both are outside.
In all three clip modes the line segment will be clipped to the
plotting box.
graph not erase the
output device before it begins to plot.
This option is relevant only to graph -T tek and raw
graph. Tektronix displays and emulators are persistent, in the
sense that previously drawn graphics remain visible. So by repeatedly
using graph -T tek -s, you can build up a multiplot.
graph is to act as a real-time filter.
By default, the supplied limit(s) are strictly respected. However, the
`-R x' option may be used to request that they be rounded to the
nearest integer multiple of the spacing between labeled ticks. The
lower limit will be rounded downward, and the upper limit upward.
graph is to act as a real-time filter.
By default, the supplied limit(s) are strictly respected. However, the
`-R y' option may be used to request that they be rounded to the
nearest multiple of the tick spacing. The lower limit will be rounded
downward, and the upper limit upward.
graph -T X,
graph -T pnm, graph -T gif, and graph -T cgm.
An unrecognized name sets the color to the default. For information
on what names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name. The environment
variable BG_COLOR can equally well be used to specify the
background color.
If the `-T gif' option is used, a transparent pseudo-GIF may be
produced by setting the TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable to
the name of the background color. See section 2.7 Environment variables.
graph -T X,
graph -T pnm, and graph -T gif, for all of which the size
can be expressed in terms of pixels. The environment variable
BITMAPSIZE may equally well be used to specify the size.
The graphics display used by graph -T X is a popped-up X
window. Command-line positioning of this window on an X Window
System display is supported. For example, if bitmap_size is
"570x570+0+0" then the window will be popped up in the upper left
corner.
If you choose a rectangular (non-square) window size, the fonts in the
plot will be scaled anisotropically, i.e., by different factors in the
horizontal and vertical direction. For this, graph -T X
requires an X11R6 display. Any font that cannot be anisotropically
scaled will be replaced by a default scalable font, such as the Hershey
vector font "HersheySerif".
For backward compatibility, graph -T X allows the user to set the
window size and position by setting the X resource
Xplot.geometry, instead of `--bitmap-size' or
BITMAPSIZE.
libplot graphics library should be used. This is usually 1/850
times the size of the display, although if `-T X', `-T pnm',
or `-T gif' is specified, it is zero. By convention, a
zero-thickness line is the thinnest line that can be drawn. This is the
case in all output formats. Note, however, that the drawing editors
idraw and xfig treat zero-thickness lines as invisible.
graph -T tek does not support drawing lines with other than a
default thickness, and graph -T hpgl does not support doing
so if the environment variable HPGL_VERSION is set to a value
less than "2" (the default).
MAX_LINE_LENGTH
can also be used to specify the maximum line length. This option has no
effect on graph -T tek or raw graph, since they draw
polylines in real time and have no buffer limitations.
graph -T ai,
graph -T ps, graph -T cgm, graph -T fig,
graph -T pcl, and graph -T hpgl. "letter" means an
8.5in by 11in page. Any ISO page size in the range
"a0"..."a4" or ANSI page size in the range "a"..."e" may be
specified ("letter" is an alias for "a" and "tabloid" is an alias
for "b"). "legal", "ledger", and "b5" are recognized page sizes
also. The environment variable PAGESIZE can equally well be used
to specify the page size.
For graph -T ai, graph -T ps, graph -T pcl, and
graph -T fig, the graphics display within which the plot is drawn
will be a square region centered on the specified page. For graph
-T hpgl, it will be a square region of the same size, but may be
positioned differently. The position of the graphics display may be
adjusted by specifying an offset vector. For example, the argument of
`--page-size' could be "letter,yoffset=1.2in", or
"a4,xoffset=-5mm,yoffset=2.0cm". Although WebCGM format supports
the specification of a default graphics display size, it has no notion
of the size of the Web page on which the graphics display will
ultimately be positioned. So graph -T cgm ignores the offset
vector. For more on page sizes, see section C Page Sizes and Viewport Sizes.
ROTATION can equally well be used to specify the rotation angle.
This option is used for switching between portrait and landscape
orientations. Postmodernists may also find it useful.
graph -T pcl, for which
"Univers" is the default, and graph -T pnm, graph -T gif,
graph -T hpgl and graph -T tek, for all of which
"HersheySerif" is the default.) Set the font used for the plot title to
be font_name. Normally the font used for the plot title is the
same as that used for labeling the axes and the ticks along the axes, as
specified by the `-F' option. But the `--title-font-name'
option can be used to override this. Font names are case-insensitive.
If the specified font is not available, the default font will be
used. Which fonts are available depends on which `-T' option is
used. For a list of all fonts, see section A.1 Available text fonts. The
plotfont utility will produce a character map of any available
font. See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
The following options affect the way in which individual datasets are read from files, and drawn as part of a plot. They should appear on the command line before the file containing the datasets whose reading or rendering they will affect. They may appear more than once on a command line, if more than one file is to be read.
The following three options affect the way in which datasets are read from files.
gnuplot plotting program.
FLT_MAX, which is the largest possible
single precision floating point number. On most machines this is
approximately 3.4x10^38.
DBL_MAX, which is the largest possible
double precision floating point number. On most machines this is
approximately 1.8x10^308.
INT_MAX,
which is the largest possible integer. On most machines this is
2^31-1.
The following options affect the way in which individual datasets are drawn as part of a plot. These options set the six `attributes' (symbol type, symbol font, linemode, line thickness, fill fraction, and color/monochrome) that each dataset has.
libplot
graphics library. See section A.5 Available marker symbols. Symbol numbers greater than
or equal to 32 are interpreted as characters in a symbol font, which
can be set with the `--symbol-font-name' option (see below).
libplot graphics library should be used.
This is usually 1/850 times the size of the display, although if
`-T X', `-T pnm', or `-T gif' is specified, it is zero.
By convention, a zero-thickness line is the thinnest line that can be
drawn. This is the case in all output formats. Note, however, that the
drawing editors idraw and xfig treat zero-thickness lines
as invisible.
graph -T tek does not support drawing lines with other than a
default thickness, and graph -T hpgl does not support doing
so if the environment variable HPGL_VERSION is set to a value
less than "2" (the default).
graph -T tek, and it is
only partly effective in graph -T hpgl if the environment
variable HPGL_VERSION is set to "1".
-T tek is specified, in
which case it is "HersheySerif".) Set the symbol font, from which
marker symbols numbered 32 and higher are selected, to be
symbol_font_name. Font names are case-insensitive. If the
specified font is not available, the default font will be used. Which
fonts are available depends on which `-T' option is used. For
example, if the `-T pcl' or `-T hpgl' option is used then
normally the Wingdings font, which is an alternative source of symbols,
becomes available. For a list of all fonts, see section A.1 Available text fonts. The
plotfont utility will produce a character map of any available
font. See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
The following options are used for multiplotting (placing more than a single plots on a display, or a page). The `--reposition' directive serves as a separator, on the command line, between the options and file names that apply to successive plots.
graph -T tek cannot clear regions, and graph -T hpgl
cannot clear them if the environment variables HPGL_VERSION and
HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE are set to non-default values (i.e., values
other than "2" and "yes", respectively).
graph options
The following option is relevant only to raw graph, i.e., is
relevant only if no display type or output format is specified with the
`-T' option. In this case graph outputs a graphics
metafile, which may be translated to other formats by invoking
plot. This option should appear on the command line before any
file names, since it affects the output of the plot (or multiplot) as a
whole.
META_PORTABLE to "yes".
The following options request information.
graph -T X, graph -T ai, graph -T ps,
graph -T cgm, and graph -T fig each support the 35
standard Postscript fonts. graph -T ai, graph -T pcl, and
graph -T hpgl support the 45 standard PCL 5 fonts, and
graph -T pcl and graph -T hpgl support a number of
Hewlett--Packard vector fonts. All of the preceding, together with
graph -T pnm, graph -T gif, and graph -T tek,
support a set of 22 Hershey vector fonts. Raw graph in
principle supports any of these fonts, since its output must be
translated to other formats with plot. The plotfont
utility will produce a character map of any available font.
See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
graph and the plotting utilities
package, and exit.
The behavior of graph is affected by several environment
variables. We have already mentioned the environment variables
BITMAPSIZE, PAGESIZE, BG_COLOR, and
MAX_LINE_LENGTH, and ROTATION. They serve as backups for
the several options `--bitmap-size', `--page-size',
`--bg-color', `--max-line-length', and `--rotation'. The
remaining environment variables are specific to individual output
formats.
graph -T X, which pops up a window on an X Window System
display and draws graphics in it, checks the DISPLAY
environment variable. The value of this variable determines the display
on which the window will be popped up.
graph -T pnm, which produces output in Portable Anymap
(PBM/PGM/PPM) format, is affected by the PNM_PORTABLE environment
variable. If its value is "yes", the output file will be in the
portable (human readable) version of PBM, PGM, or PPM format, rather
than the default (binary) version.
graph -T gif, which produces output in pseudo-GIF format, is
affected by two environment variables. If the value of the
INTERLACE variable is "yes", the pseudo-GIF output file will be
in interlaced format. Also, if the value of the
TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable is the name of a color
that appears in the output file, that color will be treated as
transparent by most applications that display GIF files. For
information on what color names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name.
graph -T cgm, which produces CGM files that comply with the
WebCGM profile for Web-based vector graphics, is affected by two
environment variables. By default, a version 3 CGM file is
generated. Many older CGM interpreters and viewers, such as the ones
built into Microsoft Office and other commercial software, only support
version 1 CGM files. The CGM_MAX_VERSION environment
variable may be set to "1", "2", "3", or "4" (the default) to
specify an upper bound on the version number. The CGM_ENCODING
variable may also be set, to specify the type of encoding used in the
CGM file. Supported values are "clear_text" (i.e., human readable) and
"binary" (the default). The WebCGM profile requires that the binary
encoding be used.
graph -T pcl, which produces PCL 5 output for
Hewlett--Packard printers, is affected by the environment variable
PCL_ASSIGN_COLORS. It should be set to "yes" when producing
PCL 5 output for a color printer or other color device. This will
ensure accurate color reproduction by giving the output device complete
freedom in assigning colors, internally, to its "logical pens". If it
is "no" then the device will use a fixed set of colored pens, and will
emulate other colors by shading. The default is "no" because monochrome
PCL 5 devices, which are much more common than colored ones, must
use shading to emulate color.
graph -T hpgl, which produces Hewlett--Packard Graphics Language
output, is also affected by several environment variables. The most
important is HPGL_VERSION, which may be set to "1", "1.5", or
"2" (the default). "1" means that the output should be generic
HP-GL, "1.5" means that the output should be suitable for the
HP7550A graphics plotter and the HP758x, HP7595A and HP7596A drafting
plotters (HP-GL with some HP-GL/2 extensions), and "2" means that
the output should be modern HP-GL/2. If the version is "1" or
"1.5" then the only available fonts will be vector fonts, and all lines
will be drawn with a default thickness (the `-W' option will not
work). Additionally, if the version is "1" then the filling of
arbitrary curves with solid color will not be supported (the `-q'
option may be used to fill circles and rectangles aligned with the
coordinate axes, though).
The position of the graph -T hpgl graphics display on the page
can be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise on the page by setting
the HPGL_ROTATE environment variable to "yes". This is not the
same as the rotation obtained with the `--rotation' option, since
it both rotates the graphics display and repositions its lower left
corner toward another corner of the page. Besides "no" and "yes",
recognized values for the HPGL_ROTATE variable are "0", "90",
"180", and "270". "no" and "yes" are equivalent to "0" and
"90", respectively. "180" and "270" are supported only if
HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default).
Opaque filling and the drawing of visible white lines are
supported only if HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default) and the
environment variable HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE is "yes" (the default).
If the value is "no" then opaque filling will not be used, and white
lines (if any), which are normally drawn with pen #0, will not
be drawn. This feature is to accommodate older HP-GL/2 devices.
HP-GL/2 pen plotters, for example, do not support opacity or the use
of pen #0 to draw visible white lines. Some older HP-GL/2 devices
reportedly malfunction if asked to draw opaque objects.
By default, graph -T hpgl will draw with a fixed set of pens.
Which pens are present may be specified by setting the HPGL_PENS
environment variable. If HPGL_VERSION is "1", the default
value of HPGL_PENS is "1=black"; if HPGL_VERSION is
"1.5" or "2", the default value of HPGL_PENS is
"1=black:2=red:3=green:4=yellow:5=blue:6=magenta:7=cyan". The format
should be self-explanatory. By setting HPGL_PENS, you may
specify a color for any pen in the range #1...#31. For information
on what color names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name. Pen #1
must always be present, though it need not be black. Any other pen in
the range #1...#31 may be omitted.
If HPGL_VERSION is "2" then graph -T hpgl will also be
affected by the environment variable HPGL_ASSIGN_COLORS. If
the value of this variable is "yes", then graph -T hpgl will not
be restricted to the palette specified in HPGL_PENS: it will
assign colors to "logical pens" in the range #1...#31, as
needed. The default value is "no" because other than color LaserJet
printers and DesignJet plotters, not many HP-GL/2 devices allow the
assignment of colors to logical pens.
graph -T tek, which produces output for a Tektronix terminal or
emulator, checks the TERM environment variable. If the value
of TERM is "xterm", "xterms", or "kterm", it is taken as a
sign that the current application is running in an X Window System
VT100 terminal emulator: an xterm. Before drawing graphics,
graph -T tek will emit an escape sequence that causes the
terminal emulator's auxiliary Tektronix window, which is normally
hidden, to pop up. After the graphics are drawn, an escape sequence
that returns control to the original VT100 window will be emitted. The
Tektronix window will remain on the screen.
If the value of TERM is "kermit", "ansi.sys", "ansissys",
"ansi.sysk", or "ansisysk", it is taken as a sign that the current
application is running in the VT100 terminal emulator provided by the
MS-DOS version of kermit. Before drawing graphics, graph
-T tek will emit an escape sequence that switches the terminal emulator
to Tektronix mode. Also, some of the Tektronix control codes emitted by
graph -T tek will be kermit-specific. There will be a
limited amount of color support, which is not normally the case (the 16
ansi.sys colors will be supported). After drawing graphics,
graph -T tek will emit an escape sequence that returns the
emulator to VT100 mode. The key sequence `ALT minus' can be
employed manually within kermit to switch between the two modes.
plot Programplot
The GNU plot filter plot displays GNU graphics metafiles or
translates them to other formats. It will take input from files
specified on the command line or from standard input. The `-T'
option is used to specify the desired output format. Supported output
formats include "X", "pnm", "gif", "ai", "ps", "cgm", "fig", "pcl",
"hpgl", "tek", and "meta" (the default).
The metafile format is a device-independent format for storage of vector
graphics. By default, it is a binary rather than a human-readable
format (see section D The Graphics Metafile Format). Each of the graph, pic2plot,
tek2plot, and plotfont utilities will write a graphics
metafile to standard output if no `-T' option is specified on its
command line. The GNU libplot graphics library may also be used
to produce metafiles. Metafiles may contain arbitrarily many pages of
graphics, but each metafile produced by graph contains only a
single page.
plot, like the metafile format itself, is useful if you wish to
preserve a vector graphics file, and display or edit it with more than
one drawing editor. The following example shows how you may do this.
To produce a plot of data arranged as alternating x and y
coordinates in an ASCII file, you may use graph as follows:
graph < datafile > test.meta
The file `test.meta' will be a single-page graphics metafile. Similarly, to create in metafile format a plot consisting of a simple figure, you may do:
echo 0 0 1 1 2 0 | spline | graph > test.meta
To display any such plot on an X Window System display, you would do
plot -T X test.meta
or
plot -T X < test.meta
To print the plot on a Postscript printer, you would do something like
plot -T ps < test.meta | lpr
To edit it with the free idraw drawing editor, you would do
plot -T ps < test.meta > test.ps idraw test.ps
To produce a "portable anymap" (a file in PBM, PGM, or PPM format, whichever is most appropriate) you would do
plot -T pnm < test.meta > test.pnm
and to produce a pseudo-GIF file, you would do
plot -T gif < test.meta > test.gif
Similarly, to produce a version of the plot in CGM format that can be displayed in a Web browser with a WebCGM plug-in, you would do
plot -T cgm < test.meta > test.cgm
To produce a version of the plot that can be viewed and edited with Adobe Illustrator, you would do
plot -T ai < test.meta > test.ai
and to produce a version that can be viewed and edited with the free
xfig drawing editor, you would do
plot -T fig < test.meta > test.fig xfig test.fig
Other formats may be obtained by using plot -T pcl, plot -T
hpgl, and plot -T tek.
plot may behave differently depending on the environment in which
it is invoked. In particular, plot -T ai, plot -T ps,
plot -T cgm, plot -T fig, plot -T pcl, and
plot -T hpgl are affected by the environment variable
PAGESIZE. plot -T X, plot -T pnm, and
plot -T gif are affected by the environment variable
BITMAPSIZE. The DISPLAY environment variable affects the
operation of plot -T X, and the TERM environment
variable affects the operation of plot -T tek. There are also
several environment variables that affect the operation of plot -T
pcl and plot -T hpgl. For a complete discussion of the effects
of the environment on plot, see section 3.3 Environment variables.
plot command-line options
The plot filter plot translates GNU graphics metafiles to other
formats. The `-T' option is used to specify the output format or
display type. Files in metafile format are produced by GNU
graph, pic2plot, tek2plot, plotfont, and
other applications that use the GNU libplot graphics library.
For technical details on the metafile format, see section D The Graphics Metafile Format.
Input file names may be specified anywhere on the command line. That is, the relative order of file names and command-line options does not matter. If no files are specified, or the file name `-' is specified, the standard input is read. An output file is written to standard output, unless the `-T X' option is specified. In that case the output is displayed in a window or windows on an X Window System display, and there is no output file.
The full set of command-line options is listed below. There are four sorts of option:
plot, i.e., relevant only if no
display type or output format is specified with the `-T' option.
Each option that takes an argument is followed, in parentheses, by the type and default value of the argument.
The following options set the values of drawing parameters.
idraw-editable Postscript, the WebCGM format for Web-based vector
graphics, the format used by the xfig drawing editor, the
Hewlett--Packard PCL 5 printer language, the Hewlett--Packard
Graphics Language (by default, HP-GL/2), Tektronix format, and
device-independent GNU graphics metafile format.
plot -T
X or plot -T tek, which plot in real time, will separate
successive frames by screen erasures. plot -T pnm, plot -T
gif, plot -T ai, plot -T ps, plot -T cgm,
plot -T fig, plot -T pcl, and plot -T hpgl, which
do not plot in real time, will display only the last frame of any
multi-frame page.
The default behavior, if `-p' is not used, is to display all pages.
For example, plot -T X displays each page in its own X
window. If the `-T pnm' option, the `-T gif' option, the
`-T ai' option, or the `-T fig' option is used, the default
behavior is to display only the first page, since files in PNM,
pseudo-GIF, AI, or Fig format may contain only a single page of
graphics.
Most metafiles produced by the GNU plotting utilities (e.g., by raw
graph) contain only a single page, consisting of two frames: an
empty one to clear the display, and a second one containing graphics.
graph. This is an
alternative form of multiplotting (see section 2.4 Multiplotting: placing multiple plots on a single page).
plot -T X,
plot -T pnm, and plot -T gif, for all of which the size
can be expressed in terms of pixels. The environment variable
BITMAPSIZE may equally well be used to specify the size.
The graphics display used by plot -T X is a popped-up X
window. Command-line positioning of this window on an X Window
System display is supported. For example, if bitmap_size is
"570x570+0+0" then the window will be popped up in the upper left
corner.
If you choose a rectangular (non-square) window size, the fonts in the
plot will be scaled anisotropically, i.e., by different factors in the
horizontal and vertical direction. For this, plot -T X
requires an X11R6 display. Any font that cannot be anisotropically
scaled will be replaced by a default scalable font, such as the Hershey
vector font "HersheySerif".
For backward compatibility, plot -T X allows the user to set the
window size and position by setting the X resource
Xplot.geometry, instead of `--bitmap-size' or
BITMAPSIZE.
MAX_LINE_LENGTH
can also be used to specify the maximum line length. This option has no
effect on plot -T tek or raw plot, since they draw
polylines in real time and have no buffer limitations.
plot -T ai,
plot -T ps, plot -T cgm, plot -T fig, plot -T
pcl, and plot -T hpgl. "letter" means an 8.5in by
11in page. Any ISO page size in the range "a0"..."a4" or ANSI
page size in the range "a"..."e" may be specified ("letter" is an
alias for "a" and "tabloid" is an alias for "b"). "legal",
"ledger", and "b5" are recognized page sizes also. The environment
variable PAGESIZE can equally well be used to specify the page
size.
For plot -T ai, plot -T ps, plot -T pcl, and
plot -T fig, the graphics display within which the plot is drawn
will be a square region centered on the specified page. For plot
-T hpgl, it will be a square region of the same size, but may be
positioned differently. The position of the graphics display may be
adjusted by specifying an offset vector. For example, the argument of
`--page-size' could be "letter,yoffset=1.2in", or
"a4,xoffset=-5mm,yoffset=2.0cm". Although WebCGM format supports
the specification of a default graphics display size, it has no notion
of the size of the Web page on which the graphics display will
ultimately be positioned. So plot -T cgm ignores the offset
vector. For more on page sizes, see section C Page Sizes and Viewport Sizes.
The following options set the initial values of additional drawing parameters. All of these may be overridden by directives in the metafile itself. In fact, these options are useful mostly for plotting old metafiles in the pre-GNU `plot(5)' format, which did not include such directives.
plot -T X,
plot -T pnm, plot -T gif, and plot -T cgm. An
unrecognized name sets the color to the default. For information on
what names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name. The environment
variable BG_COLOR can equally well be used to specify the
background color.
If the `-T gif' option is used, a transparent pseudo-GIF may be
produced by setting the TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable to
the name of the background color. See section 3.3 Environment variables.
plot -T pcl, for which
"Univers" is the default, and plot -T pnm, plot -T gif,
plot -T hpgl, plot -T tek, and raw plot, for all of
which "HersheySerif" is the default.) Set the font initially used for
text (i.e., for `labels') to font_name. Font names are
case-insensitive. If the specified font is not available, the
default font will be used. Which fonts are available depends on which
`-T' option is used. For a list of all fonts, see section A.1 Available text fonts. The plotfont utility will produce a character map of any
available font. See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
libplot graphics library should be used.
This is usually 1/850 times the size of the display, although if
`-T X', `-T pnm', or `-T gif' is specified, it is zero.
By convention, a zero-thickness line is the thinnest line that can be
drawn. This is the case in all output formats. Note, however, that the
drawing editors idraw and xfig treat zero-thickness lines
as invisible.
plot -T tek does not support drawing lines with other than a
default thickness, and plot -T hpgl does not support doing so
if the environment variable HPGL_VERSION is set to a value less
than "2" (the default).
The following option is relevant only to raw plot, i.e., relevant
only if no output type is specified with the `-T' option. In this
case plot outputs a graphics metafile, which may be translated to
other formats by a second invocation of plot.
META_PORTABLE to "yes".
plot will automatically determine which type of GNU metafile
format the input is in. There are two types: binary (the default)
and portable (human-readable). The binary format is machine-dependent.
See section D The Graphics Metafile Format.
For compatibility with older plotting software, the reading of input files in the pre-GNU `plot(5)' format is also supported. This is normally a binary format, with each integer in the metafile represented as a pair of bytes. The order of the two bytes is machine dependent. You may specify that input file(s) are in plot(5) format rather than ordinary GNU metafile format by using either the `-h' option ("high byte first") or the `-l' option ("low byte first"), whichever is appropriate. Some non-GNU systems support an ASCII (human-readable) variant of plot(5) format. You may specify that the input is in this format by using the `-A' option. Irrespective of the variant, a file in plot(5) format includes only one page of graphics.
plottoa.
The following options request information.
plot -T X, plot -T ai, plot -T ps,
plot -T cgm, and plot -T fig each support the 35 standard
Postscript fonts. plot -T ai, plot -T pcl, and plot
-T hpgl support the 45 standard PCL 5 fonts, and plot -T pcl
and plot -T hpgl support a number of Hewlett--Packard vector
fonts. All of the preceding, together with plot -T pnm,
plot -T gif, and plot -T tek, support a set of 22 Hershey
vector fonts. Raw plot in principle supports any of these
fonts, since its output must be translated to other formats with
plot. The plotfont utility will produce a character map
of any available font. See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
plot and the plotting utilities
package, and exit.
The behavior of plot is affected by several environment
variables. We have already mentioned the environment variables
BITMAPSIZE, PAGESIZE, BG_COLOR,
MAX_LINE_LENGTH, and ROTATION. They serve as backups for
the several options `--bitmap-size', `--page-size',
`--bg-color', `--max-line-length', and `--rotation'. The
remaining environment variables are specific to individual output
formats.
plot -T X, which pops up a window on an X Window System
display and draws graphics in it, checks the DISPLAY
environment variable. The value of this variable determines the display
on which the window will be popped up.
plot -T pnm, which produces output in Portable Anymap
(PBM/PGM/PPM) format, is affected by the PNM_PORTABLE environment
variable. If its value is "yes", the output file will be in the
portable (human readable) version of PBM, PGM, or PPM format, rather
than the default (binary) version.
plot -T gif, which produces output in pseudo-GIF format, is
affected by two environment variables. If the value of the
INTERLACE variable is "yes", the pseudo-GIF output file will be
in interlaced format. Also, if the value of the
TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable is the name of a color
that appears in the output file, that color will be treated as
transparent by most applications that display GIF files. For
information on what color names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name.
plot -T cgm, which produces CGM files that comply with the WebCGM
profile for Web-based vector graphics, is affected by two environment
variables. By default, a version 3 CGM file is generated. Many
older CGM interpreters and viewers, such as the ones built into
Microsoft Office and other commercial software, only support version
1 CGM files. The CGM_MAX_VERSION environment variable may be
set to "1", "2", "3", or "4" (the default) to specify an upper bound
on the version number. The CGM_ENCODING variable may also be
set, to specify the type of encoding used in the CGM file. Supported
values are "clear_text" (i.e., human readable) and "binary" (the
default). The WebCGM profile requires that the binary encoding be used.
plot -T pcl, which produces PCL 5 output for Hewlett--Packard
printers, is affected by the environment variable
PCL_ASSIGN_COLORS. It should be set to "yes" when producing
PCL 5 output for a color printer or other color device. This will
ensure accurate color reproduction by giving the output device complete
freedom in assigning colors, internally, to its "logical pens". If it
is "no" then the device will use a fixed set of colored pens, and will
emulate other colors by shading. The default is "no" because monochrome
PCL 5 devices, which are much more common than colored ones, must
use shading to emulate color.
plot -T hpgl, which produces Hewlett--Packard Graphics Language
output, is also affected by several environment variables. The most
important is HPGL_VERSION, which may be set to "1", "1.5", or
"2" (the default). "1" means that the output should be generic
HP-GL, "1.5" means that the output should be suitable for the
HP7550A graphics plotter and the HP758x, HP7595A and HP7596A drafting
plotters (HP-GL with some HP-GL/2 extensions), and "2" means that
the output should be modern HP-GL/2. If the version is "1" or
"1.5" then the only available fonts will be vector fonts, and all lines
will be drawn with a default thickness (the `-W' option will not
work). Additionally, if the version is "1" then the filling of
arbitrary curves with solid color will not be supported (circles and
rectangles aligned with the coordinate axes may be filled, though).
The position of the plot -T hpgl graphics display on the page can
be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise on the page by setting the
HPGL_ROTATE environment variable to "yes". This is not the same
as the rotation obtained with the `--rotation' option, since it
both rotates the graphics display and repositions its lower left corner
toward another corner of the page. Besides "no" and "yes", recognized
values for the HPGL_ROTATE variable are "0", "90", "180", and
"270". "no" and "yes" are equivalent to "0" and "90",
respectively. "180" and "270" are supported only if HPGL_VERSION
is "2" (the default).
Opaque filling and the drawing of visible white lines are
supported only if HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default) and the
environment variable HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE is "yes" (the default).
If the value is "no" then opaque filling will not be used, and white
lines (if any), which are normally drawn with pen #0, will not
be drawn. This feature is to accommodate older HP-GL/2 devices.
HP-GL/2 pen plotters, for example, do not support opacity or the use
of pen #0 to draw visible white lines. Some older HP-GL/2 devices
reportedly malfunction if asked to draw opaque objects.
By default, plot -T hpgl will draw with a fixed set of pens.
Which pens are present may be specified by setting the HPGL_PENS
environment variable. If HPGL_VERSION is "1", the default
value of HPGL_PENS is "1=black"; if HPGL_VERSION is
"1.5" or "2", the default value of HPGL_PENS is
"1=black:2=red:3=green:4=yellow:5=blue:6=magenta:7=cyan". The format
should be self-explanatory. By setting HPGL_PENS, you may
specify a color for any pen in the range #1...#31. For information
on what color names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name. Pen #1
must always be present, though it need not be black. Any other pen in
the range #1...#31 may be omitted.
If HPGL_VERSION is "2" then plot -T hpgl will also be
affected by the environment variable HPGL_ASSIGN_COLORS. If
the value of this variable is "yes", then plot -T hpgl will not
be restricted to the palette specified in HPGL_PENS: it will
assign colors to "logical pens" in the range #1...#31, as
needed. The default value is "no" because other than color LaserJet
printers and DesignJet plotters, not many HP-GL/2 devices allow the
assignment of colors to logical pens.
plot -T tek, which produces output for a Tektronix terminal or
emulator, checks the TERM environment variable. If the value
of TERM is "xterm", "xterms", or "kterm", it is taken as a
sign that the current application is running in an X Window System
VT100 terminal emulator: an xterm. Before drawing graphics,
plot -T tek will emit an escape sequence that causes the terminal
emulator's auxiliary Tektronix window, which is normally hidden, to
pop up. After the graphics are drawn, an escape sequence that
returns control to the original VT100 window will be emitted. The
Tektronix window will remain on the screen.
If the value of TERM is "kermit", "ansi.sys", "ansissys",
"ansi.sysk", or "ansisysk", it is taken as a sign that the current
application is running in the VT100 terminal emulator provided by the
MS-DOS version of kermit. Before drawing graphics, plot -T
tek will emit an escape sequence that switches the terminal emulator to
Tektronix mode. Also, some of the Tektronix control codes emitted by
plot -T tek will be kermit-specific. There will be a
limited amount of color support, which is not normally the case (the 16
ansi.sys colors will be supported). After drawing graphics,
plot -T tek will emit an escape sequence that returns the
emulator to VT100 mode. The key sequence `ALT minus' can be
employed manually within kermit to switch between the two modes.
pic2plot Programpic2plot is used for
The pic2plot program takes one or more files in the pic language,
and either displays the figures that they contain on an X Window
System display, or produces an output file containing the figures. Many
graphics file formats are supported.
The pic language is a `little language' that was developed at Bell Laboratories for creating box-and-arrow diagrams of the kind frequently found in technical papers and textbooks. A directory containing documentation on the pic language is distributed along with the plotting utilities. On most systems it is installed as `/usr/share/pic2plot' or `/usr/local/share/pic2plot'. The directory includes Brian Kernighan's original technical report on the language, Eric S. Raymond's tutorial on the GNU implementation, and some sample pic macros contributed by W. Richard Stevens.
The pic language was originally designed to work with the troff
document formatter. In that context it is read by a translator called
pic, or its GNU counterpart gpic. Since extensive
documentation on pic and gpic is available, this section
simply gives an example of an input file, and mentions some extra
features supported by pic2plot.
A pic file contains one or more figures, each of the box-and-arrow type. Each figure is begun by a line reading .PS, and ended by a line reading .PE. Lines that are not contained in a .PS....PE pair are ignored. Each figure is built from geometrical objects, such as rectangular boxes, circles, ellipses, quarter circles ("arcs"), polygonal lines, and splines. Arcs, polygonal lines, and spline may be equipped with arrowheads. Any object may be labeled with one or more lines of text.
Objects are usually positioned not by specifying their positions in absolute coordinates, but rather by specifying their positions relative to other, previously drawn objects. The following figure is an example.
.PS box "START"; arrow; circle dashed filled; arrow circle diam 2 thickness 3 "This is a" "big, thick" "circle" dashed; up arrow from top of last circle; ellipse "loopback" dashed arrow dotted from left of last ellipse to top of last box arc cw radius 1/2 from top of last ellipse; arrow box "END" .PE
If you put this example in a file and run `pic2plot -T X' on the
file, a window containing the figure will be popped up on your X
display. Similarly, if you run `pic2plot -T ps' on the file, a
Postscript file containing the figure will be written to standard
output. The Postscript file may be edited with the idraw drawing
editor. Other graphics formats such as PNM format, pseudo-GIF format,
WebCGM format, or Fig format (which is editable with the xfig
drawing editor) may be obtained similarly. You would use the options
`-T pnm', `-T gif', `-T cgm', and `-T fig',
respectively.
The above example illustrates some of the features of the pic language. By default, successive objects are drawn so as to touch each other. The drawing proceeds in a certain direction, which at startup is left-to-right. The `up' command changes this direction to bottom-to-top, so that the next object (the arrow extending from the top of the big circle) will point upward rather than to the right.
Objects have sizes and other attributes, which may be set globally, or specified on a per-object basis. For example, the diameter of a circle may be specified, or the radius of an arc. An arc may be oriented clockwise rather than counterclockwise by specifying the `cw' attribute. The line style of most objects may be altered by specifying the `dashed' or `dotted' attribute. Also, any object may be labeled, by specifying one or more text strings as attributes. A text string may contain escape sequences that shift the font, append subscripts or superscripts, or include non-ASCII characters and mathematical symbols. See section A.4 Text string format and escape sequences.
Most sizes and positions are expressed in terms of `virtual inches'.
The use of virtual inches is peculiar to pic2plot. The graphics
display used by pic2plot, i.e., its drawing region, is defined to
be a square, 8 virtual inches wide and 8 virtual inches high.
If the page size for the output file is the "letter" size, which is the
default for Postscript output, virtual inches will the same as real
inches. But a different page size may be specified; for example, by
using the `--page-size a4' option. If so, a virtual inch will
simply equal one-eighth of the width of the graphics display. On A4
paper, the graphics display is a square of size 19.81cm.
By default, each figure is centered in the graphics display. You may turn off centering, so that you can use absolute coordinates, by using the `-n' option. For example, a figure consisting only of the object `arrow from (8,8) to (4,4)' will be positioned in the absence of centering so that the head of the arrow is at the center of the display. Its tail will be at the upper right corner.
The thickness of lines is not specified in terms of virtual inches. For
compatibility with gpic, it is specified in terms of virtual
points. The example above, which specifies the `thickness'
attribute of one of the objects, illustrates this. There are 72
virtual points per virtual inch.
If there is more than one figure to be displayed, they will appear in
different X windows, or on successive pages of the output file.
Some output formats (such as PNM, pseudo-GIF, Illustrator, and Fig)
support only a single page of graphics. If any of those output
formats is chosen, only the first figure will appear in the output file.
Currently, pic2plot cannot produce animated pseudo-GIFs.
The preceding survey does not do justice to the pic language, which is actually a full-featured programming language, with support for variables, looping constructs, etc. Its advanced features make the drawing of large, repetitive diagrams quite easy.
pic2plot command-line options
The pic2plot program translates files in the pic language, which
is used for creating box-and-arrow diagrams of the kind frequently found
in technical papers and textbooks, to other graphics formats. The
output format or display type is specified with the `-T' option.
The possible output formats are the same formats that are supported by
the GNU graph and plot programs.
Input file names may be specified anywhere on the command line. That is, the relative order of file names and command-line options does not matter. If no files are specified, or the file name `-' is specified, the standard input is read. An output file is written to standard output, unless the `-T X' option is specified. In that case the output is displayed in one or more windows on an X Window System display, and there is no output file.
The full set of command-line options is listed below. There are three sorts of option:
pic2plot, i.e., relevant only if no
display type or output format is specified with the `-T' option.
Each option that takes an argument is followed, in parentheses, by the type and default value of the argument.
The following are general options.
idraw-editable Postscript, the WebCGM format for Web-based vector
graphics, the format used by the xfig drawing editor, the
Hewlett--Packard PCL 5 printer language, the Hewlett--Packard
Graphics Language (by default, HP-GL/2), Tektronix format, and
device-independent GNU graphics metafile format.
libplot.
This option may produce slightly better-looking dashed and dotted lines.
However, it will come at a price: if an editable output file is produced
(i.e., an output file in Illustrator, Postscript or Fig format),
it will be difficulty to modify its dashed and dotted lines with a
drawing editor.
pic2plot -T pcl, for
which "Univers" is the default, and pic2plot -T pnm,
pic2plot -T gif, pic2plot -T hpgl, pic2plot -T tek,
and raw pic2plot, for all of which "HersheySerif" is the
default.) Set the font used for text to font_name. Font names
are case-insensitive. If the specified font is not available, the
default font will be used. Which fonts are available depends on which
`-T' option is used. For a list of all fonts, see section A.1 Available text fonts. The plotfont utility will produce a character map of any
available font. See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
libplot graphics library should be used.
This is usually 1/850 times the size of the display, although if
`-T X', `-T pnm', or `-T gif' is specified, it is zero.
By convention, a zero-thickness line is the thinnest line that can be
drawn. This is the case in all output formats. Note, however, that the
drawing editors idraw and xfig treat zero-thickness lines
as invisible.
pic2plot -T hpgl does not support drawing lines with other than a
default thickness if the environment variable HPGL_VERSION is set
to a value less than "2" (the default).
pic2plot -T X,
pic2plot -T pnm, pic2plot -T gif, and pic2plot -T
cgm. An unrecognized name sets the color to the default. For
information on what names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name. The
environment variable BG_COLOR can equally well be used to specify
the background color.
If the `-T gif' option is used, a transparent pseudo-GIF may be
produced by setting the TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable to
the name of the background color. See section 4.3 Environment variables.
pic2plot -T X,
pic2plot -T pnm, and pic2plot -T gif, for all of which the
size can be expressed in terms of pixels. The environment variable
BITMAPSIZE may equally well be used to specify the size.
The graphics display used by pic2plot -T X is a popped-up X
window. Command-line positioning of this window on an X Window
System display is supported. For example, if bitmap_size is
"570x570+0+0" then the window will be popped up in the upper left
corner.
If you choose a rectangular (non-square) window size, the fonts in the
plot will be scaled anisotropically, i.e., by different factors in the
horizontal and vertical direction. For this, pic2plot -T X
requires an X11R6 display. Any font that cannot be anisotropically
scaled will be replaced by a default scalable font, such as the Hershey
vector font "HersheySerif".
For backward compatibility, pic2plot -T X allows the user to set
the window size and position by setting the X resource
Xplot.geometry, instead of `--bitmap-size' or
BITMAPSIZE.
MAX_LINE_LENGTH
can also be used to specify the maximum line length. This option has no
effect on raw pic2plot, since it draws polylines in real time and
has no buffer limitations.
pic2plot -T ai,
pic2plot -T ps, pic2plot -T cgm, pic2plot -T fig,
pic2plot -T pcl, and pic2plot -T hpgl. "letter" means an
8.5in by 11in page. Any ISO page size in the range
"a0"..."a4" or ANSI page size in the range "a"..."e" may be
specified ("letter" is an alias for "a" and "tabloid" is an alias
for "b"). "legal", "ledger", and "b5" are recognized page sizes
also. The environment variable PAGESIZE can equally well be used
to specify the page size.
For pic2plot -T ai, pic2plot -T ps, pic2plot -T
pcl, and pic2plot -T fig, the graphics display within which the
plot is drawn will be a square region centered on the specified page.
For pic2plot -T hpgl, it will be a square region of the same
size, but may be positioned differently. The position of the graphics
display may be adjusted by specifying an offset vector. For example,
the argument of `--page-size' could be "letter,yoffset=1.2in", or
"a4,xoffset=-5mm,yoffset=2.0cm". Although WebCGM format supports
the specification of a default graphics display size, it has no notion
of the size of the Web page on which the graphics display will
ultimately be positioned. So pic2plot -T cgm ignores the offset
vector. For more on page sizes, see section C Page Sizes and Viewport Sizes.
ROTATION can equally well be used to specify the rotation angle.
This option is used for switching between portrait and landscape
orientations. Postmodernists may also find it useful.
The following option is relevant only to raw pic2plot, i.e.,
relevant only if no display type or output format is specified with the
`-T' option. In this case pic2plot outputs a graphics
metafile, which may be translated to other formats by invoking
plot.
META_PORTABLE to "yes".
The following options request information.
pic2plot -T X, pic2plot -T ai, pic2plot
-T ps, pic2plot -T cgm, and pic2plot -T fig each support
the 35 standard Postscript fonts. pic2plot -T ai, pic2plot
-T pcl, and pic2plot -T hpgl support the 45 standard PCL 5
fonts, and pic2plot -T pcl and pic2plot -T hpgl support a
number of Hewlett--Packard vector fonts. All of the preceding, together
with pic2plot -T pnm, pic2plot -T gif, and pic2plot
-T tek, support a set of 22 Hershey vector fonts. Raw pic2plot
in principle supports any of these fonts, since its output must be
translated to other formats with plot. The plotfont
utility will produce a character map of any available font.
See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
pic2plot and the plotting utilities
package, and exit.
The behavior of pic2plot is affected by several environment
variables. We have already mentioned the environment variables
BITMAPSIZE, PAGESIZE, BG_COLOR,
MAX_LINE_LENGTH, and ROTATION. They serve as backups for
the several options `--bitmap-size', `--page-size',
`--bg-color', `--max-line-length', and `--rotation'. The
remaining environment variables are specific to individual output
formats.
pic2plot -T X, which pops up a window on an X Window
System display for each figure, checks the DISPLAY environment
variable. The value of this variable determines the display on which
the windows will be popped up.
pic2plot -T pnm, which produces output in Portable Anymap
(PBM/PGM/PPM) format, is affected by the PNM_PORTABLE environment
variable. If its value is "yes", the output file will be in the
portable (human readable) version of PBM, PGM, or PPM format, rather
than the default (binary) version.
pic2plot -T gif, which produces output in pseudo-GIF format, is
affected by two environment variables. If the value of the
INTERLACE variable is "yes", the pseudo-GIF output file will be
in interlaced format. Also, if the value of the
TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable is the name of a color
that appears in the output file, that color will be treated as
transparent by most applications that display GIF files. For
information on what color names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name.
pic2plot -T cgm, which produces CGM files that comply with the
WebCGM profile for Web-based vector graphics, is affected by two
environment variables. By default, a version 3 CGM file is
generated. Many older CGM interpreters and viewers, such as the ones
built into Microsoft Office and other commercial software, only support
version 1 CGM files. The CGM_MAX_VERSION environment
variable may be set to "1", "2", "3", or "4" (the default) to
specify an upper bound on the version number. The CGM_ENCODING
variable may also be set, to specify the type of encoding used in the
CGM file. Supported values are "clear_text" (i.e., human readable) and
"binary" (the default). The WebCGM profile requires that the binary
encoding be used.
pic2plot -T pcl, which produces PCL 5 output for
Hewlett--Packard printers, is affected by the environment variable
PCL_ASSIGN_COLORS. It should be set to "yes" when producing
PCL 5 output for a color printer or other color device. This will
ensure accurate color reproduction by giving the output device complete
freedom in assigning colors, internally, to its "logical pens". If it
is "no" then the device will use a fixed set of colored pens, and will
emulate other colors by shading. The default is "no" because monochrome
PCL 5 devices, which are much more common than colored ones, must
use shading to emulate color.
pic2plot -T hpgl, which produces Hewlett--Packard Graphics
Language output, is also affected by several environment variables. The
most important is HPGL_VERSION, which may be set to "1", "1.5",
or "2" (the default). "1" means that the output should be
generic HP-GL, "1.5" means that the output should be suitable for
the HP7550A graphics plotter and the HP758x, HP7595A and HP7596A
drafting plotters (HP-GL with some HP-GL/2 extensions), and "2"
means that the output should be modern HP-GL/2. If the version is
"1" or "1.5" then the only available fonts will be vector fonts, and
all lines will be drawn with a default thickness (the `-W' option
will not work). Additionally, if the version is "1" then the
filling of arbitrary curves with solid color will not be supported
(circles and rectangles aligned with the coordinate axes may be filled,
though).
The position of the pic2plot -T hpgl graphics display on the page
can be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise on the page by setting
the HPGL_ROTATE environment variable to "yes". This is not the
same as the rotation obtained with the `--rotation' option, since
it both rotates the graphics display and repositions its lower left
corner toward another corner of the page. Besides "no" and "yes",
recognized values for the HPGL_ROTATE variable are "0", "90",
"180", and "270". "no" and "yes" are equivalent to "0" and
"90", respectively. "180" and "270" are supported only if
HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default).
Opaque filling and the drawing of visible white lines are
supported only if HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default) and the
environment variable HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE is "yes" (the default).
If the value is "no" then opaque filling will not be used, and white
lines (if any), which are normally drawn with pen #0, will not
be drawn. This feature is to accommodate older HP-GL/2 devices.
HP-GL/2 pen plotters, for example, do not support opacity or the use
of pen #0 to draw visible white lines. Some older HP-GL/2 devices
reportedly malfunction if asked to draw opaque objects.
By default, pic2plot -T hpgl will draw with a fixed set of
pens. Which pens are present may be specified by setting the
HPGL_PENS environment variable. If HPGL_VERSION is
"1", the default value of HPGL_PENS is "1=black"; if
HPGL_VERSION is "1.5" or "2", the default value of
HPGL_PENS is
"1=black:2=red:3=green:4=yellow:5=blue:6=magenta:7=cyan". The format
should be self-explanatory. By setting HPGL_PENS, you may
specify a color for any pen in the range #1...#31. For information
on what color names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name. Pen #1
must always be present, though it need not be black. Any other pen in
the range #1...#31 may be omitted.
If HPGL_VERSION is "2" then pic2plot -T hpgl will also be
affected by the environment variable HPGL_ASSIGN_COLORS. If
the value of this variable is "yes", then plot -T hpgl will not
be restricted to the palette specified in HPGL_PENS: it will
assign colors to "logical pens" in the range #1...#31, as
needed. The default value is "no" because other than color LaserJet
printers and DesignJet plotters, not many HP-GL/2 devices allow the
assignment of colors to logical pens.
pic2plot -T tek, which produces output for a Tektronix terminal
or emulator, checks the TERM environment variable. If the
value of TERM is "xterm", "xterms", or "kterm", it is taken
as a sign that the current application is running in an X Window
System VT100 terminal emulator: an xterm. Before drawing
graphics, pic2plot -T tek will emit an escape sequence that
causes the terminal emulator's auxiliary Tektronix window, which is
normally hidden, to pop up. After the graphics are drawn, an escape
sequence that returns control to the original VT100 window will be
emitted. The Tektronix window will remain on the screen.
If the value of TERM is "kermit", "ansi.sys", "ansissys",
"ansi.sysk", or "ansisysk", it is taken as a sign that the current
application is running in the VT100 terminal emulator provided by the
MS-DOS version of kermit. Before drawing graphics,
pic2plot -T tek will emit an escape sequence that switches the
terminal emulator to Tektronix mode. Also, some of the Tektronix
control codes emitted by pic2plot -T tek will be
kermit-specific. There will be a limited amount of color
support, which is not normally the case (the 16 ansi.sys colors
will be supported). After drawing graphics, pic2plot -T tek will
emit an escape sequence that returns the emulator to VT100 mode. The
key sequence `ALT minus' can be employed manually within
kermit to switch between the two modes.
tek2plot Programtek2plot is used for
GNU tek2plot is a command-line Tektronix translator. It displays
Tektronix graphics files, or translates them to other formats. The
`-T' option is used to specify the output format or display type.
Supported output formats include "X", "pnm", "gif", "ai", "ps", "cgm",
"fig", "pcl", "hpgl", "tek", and "meta" (the default). These are the
same formats that are supported by the GNU graph, plot,
and pic2plot programs. tek2plot will take input from a
file specified on the command line or from standard input, just as the
plot filter plot does.
Tektronix graphics files are produced by many older applications, such as SKYMAP, a powerful astronomical display program. A directory containing sample Tektronix graphics files, which you may experiment with, is distributed along with the GNU plotting utilities. On most systems it is installed as `/usr/share/tek2plot' or `/usr/local/share/tek2plot'.
Tektronix graphics format is defined as a noninteractive version of the
graphics format understood by Tektronix 4010/4014 terminals, as
documented in the 4014 Service Manual, Tektronix Inc., 1974
(Tektronix Part #070-1648-00). tek2plot does not support
interactive features such as graphics input mode ("GIN mode") or
status enquiry. However, it does support a few additional features
provided by popular Tektronix emulators, such as the color extensions
supported by the Tektronix emulator contained in the MS-DOS version of
kermit.
tek2plot command-line options
The tek2plot program translates the Tektronix graphics files
produced by many older applications to other formats. The output format
or display type is specified with the `-T' option. The possible
output formats are the same formats that are supported by the GNU
graph, plot, and pic2plot programs.
Input file names may be specified anywhere on the command line. That is, the relative order of file names and command-line options does not matter. If no files are specified, or the file name `-' is specified, the standard input is read. An output file is written to standard output, unless the `-T X' option is specified. In that case the output is displayed in one or more windows on an X Window System display, and there is no output file.
The full set of command-line options is listed below. There are three sorts of option:
tek2plot, i.e., relevant only if no
display type or output format is specified with the `-T' option.
Each option that takes an argument is followed, in parentheses, by the type and default value of the argument.
The following are general options.
idraw-editable Postscript, the WebCGM format for Web-based vector
graphics, the format used by the xfig drawing editor, the
Hewlett--Packard PCL 5 printer language, the Hewlett--Packard
Graphics Language (by default, HP-GL/2), Tektronix format, and
device-independent GNU graphics metafile format.
tek2plot -T X
displays each page in its own X window. If the `-T pnm'
option, the `-T gif' option, the `-T ai' option, or the
`-T fig' option is used, the default behavior is to display only
the first page, since files in PNM, pseudo-GIF, AI, or Fig format may
contain only a single page of graphics.
Most Tektronix files consist of either one page (page #0) or
two pages (an empty page #0, and page #1). Tektronix files
produced by the GNU plotting utilities (e.g., by graph -T tek)
are normally of the latter sort.
tek2plot -T pnm,
tek2plot -T gif, tek2plot -T hpgl, and raw
tek2plot, for all of which "HersheySerif" is the default.) Set
the font used for text to font_name. Font names are
case-insensitive. If a font outside the Courier family is chosen,
the `--position-chars' option (see below) should probably be used.
For a list of all fonts, see section A.1 Available text fonts. If the specified
font is not available, the default font will be used.
If you intend to print a PCL 5 file prepared with tek2plot -T
pcl on a LaserJet III, you should specify a font other than Courier.
That is because the LaserJet III, which was Hewlett--Packard's first
PCL 5 printer, did not come with a scalable Courier typeface. The
only PCL 5 fonts it supported were the eight fonts in the CGTimes
and Univers families. See section A.1 Available text fonts.
libplot graphics library should be used.
This is usually 1/850 times the size of the display, although if
`-T X', `-T pnm', or `-T gif' is specified, it is zero.
By convention, a zero-thickness line is the thinnest line that can be
drawn. This is the case in all output formats. Note, however, that the
drawing editors idraw and xfig treat zero-thickness lines
as invisible.
tek2plot -T hpgl does not support drawing lines with other than a
default thickness if the environment variable HPGL_VERSION is set
to a value less than "2" (the default).
tek2plot -T X,
tek2plot -T pnm, tek2plot -T gif, and tek2plot -T
cgm. An unrecognized name sets the color to the default. For
information on what names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name. The
environment variable BG_COLOR can equally well be used to specify
the background color.
If the `-T gif' option is used, a transparent pseudo-GIF may be
produced by setting the TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable to
the name of the background color. See section 5.3 Environment variables.
tek2plot -T X,
tek2plot -T pnm, and tek2plot -T gif, for all of which the
size can be expressed in terms of pixels. The environment variable
BITMAPSIZE may equally well be used to specify the size.
The graphics display used by tek2plot -T X is a popped-up X
window. Command-line positioning of this window on an X Window
System display is supported. For example, if bitmap_size is
"570x570+0+0" then the window will be popped up in the upper left
corner.
If you choose a rectangular (non-square) window size, the fonts in the
plot will be scaled anisotropically, i.e., by different factors in the
horizontal and vertical direction. For this, tek2plot -T X
requires an X11R6 display. Any font that cannot be anisotropically
scaled will be replaced by a default scalable font, such as the Hershey
vector font "HersheySerif".
For backward compatibility, tek2plot -T X allows the user to set
the window size and position by setting the X resource
Xplot.geometry, instead of `--bitmap-size' or
BITMAPSIZE.
MAX_LINE_LENGTH
can also be used to specify the maximum line length. This option has no
effect on raw tek2plot, since it draws polylines in real time and
has no buffer limitations.
tek2plot -T ai,
tek2plot -T ps, tek2plot -T cgm, tek2plot -T fig,
tek2plot -T pcl, and tek2plot -T hpgl. "letter" means an
8.5in by 11in page. Any ISO page size in the range
"a0"..."a4" or ANSI page size in the range "a"..."e" may be
specified ("letter" is an alias for "a" and "tabloid" is an alias
for "b"). "legal", "ledger", and "b5" are recognized page sizes
also. The environment variable PAGESIZE can equally well be used
to specify the page size.
For tek2plot -T ai, tek2plot -T ps, tek2plot -T
pcl, and tek2plot -T fig, the graphics display within which the
plot is drawn will be a square region centered on the specified page.
For tek2plot -T hpgl, it will be a square region of the same
size, but may be positioned differently. The position of the graphics
display may be adjusted by specifying an offset vector. For example,
the argument of `--page-size' could be "letter,yoffset=1.2in", or
"a4,xoffset=-5mm,yoffset=2.0cm". Although WebCGM format supports
the specification of a default graphics display size, it has no notion
of the size of the Web page on which the graphics display will
ultimately be positioned. So tek2plot -T cgm ignores the offset
vector. For more on page sizes, see section C Page Sizes and Viewport Sizes.
xfig or
idraw.
ROTATION can equally well be used to specify the rotation angle.
This option is used for switching between portrait and landscape
orientations. Postmodernists may also find it useful.
tek2plot -T X.
The four relevant bitmap fonts are distributed with most versions of the
plotting utilities package, under the names
tekfont0...tekfont3. They may easily be installed on
any modern X Window System display. For this option to work
properly, you must also select a window size of 1024x1024 pixels, either
by using the `--bitmap-size 1024x1024' option or by setting the
value of the Xplot.geometry resource. The reason for this
restriction is that bitmap fonts, unlike the scalable fonts that the
plotting utilities normally use, cannot be rescaled.
This option is useful only if you have a file in Tektronix format that
draws text using native Tektronix fonts. Tektronix files produced by
the GNU plotting utilities (e.g., by graph -T tek) do not use
native Tektronix fonts to draw text.
The following option is relevant only to raw tek2plot, i.e.,
relevant only if no display type or output format is specified with the
`-T' option. In this case tek2plot outputs a graphics
metafile, which may be translated to other formats by invoking
plot.
META_PORTABLE to "yes".
The following options request information.
tek2plot -T X, tek2plot -T ai, tek2plot
-T ps, tek2plot -T cgm, and tek2plot -T fig each support
the 35 standard Postscript fonts. tek2plot -T ai, tek2plot
-T pcl, and tek2plot -T hpgl support the 45 standard PCL 5
fonts, and tek2plot -T pcl and tek2plot -T hpgl support a
number of Hewlett--Packard vector fonts. All of the preceding, together
with tek2plot -T pnm, tek2plot -T gif, and tek2plot
-T tek, support a set of 22 Hershey vector fonts. Raw tek2plot
in principle supports any of these fonts, since its output must be
translated to other formats with plot. The plotfont
utility will produce a character map of any available font.
See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
tek2plot and the plotting utilities
package, and exit.
The behavior of tek2plot is affected by several environment
variables, which are the same as those that affect graph and
plot. For convenience, we list them here.
We have already mentioned the environment variables BITMAPSIZE,
PAGESIZE, BG_COLOR, MAX_LINE_LENGTH, and
ROTATION. They serve as backups for the several options
`--bitmap-size', `--page-size', `--bg-color',
`--max-line-length', and `--rotation'. The remaining
environment variables are specific to individual output formats.
tek2plot -T X, which pops up a window on an X Window
System display and draws graphics in it, checks the DISPLAY
environment variable. The value of this variable determines the display
on which the window will be popped up.
tek2plot -T pnm, which produces output in Portable Anymap
(PBM/PGM/PPM) format, is affected by the PNM_PORTABLE environment
variable. If its value is "yes", the output file will be in the
portable (human readable) version of PBM, PGM, or PPM format, rather
than the default (binary) version.
tek2plot -T gif, which produces output in pseudo-GIF format, is
affected by two environment variables. If the value of the
INTERLACE variable is "yes", the pseudo-GIF output file will be
in interlaced format. Also, if the value of the
TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable is the name of a color
that appears in the output file, that color will be treated as
transparent by most applications that display GIF files. For
information on what color names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name.
tek2plot -T cgm, which produces CGM files that comply with the
WebCGM profile for Web-based vector graphics, is affected by two
environment variables. By default, a version 3 CGM file is
generated. Many older CGM interpreters and viewers, such as the ones
built into Microsoft Office and other commercial software, only support
version 1 CGM files. The CGM_MAX_VERSION environment
variable may be set to "1", "2", "3", or "4" (the default) to
specify an upper bound on the version number. The CGM_ENCODING
variable may also be set, to specify the type of encoding used in the
CGM file. Supported values are "clear_text" (i.e., human readable) and
"binary" (the default). The WebCGM profile requires that the binary
encoding be used.
tek2plot -T pcl, which produces PCL 5 output for
Hewlett--Packard printers, is affected by the environment variable
PCL_ASSIGN_COLORS. It should be set to "yes" when producing
PCL 5 output for a color printer or other color device. This will
ensure accurate color reproduction by giving the output device complete
freedom in assigning colors, internally, to its "logical pens". If it
is "no" then the device will use a fixed set of colored pens, and will
emulate other colors by shading. The default is "no" because monochrome
PCL 5 devices, which are much more common than colored ones, must
use shading to emulate color.
tek2plot -T hpgl, which produces Hewlett--Packard Graphics
Language output, is also affected by several environment variables. The
most important is HPGL_VERSION, which may be set to "1", "1.5",
or "2" (the default). "1" means that the output should be
generic HP-GL, "1.5" means that the output should be suitable for
the HP7550A graphics plotter and the HP758x, HP7595A and HP7596A
drafting plotters (HP-GL with some HP-GL/2 extensions), and "2"
means that the output should be modern HP-GL/2. If the version is
"1" or "1.5" then the only available fonts will be vector fonts, and
all lines will be drawn with a default thickness (the `-W' option
will not work).
The position of the tek2plot -T hpgl graphics display on the page
can be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise on the page by setting
the HPGL_ROTATE environment variable to "yes". This is not the
same as the rotation obtained with the `--rotation' option, since
it both rotates the graphics display and repositions its lower left
corner toward another corner of the page. Besides "no" and "yes",
recognized values for the HPGL_ROTATE variable are "0", "90",
"180", and "270". "no" and "yes" are equivalent to "0" and
"90", respectively. "180" and "270" are supported only if
HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default).
The drawing of visible white lines is supported only if
HPGL_VERSION is "2" and the environment variable
HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE is "yes" (the default). If the value is
"no" then white lines (if any), which are normally drawn with pen
#0, will not be drawn. This feature is to accommodate older HP-GL/2
devices. HP-GL/2 pen plotters, for example, do not support the use
of pen #0 to draw visible white lines. Some older HP-GL/2 devices
may, in fact, malfunction if asked to draw opaque objects.
By default, tek2plot -T hpgl will draw with a fixed set of
pens. Which pens are present may be specified by setting the
HPGL_PENS environment variable. If HPGL_VERSION is
"1", the default value of HPGL_PENS is "1=black"; if
HPGL_VERSION is "1.5" or "2", the default value of
HPGL_PENS is
"1=black:2=red:3=green:4=yellow:5=blue:6=magenta:7=cyan". The format
should be self-explanatory. By setting HPGL_PENS, you may
specify a color for any pen in the range #1...#31. For information
on what color names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name. Pen #1
must always be present, though it need not be black. Any other pen in
the range #1...#31 may be omitted.
If HPGL_VERSION is "2" then tek2plot -T hpgl will also be
affected by the environment variable HPGL_ASSIGN_COLORS. If
the value of this variable is "yes", then tek2plot -T hpgl will
not be restricted to the palette specified in HPGL_PENS: it
will assign colors to "logical pens" in the range #1...#31, as
needed. The default value is "no" because other than color LaserJet
printers and DesignJet plotters, not many HP-GL/2 devices allow the
assignment of colors to logical pens.
plotfont Utilityplotfont
GNU plotfont is a simple utility that will produce a character
map for any font available to the GNU plotting utilities graph,
plot, pic2plot, and tek2plot, and the GNU
libplot graphics library on which they are based. The map may be
displayed on an X Window System display, or produced in any of
several output formats. The `-T' option is used to specify the
desired output format. Supported output formats include "X", "pnm",
"gif", "ai", "ps", "cgm", "fig", "pcl", "hpgl", "tek", and "meta" (the
default).
Which fonts are available depends on the choice of display or output format. To get a list of the available fonts, use the `--help-fonts' option. For example,
plotfont -T ps --help-fonts
will list the fonts that are available when producing Postscript output. One of these fonts is "Times-Roman". Doing
plotfont -T ps Times-Roman > map.ps
will produce a character map of the lower half of this font, which consists of printable ASCII characters. The map will be a 12x8 grid, with a character centered in each grid cell. If you include the `-2' option, you will get a map of the upper half of the font.
Most built-in fonts are ISO-Latin-1 fonts, which means that the upper half is arranged according to the ISO-Latin-1 encoding. The "HersheyCyrillic" font is one that is not. If you do
plotfont -T ps -2 HersheyCyrillic > map.ps
you will get a map that illustrates its arrangment, which is called KOI8-R. The KOI8-R arrangement is the standard for Unix and networking applications in the former Soviet Union. So-called dingbats fonts, such as "ZapfDingbats" and "Wingdings", also have an individualistic layout. In most installations of the plotting utilities, the Wingdings font is not available when producing Postscript output. However, it is available when producing output in PCL 5 or HP-GL/2 format. If you do
plotfont -T hpgl Wingdings > map.plt
you will get a Wingdings character map, in HP-GL/2 format, that may be
imported into any application that understands HP-GL/2. Similarly,
plot -T pcl Wingdings will produce a Wingdings character map in
PCL 5 format, which may be printed on a LaserJet or other PCL 5
device.
In all, more than a hundred fonts are built into the plotting utilities. See section A.1 Available text fonts. Actually, if you are using the plotting utilities to display output on an X display, you are not restricted to the built-in fonts. Doing
plotfont -T X --help-fonts
produces a list of the built-in fonts that are available, including both
Hershey and Postscript fonts. But fonts available on your X display
may also be used. The xlsfonts command will list the fonts
available on your X display, most font names being given in what is
called XLFD format. The plotting utilities refer to X fonts by
shortened versions of their XLFD names. For example, the font
"Utopia-Regular" is available on many X displays. Its XLFD name is
"-adobe-utopia-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1", and its
shortened XLFD name is "utopia-medium-r-normal". If you do
plotfont -T X utopia-medium-r-normal
then a character map for this font will be displayed in a popped-up X window.
When using the `-T X' option, you may also use the `--bitmap-size' option to choose the size of the popped-up window. Modern X displays can scale fonts by different amounts in the horizontal and vertical directions. If, for example, you add `--bitmap-size 600x300' to the above command line, both the character map and the Utopia-Regular font within it will be scaled in this way. If your X display does not support font scaling, a scalable font will be substituted.
plotfont command-line options
The plotfont font display utility will produce a character map
for any of the fonts available to the GNU plotting utilities
graph, plot, pic2plot, and tek2plot, and the
GNU libplot graphics library on which they are based. The map
may be produced in any supported output format, or displayed on an X
Window System display. The output format or display type is specified
with the `-T' option.
The names of the fonts for which a character map will be produced may
appear anywhere on the plotfont command line. That is, the
relative order of font names and command-line options does not matter.
The character map is written to standard output, unless the `-T X'
option is specified. In that case the character map is displayed in
a window on an X Window System display, and there is no output file.
The possible options are listed below. There are three sorts of option:
plotfont, i.e., relevant only if no
display type or output format is specified with the `-T' option.
Each option that takes an argument is followed, in parentheses, by the type and default value of the argument.
The following are general options.
idraw-editable Postscript, the WebCGM format for Web-based vector
graphics, the format used by the xfig drawing editor, the
Hewlett--Packard PCL 5 printer language, the Hewlett--Packard
Graphics Language (by default, HP-GL/2), Tektronix format, and
device-independent GNU graphics metafile format.
Files in PNM, pseudo-GIF, AI, or Fig format may contain only a single
page of graphics. So if the `-T pnm' option, the `-T gif'
option, the `-T ai' option, or the `-T fig' option is used,
a character map will be produced for only the first-specified font.
plotfont -T X,
plotfont -T pnm, plotfont -T gif, and plotfont -T
cgm. An unrecognized name sets the color to the default. For
information on what names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name. The
environment variable BG_COLOR can equally well be used to specify
the background color.
If the `-T gif' option is used, a transparent pseudo-GIF may be
produced by setting the TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable to
the name of the background color. See section 6.3 Environment variables.
plotfont -T X,
plotfont -T pnm, and plotfont -T gif, for all of which the
size can be expressed in terms of pixels. The environment variable
BITMAPSIZE may equally well be used to specify the size.
The graphics display used by plotfont -T X is a popped-up X
window. Command-line positioning of this window on an X Window
System display is supported. For example, if bitmap_size is
"570x570+0+0" then the window will be popped up in the upper left
corner.
If you choose a rectangular (non-square) window size, the fonts in the
plot will be scaled anisotropically, i.e., by different factors in the
horizontal and vertical direction. For this, plotfont -T X
requires an X11R6 display. Any font that cannot be anisotropically
scaled will be replaced by a default scalable font, such as the Hershey
vector font "HersheySerif".
For backward compatibility, plotfont -T X allows the user to set
the window size and position by setting the X resource
Xplot.geometry, instead of `--bitmap-size' or
BITMAPSIZE.
plot2font -T pcl, for
which "Univers" is the default, and plotfont -T pnm,
plotfont -T gif, plotfont -T hpgl and plotfont -T
tek, for all of which "HersheySerif" is the default.) Set the font
used for the numbering of the characters in the character map(s) to be
font_name.
plotfont
-T ai, plotfont -T ps, plotfont -T fig, plotfont -T
pcl, and plotfont -T hpgl. "letter" means an 8.5in by
11in page. Any ISO page size in the range "a0"..."a4" or ANSI
page size in the range "a"..."e" may be specified ("letter" is an
alias for "a" and "tabloid" is an alias for "b"). "legal",
"ledger", and "b5" are recognized page sizes also. The environment
variable PAGESIZE can equally well be used to specify the page
size.
For plotfont -T ai, plotfont -T ps, plotfont -T
pcl, and plotfont -T fig, the graphics display within which the
character map(s) will be positioned will be a square region centered on
the specified page. For plotfont -T hpgl, it will be a square
region of the same size, but may be positioned differently. The
position of the graphics display may be adjusted by specifying an offset
vector. For example, the argument of `--page-size' could be
"letter,yoffset=1.2in", or "a4,xoffset=-5mm,yoffset=2.0cm".
Although WebCGM format supports the specification of a default graphics
display size, it has no notion of the size of the Web page on which the
graphics display will ultimately be positioned. So plotfont -T
cgm ignores the offset vector. For more on page sizes, see section C Page Sizes and Viewport Sizes.
ROTATION can equally well be used to specify the rotation angle.
This option is used for switching between portrait and landscape
orientations. Postmodernists may also find it useful.
The following option is relevant only to raw plotfont, i.e.,
relevant only if no display type or output format is specified with the
`-T' option. In this case plotfont outputs a graphics
metafile, which may be translated to other formats by invoking
plot.
META_PORTABLE to "yes".
The following options request information.
plotfont -T X, plotfont -T ai, plotfont
-T ps, plotfont -T cgm, and plotfont -T fig each support
the 35 standard Postscript fonts. plotfont -T ai, plotfont
-T pcl, and plotfont -T hpgl support the 45 standard PCL 5
fonts, and plotfont -T pcl and plotfont -T hpgl support a
number of Hewlett--Packard vector fonts. All of the preceding, together
with plotfont -T pnm, plotfont -T gif, and plotfont
-T tek, support a set of 22 Hershey vector fonts. Raw plotfont
in principle supports any of these fonts, since its output must be
translated to other formats with plot.
plotfont and the plotting utilities
package, and exit.
The behavior of plotfont is affected by several environment
variables, which are the same as those that affect graph,
plot, and tek2plot. For convenience, we list them here.
We have already mentioned the environment variables BITMAPSIZE,
PAGESIZE, BG_COLOR, and ROTATION. They serve as
backups for the several options `--bitmap-size',
`--page-size', `--bg-color', and `--rotation'. The
remaining environment variables are specific to individual output
formats.
plotfont -T X, which pops up a window on an X Window
System display and draws a character map in it, checks the
DISPLAY environment variable. The value of this variable
determines the display on which the window will be popped up.
plotfont -T pnm, which produces output in Portable Anymap
(PBM/PGM/PPM) format, is affected by the PNM_PORTABLE environment
variable. If its value is "yes", the output file will be in the
portable (human readable) version of PBM, PGM, or PPM format, rather
than the default (binary) version.
plotfont -T gif, which produces output in pseudo-GIF format, is
affected by two environment variables. If the value of the
INTERLACE variable is "yes", the pseudo-GIF output file will be
in interlaced format. Also, if the value of the
TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable is the name of a color
that appears in the output file, that color will be treated as
transparent by most applications that display GIF files. For
information on what color names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name.
plotfont -T cgm, which produces CGM files that comply with the
WebCGM profile for Web-based vector graphics, is affected by two
environment variables. By default, a version 3 CGM file is
generated. Many older CGM interpreters and viewers, such as the ones
built into Microsoft Office and other commercial software, only support
version 1 CGM files. The CGM_MAX_VERSION environment
variable may be set to "1", "2", "3", or "4" (the default) to
specify an upper bound on the version number. The CGM_ENCODING
variable may also be set, to specify the type of encoding used in the
CGM file. Supported values are "clear_text" (i.e., human readable) and
"binary" (the default). The WebCGM profile requires that the binary
encoding be used.
plotfont -T pcl, which produces PCL 5 output for
Hewlett--Packard printers, is affected by the environment variable
PCL_ASSIGN_COLORS. It should be set to "yes" when producing
PCL 5 output for a color printer or other color device. This will
ensure accurate color reproduction by giving the output device complete
freedom in assigning colors, internally, to its "logical pens". If it
is "no" then the device will use a fixed set of colored pens, and will
emulate other colors by shading. The default is "no" because monochrome
PCL 5 devices, which are much more common than colored ones, must
use shading to emulate color.
plotfont -T hpgl, which produces Hewlett--Packard Graphics
Language output, is also affected by several environment variables. The
most important is HPGL_VERSION, which may be set to "1", "1.5",
or "2" (the default). "1" means that the output should be
generic HP-GL, "1.5" means that the output should be suitable for
the HP7550A graphics plotter and the HP758x, HP7595A and HP7596A
drafting plotters (HP-GL with some HP-GL/2 extensions), and "2"
means that the output should be modern HP-GL/2. If the version is
"1" or "1.5" then the only available fonts will be vector fonts.
The position of the plotfont -T hpgl graphics display on the page
can be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise on the page by setting
the HPGL_ROTATE environment variable to "yes". This is not the
same as the rotation obtained with the `--rotation' option, since
it both rotates the graphics display and repositions its lower left
corner toward another corner of the page. Besides "no" and "yes",
recognized values for the HPGL_ROTATE variable are "0", "90",
"180", and "270". "no" and "yes" are equivalent to "0" and
"90", respectively. "180" and "270" are supported only if
HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default).
By default, plotfont -T hpgl will draw with a fixed set of
pens. Which pens are present may be specified by setting the
HPGL_PENS environment variable. If HPGL_VERSION is
"1", the default value of HPGL_PENS is "1=black"; if
HPGL_VERSION is "1.5" or "2", the default value of
HPGL_PENS is
"1=black:2=red:3=green:4=yellow:5=blue:6=magenta:7=cyan". The format
should be self-explanatory. By setting HPGL_PENS, you may
specify a color for any pen in the range #1...#31. For information
on what color names are recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name. Pen #1
must always be present, though it need not be black. Any other pen in
the range #1...#31 may be omitted.
If HPGL_VERSION is "2" then plotfont -T hpgl will also be
affected by the environment variable HPGL_ASSIGN_COLORS. If
the value of this variable is "yes", then plotfont -T hpgl will
not be restricted to the palette specified in HPGL_PENS: it
will assign colors to "logical pens" in the range #1...#31, as
needed. The default value is "no" because other than color LaserJet
printers and DesignJet plotters, not many HP-GL/2 devices allow the
assignment of colors to logical pens.
plotfont -T tek, which produces output for a Tektronix terminal
or emulator, checks the TERM environment variable. If the
value of TERM is "xterm", "xterms", or "kterm", it is taken
as a sign that the current application is running in an X Window
System VT100 terminal emulator: an xterm. Before drawing
graphics, plotfont -T tek will emit an escape sequence that
causes the terminal emulator's auxiliary Tektronix window, which is
normally hidden, to pop up. After the graphics are drawn, an escape
sequence that returns control to the original VT100 window will be
emitted. The Tektronix window will remain on the screen.
If the value of TERM is "kermit", "ansi.sys", "ansissys",
"ansi.sysk", or "ansisysk", it is taken as a sign that the current
application is running in the VT100 terminal emulator provided by the
MS-DOS version of kermit. Before drawing graphics,
plotfont -T tek will emit an escape sequence that switches the
terminal emulator to Tektronix mode. Also, some of the Tektronix
control codes emitted by plotfont -T tek will be
kermit-specific. There will be a limited amount of color
support, which is not normally the case (the 16 ansi.sys colors
will be supported). After drawing graphics, plotfont -T tek will
emit an escape sequence that returns the emulator to VT100 mode. The
key sequence `ALT minus' can be employed manually within
kermit to switch between the two modes.
spline Programspline
GNU spline is a program for interpolating between the data points
in one or more datasets. Each dataset would consist of values for an
independent variable and a dependent variable, which may be a vector of
specified fixed length. When discussing interpolation, we call these
variables `t' and `y', respectively. To emphasize:
t is a scalar, but in general the dependent variable
y may be a vector.
The simplest case is when there is a single input file, which is in ASCII format, and the vector y is one-dimensional. This is the default. For example, the input file could contain the dataset
0.0 0.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 0.0
which are the coordinates (t,y) of the data points (0,0), (1,1), and (2,0). Data points do not need to be on different lines, nor do the t and y coordinates of a data point need to be on the same line. However, there should be no blank lines in the input if it is to be viewed as forming a single dataset. Also, by default the t coordinate should be monotonically increasing, so that y may be viewed as a function of t.
You would construct a spline (the graph of an `interpolating function') passing through the points in this dataset by doing
spline input_file > output_file
To produce a Postscript plot of the spline with the graph
utility, you would do
spline input_file | graph -T ps > output.ps
To display a spline on an X Window System display, you could do
echo 0 0 1 1 2 0 | spline | graph -T X
Notice that the last example avoids the use of the input file
altogether. spline will read from standard input if no files are
specified on the command line, or if the special file name `-'
is specified.
What exactly does spline do? First, it fits a curve (the graph
of an interpolating function) through the points in the dataset. Then
it splits the interval over which the independent variable t
ranges into 100 sub-intervals, and computes the y values at
each of the 101 subdivision points. It then outputs each of the
pairs (t, y). These are the coordinates of 101 points that lie
along a curve that interpolates between the points in the dataset. If
there is more than one dataset in the input (separated by blank lines),
each dataset is interpolated separately.
You may use the `-n' option to replace `100' by any other positive integer. You may also use the `-t' option to specify an interpolation interval that differs from the default (the interval over which the independent variable ranges). For example, the command
echo 0 0 1 1 2 0 | spline -n 20 -t 1.0 1.5 > output_file
will produce a dataset consisting of 21 (rather than 101) data points, with t values spaced regularly between 1.0 and 1.5 (rather than between 0.0 and 2.0). The data points will lie along a curve passing through (0,0), (1,1), and (2,0). This curve will be a parabola.
In general, the interpolating function will be a piecewise cubic spline. That is, between each pair of adjacent `knots' (points in the input dataset), y will be a cubic function of t. This function will differ, depending on which pair of knots y lies between. At each knot, both the slope and curvature of the cubic pieces to either side will match. In mathematical terms, the interpolating curve will be twice continuously differentiable.
spline supports `adding tension' to the interpolating curve.
A nonzero value for the tension can be specified with the `-T'
option. For example, a spline under considerable tension can be
computed and displayed by doing
echo 0 0 1 0 2 0 | spline -T 10 | graph -T X
As the tension parameter is increased to positive infinity, the spline will converge to a polygonal line. You are meant to think of the spline as being drawn taut. Actually, tension may be negative as well as positive. A spline with negative tension will tend to bow outward, in fact to oscillate sinusoidally. But as the tension decreases to negative infinity, the spline, though oscillatory, will again converge to a polygonal line.
If the tension is positive, its reciprocal will be the maximum range of the independent variable t over which the spline will `like to curve'. Increasing the tension far above zero will accordingly force the spline to consist of short curved sections, centered on the data points, and sections that are almost straight. It follows that tension is a `dimensionful' quantity. If the tension is nonzero, then when the values of the independent variable are multiplied by some common positive factor, the tension should be divided by the same factor to obtain a scaled version of the original spline. If the tension is zero (the default, or cubic spline case), then the computation of the spline will be unaffected by linear scaling of the data.
In mathematical terms, a spline under tension will satisfy the differential equation @ifnottex y""=sgn(tension)*(tension^2)y" between each successive pair of knots. If the tension equals zero, which is the default, the fourth derivative of y with respect to t will equal zero at every point. In this case, y as a function of t will reduce to a cubic polynomial between each successive pair of knots. But if the tension is nonzero, y will not be a polynomial function of t. It may be expressed in terms of exponential functions, however.
Irrespective of whether or not the spline is under tension, you may specify the `-p' option if you wish the spline to be a periodic function of t. This will only work if the y values for the first and last points in the dataset are equal. Otherwise, it would make no sense to compute a periodic interpolation.
It is sometimes useful to interpolate between data points at the same
time as they are generated by an auxiliary program. That is, it
is useful for spline to function as a real-time filter.
spline does not normally act as a filter, since computing an
interpolating curve that is as smooth as possible is a global task. But
if the `-f' option is specified, spline will indeed function
as a filter. A different interpolation algorithm (cubic Bessel
interpolation, which is local rather than global) will be used. If
`-f' is specified, `-p' may not be specified. Also, if
`-f' is specified then an interpolation interval (a range of
t values) must be requested explicitly with the `-t'
option.
Cubic Bessel interpolation is inherently less smooth than the construction of a global cubic spline. If the `-f' option is specified, the slope of the spline at each knot will be chosen by fitting a parabola through that knot, and the two adjacent knots. The slopes of the two interpolating segments to either side of each interior knot will match at that knot, but typically their curvatures will not. In mathematical terms, the interpolating curve will be continuously differentiable, but in general not twice continuously differentiable. This loss of differentiability is the price that is paid for functioning as a real-time filter.
spline
The preceding section explains how spline can be employed to
interpolate a function y of a scalar variable t, in the
case when y is a scalar. In this section we explain how to
perform more sophisticated interpolations. This includes
multidimensional interpolations, and interpolations that are splinings
of curves, rather than of functions.
spline can handle the case when y is a vector of
arbitrary specified dimensionality. The dimension can be specified with
the `-d' option. For example, an input file could contain the
multidimensional dataset
0.0 0.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2.0 0.0 1.0
which are the coordinates (t,y) of the data points (0,0,1), (1,1,0), and (2,0,1). You would construct a spline (the graph of an interpolating function) passing through the points in this dataset by doing
spline -d 2 input_file > output_file
The option `-d 2' is used because in this example, the dependent variable y is a two-dimensional vector. Each of the components of y will be interpolated independently, and the output file will contain points that lie along the graph of the resulting interpolating function.
When doing multidimensional splining, you may use any of the options that apply in the default one-dimensional case. For example, the `-f' option will yield real-time cubic Bessel interpolation. As in the one-dimensional case, if the `-f' option is used then the `-t' option must be used as well, to specify an interpolation interval (a range of t values). The `-p' option will yield a periodic spline, i.e., the graph of a periodic vector-valued function. For this, the first and last dataset y values must be the same.
spline can also be used to draw a curve through arbitrarily
chosen points in the plane, or in general through arbitrarily chosen
points in d-dimensional space. This is not the same as splining,
at least as the term is conventionally defined. The reason is that
`splining' refers to construction of a function, rather than the
construction of a curve that may or may not be the graph of a function.
Not every curve is the graph of a function.
The following example shows how you may `spline a curve'. The command
echo 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 | spline -d 2 -a -s | graph -T X
will construct a curve in the plane through the four points (0,0), (1,0), (1,1), and (0,1), and graph it on an X Window System display. The `-d 2' option specifies that the dependent variable y is two-dimensional. The `-a' option specifies that t values are missing from the input, and should be automatically generated. By default, the first t value is 0, the second is 1, etc. The `-s' option specifies that the t values should be stripped from the output.
The same technique may be used to spline a closed curve. For example, doing
echo 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 | spline -d 2 -a -s -p | graph -T X
will construct and graph a closed, lozenge-shaped curve through the three points (0,0), (1,0), and (0,1). The construction of a closed curve is guaranteed by the `-p' (i.e., `--periodic') option, and by the repetition of the initial point (0,0) at the end of the sequence.
When splining a curve, whether open or closed, you may wish to substitute the `-A' option for the `-a' option. Like the `-a' option, the `-A' option specifies that t values are missing from the input and should be automatically generated. However, the increment from one t value to the next will be the distance between the corresponding values of y. This scheme for generating t values, when constructing a curve through a sequence of data points, is the scheme that is used in the well known FITPACK subroutine library. It is probably the best approach when the distances between successive points fluctuate considerably.
A curve through a sequence of points in the plane, whether open or closed, may cross itself. Some interesting visual effects can be obtained by adding negative tension to such a curve. For example, doing
echo 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 | spline -d 2 -a -s -p -T -14 -n 500 | graph -T X
will construct a closed curve through the three points (0,0), (1,0), and (0,1), which is wound into curlicues. The `-n 500' option is included because there are so many windings. It specifies that 501 points should be generated, which is enough to draw a smooth curve.
spline command-line options
The spline program will interpolate vector-valued functions of a
scalar variable t, and curves in d-dimensional space.
The algorithms used by spline are similar to those discussed in
D. Kincaid and [E.] W. Cheney, Numerical Analysis (2nd
ed., Brooks/Cole, 1996), section 6.4, and C. de Boor, A
Practical Guide to Splines (Springer-Verlag, 1978), Chapter 4.
Input file names may be specified anywhere on the command line. That is, the relative order of font names and command-line options does not matter. If no file names are specified, or the file name `-' is specified, the standard input is read.
An input file may contain more than a single dataset. Unless the `-a' or `-A' options are used (see below), each dataset is expected to consist of a sequence of data points, given as alternating t and y values. t is the scalar independent variable, and y is the vector-valued dependent variable. The dimensionality of y is specified with the `-d' option (the default is 1).
If the input file is in ASCII format (the default), its datasets are separated by blank lines. An input file may also contain any number of comment lines, which must begin with the comment character `#'. Comment lines are ignored. They are not treated as blank, i.e., they do not interrupt a dataset in progress.
The options to spline are listed below. There are three sorts of
option:
Options that take an argument are followed, in parentheses, by the type and default value of the argument.
The following options specify the type of interpolation to be performed on each dataset.
spline can be used as a real-time filter. The slope of the
interpolating curve at each point in a dataset will be chosen by fitting
a quadratic function through that point and the two adjacent points in
the dataset. If `-f' is specified then the `-t' option,
otherwise optional, must be used as well. Also, if `-f' is
specified then the `-k', `-p', and `-T' options may not
be used.
If `-f' is not specified, then a different (global)
interpolation algorithm will be used.
The following options specify the format of the input file(s) and the output file.
FLT_MAX, which is the largest possible single precision floating
point number. On most machines this is approximately 3.4x10^38.
DBL_MAX, which is the largest possible double
precision floating point number. On most machines this is
approximately 1.8x10^308.
INT_MAX, which is the largest
possible integer. On most machines this is 2^31-1.
spline).
spline).
The following options request information.
spline and the plotting utilities
package, and exit.
ode Program
The GNU ode utility can produce a numerical solution to the
initial value problem for many systems of first-order ordinary
differential equations (ODE's). ode can also be used to solve
systems of higher-order ODE's, since a simple procedure converts an
n'th-order equation into n first-order equations. The
output of ode can easily be piped to graph, so that one or
more solution curves may be plotted as they are generated.
Three distinct schemes for numerical solution are implemented: Runge--Kutta--Fehlberg (the default), Adams--Moulton, and Euler. The Runge--Kutta--Fehlberg and Adams--Moulton schemes are available with adaptive stepsize.
We begin with some standard definitions. A differential equation
is an equation involving an unknown function and its derivatives. A
differential equation is ordinary if the unknown function
depends on only one independent variable, often denoted t.
The order of the differential equation is the order of the
highest-order derivative in the equation. One speaks of a family, or
system of equations when more than one equation is involved.
If the equations are dependent on one another, they are said to be
coupled. A solution is any function satisfying the
equations. An initial value problem is present when there exist
subsidiary conditions on the unknown function and its derivatives, all
of which are given at the same value of the independent variable. In
principle, such an `initial condition' specifies a unique solution.
Questions about the existence and uniqueness of a solution, along with
further terminology, are discussed in any introductory text. (See
Chapter 1 of Birkhoff and Rota's Ordinary Differential
Equations. For this and other references relevant to ode, see
section 8.9 Bibliography on ode and solving differential equations.)
In practical problems, the solution of a differential equation is usually not expressible in terms of elementary functions. Hence the need for a numerical solution.
A numerical scheme for solving an initial value problem produces an
approximate solution, using only functional evaluations and the
operations of arithmetic. ode solves first-order initial value
problems of the form:
@ifnottex
x' = f(t,x,y,...,z) y' = g(t,x,y,...,z) . . . z' = h(t,x,y,...,z)
given the initial values for each dependent variable at the initial value of the independent variable t, i.e.,
x(a) = b
y(a) = c
.
.
.
z(a) = d
t = a
@ifnottex where a,b,c,...,d are constants.
@ifnottex
For ode to be able to solve such a problem numerically, the
functions f,g,...,h must be expressed, using the usual operators
(+, -, *, /, and ^), in terms of
certain basic functions that ode recognizes. These are the same
functions that the plotting program gnuplot recognizes.
Moreover, each of f,g,...,h must be given explicitly. ode
cannot deal with a system in which one or more of the first derivatives
is defined implicitly rather than explicitly.
All schemes for numerical solution involve the calculation of an
approximate solution at discrete values of the independent variable
t, where the `stepsize' (the difference between any two
successive values of t, usually denoted h) may be
constant or chosen adaptively. In general, as the stepsize
decreases the solution becomes more accurate. In ode, the
stepsize can be adjusted by the user.
ode
The following examples should illustrate the procedure of stating an
initial value problem and solving it with ode. If these
examples are too elementary, see section 8.8 The ode input language formally specified, for a formal
specification of the ode input language. There is also a
directory containing examples of ode input, which is distributed
along with the GNU plotting utilities. On most systems it is
installed as `/usr/share/ode' or `/usr/local/share/ode'.
Our first example is a simple one, namely
y'(t) = y(t)
with the initial condition
y(0) = 1
The solution to this differential equation is
@ifnottex
y(t) = e^t.
In particular
@ifnottex
y(1) = e^1 = 2.718282
to seven digits of accuracy.
You may obtain this result with the aid of ode by typing on the
command line the sequence of commands
ode y' = y y = 1 print t, y step 0, 1
Two columns of numbers will appear. Each line will show the value of the independent variable t, and the value of the variable y, as t is `stepped' from 0 to 1. The last line will be
1 2.718282
as expected. You may use the `-p' option to change the precision. If, for example, you type `ode -p 10' rather than `ode', you will get ten digits of accuracy in the output, rather than seven (the default).
After the above output, ode will wait for further instructions.
Entering for example the line
step 1, 0
should yield two more columns of numbers, containing the values of t and y that are computed when t is stepped back from 1 to 0. You could type instead
step 1, 2
to increase rather than decrease t. To exit ode,
you would type a line containing only `.', i.e. a single period,
and tap `return'. ode will also exit if it sees an end-of-file
indicator in its input stream, which you may send from your terminal by
typing control-D.
Each line of the preceding example should be self-explanatory. A
`step' statement sets the beginning and the end of an interval
over which the independent variable (here, t) will range, and
causes ode to set the numerical scheme in motion. The initial
value appearing in the first `step' statement (i.e., 0) and the
assignment statement
y = 1
are equivalent to the initial condition y(0) = 1. The statements
`y' = y' and `y = 1' are very different: `y' = y'
defines a way of computing the derivative of y, while `y
= 1' sets the initial value of y. Whenever a `step'
statement is encountered, ode tries to step the independent
variable through the interval it specifies. Which values are to be
printed at each step is specified by the most recent `print'
statement. For example,
print t, y, y'
would cause the current value of the independent variable t, the variable y, and its derivative to be printed at each step.
To illustrate ode's ability to take its input or the initial part
of its input from a file, you could prepare a file containing the
following lines:
# an ode to Euler y = 1 y' = y print t, y, y'
Call this file `euler'. (The `#' line is a comment line,
which may appear at any point. Everything from the `#' to the
end of the line on which it appears will be ignored.) To process
this file with ode, you could type on your terminal
ode -f euler step 0, 1
These two lines cause ode to read the file `euler', and the
stepping to take place. You will now get three quantities (t,
y, and y') printed at each of the values of t
between 0 and 1. At the conclusion of the stepping, ode
will wait for any further commands to be input from the terminal. This
example illustrates that
ode -f euler
is not equivalent to
ode < euler
The latter would cause ode to take all its input from the file
`euler', while the former allows subsequent input from the
terminal. For the latter to produce output, you would need to include a
`step' line at the end of the file. You would not need to include
a `.' line, however. `.' is used to terminate input only
when input is being read from a terminal.
A second simple example involves the numerical solution of a second-order differential equation. Consider the initial value problem
y"(t) = -y(t) y(0) = 0 y'(0) = 1
Its solution would be
@ifnottex
y(t) = sin(t)
To solve this problem using ode, you must express this
second-order equation as two first-order equations. Toward this end you
would introduce a new function, called yp say, of the independent
variable t. The pair of equations
y' = yp yp' = -y
would be equivalent to the single equation above. This sort of reduction of an n'th order problem to n first order problems is a standard technique.
To plot the variable y as a function of the variable t, you could create a file containing the lines
# sine : y"(t) = -y(t), y(0) = 0, y'(0) = 1 sine' = cosine cosine' = -sine sine = 0 cosine = 1 print t, sine
(y and yp have been renamed sine and cosine, since that is what they will be.) Call this file `sine'. To display the generated data points on an X Window System display as they are generated, you would type
ode -f sine | graph -T X -x 0 10 -y -1 1 step 0, 2*PI .
After you type the ode line, graph -T X will pop
up a window, and after you type the `step' line, the generated
dataset will be drawn in it. The `-x 0 10' and `-y -1 1'
options, which set the bounds for the two axes, are necessary if you
wish to display points in real time: as they are generated.
If the axis bounds were not specified on the command line,
graph -T X would wait until all points are read from the
input before determining the bounds, and drawing the plot.
A slight modification of this example, showing how ode can
generate several datasets in succession and plot them on the same graph,
would be the following. Suppose that you type on your terminal the
following lines.
ode -f sine | graph -T X -C -x 0 10 -y -1 1 step 0, PI step PI, 2*PI step 2*PI, 3*PI .
Then the sine curve will be traced out in three stages. Since the
output from each `step' statement ends with a blank line,
graph -T X will treat each section of the sine curve as a
different dataset. If you are using a color display, each of the three
sections will be plotted in a different color. This is a feature
provided by graph, which normally changes its linemode after each
dataset it reads. If you do not like this feature, you may turn it off
by using graph -T X -B instead of graph -T X.
In the above examples, you could use any of the other variants of
graph instead of graph -T X. For example, you could use
graph -T ps to obtain a plot in encapsulated Postscript format,
by typing
ode -f sine | graph -T ps > plot.ps step 0, 2*PI .
You should note that of the variants of graph, the variants
graph -T pnm, graph -T gif, graph -T ai,
graph -T ps, graph -T cgm, graph -T fig,
graph -T pcl and graph -T hpgl do not produce output in
real time, even when the axis bounds are specified with the `-x'
and `-y' options. So if any of these variants is used, the
plot will be produced only when input from ode is terminated,
which will occur when you type `.'.
In the preceding examples, the derivatives of the dependent variables
were specified by comparatively simple expressions. They are allowed to
be arbitrarily complicated functions of the dependent variables and the
independent variable. They may also involve any of the functions that
are built into ode. ode has a fair number of functions
built in, including abs, sqrt, exp, log, log10,
sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan, sinh,
cosh, tanh, asinh, acosh, and atanh. Less familiar
functions which are built into it are besj0, besj1,
besy0, besy1, erf, erfc, inverf, lgamma,
gamma, norm, invnorm, ibeta, and igamma. These have
the same definitions as in the plotting program gnuplot. (All
functions take a single argument, except for ibeta, which takes
three, and igamma, which takes two). ode also knows the
meaning of the constant `PI', as the above examples show. The
names of the preceding functions are reserved, so, e.g., `cos' and
`sin' may not be used as names for variables.
Other than the restriction of avoiding reserved names and keywords, the
names of variables may be chosen arbitrarily. Any sequence of
alphanumeric characters starting with an alphabetic character may be
used; the first 32 characters are significant. It is worth noting
that ode identifies the independent variable by the fact that it
is (or should be) the only variable that has not appeared on the left
side of a differential equation or an initial value assignment. If
there is more than than one such variable then no stepping takes place;
instead, an error message is printed. If there is no such variable,
a dummy independent variable is invented and given the name
`(indep)', internally.
ode
We explain here how to use some additional features of ode.
However, the discussion below does not cover all of its capabilities.
For a complete list of command-line options, see section 8.4 ode command-line options.
It is easy to use ode to create plots of great beauty. An
example would be a plot of a strange attractor, namely the Lorenz
attractor. Suppose that a file named `lorenz' contains the
following lines.
# The Lorenz model, a system of three coupled ODE's with parameter r. x' = -3*(x-y) y' = -x*z+r*x-y z' = x*y-z r = 26 x = 0; y = 1; z = 0 print x, y step 0, 200
Then executing the command
ode < lorenz | graph -T X -C -x -10 10 -y -10 10
would produce a plot of the Lorenz attractor (strictly speaking, a plot of one of its two-dimensional projections). You may produce a Postscript plot of the Lorenz attractor, and print it, by doing something like
ode < lorenz | graph -T ps -x -10 10 -y -10 10 -W 0 | lpr
The `-W 0' ("zero width") option requests that graph -T ps
use the thinnest line possible, to improve the visual appearance of the
plot on a printer or other Postscript device.
Besides plotting a visually striking object in real time, the Lorenz
attractor example shows how statements may be separated by semicolons,
rather than appearing on different lines. It also shows how to use
symbolic constants. In the description read by ode the
parameter r is a variable like x, y, and
z. But unlike them it is not updated during stepping, since no
formula for its derivative r' is given.
Our second example deals with the interactive construction of a `phase portrait': a set of solution curves with different initial conditions. Phase portraits are of paramount interest in the qualitative theory of differential equations, and also possess æsthetic appeal.
Since a description read by ode may contain any number of
`step' statements, multiple solution curves may be plotted in a
single run. The most recent `print' statement will be used with
each `step' statement. In practice, a phase portrait would be
drawn from a few well-chosen solution curves. Choosing a good set of
solution curves may require experimentation, which makes interactivity
and real-time plotting all-important.
As an example, consider a so-called Lotka--Volterra predator--prey model. Suppose that in a lake there are two species of fish: A (the prey) who live by eating a plentiful supply of plants, and B (the predator) who eat A. Let x(t) be the population of A and y(t) the population of B at time t. A crude model for the interaction of A and B is given by the equations
x' = x(a-by) y' = y(cx-d)
where a, b, c, d are positive constants. To draw a phase portrait for this system interactively, you could type
ode | graph -T X -C -x 0 5 -y 0 5 x' = (a - b*y) * x y' = (c*x - d) * y a = 1; b = 1; c = 1; d = 1; print x, y x = 1; y = 2 step 0, 10 x = 1; y = 3 step 0, 10 x = 1; y = 4 step 0, 10 x = 1; y = 5 step 0, 10 .
Four curves will be drawn in succession, one per `step' line. They
will be periodic; this periodicity is similar to the fluctuations
between predator and prey populations that occur in real-world
ecosystems. On a color display the curves will appear in different
colors, since by default, graph changes the linemode between
datasets. That feature may be turned off by using graph -T X
-B rather than graph -T X.
It is sometimes useful to use ode and graph to plot
discrete points, which are not joined by line segments to form a curve.
Our third example illustrates this. Suppose the file `atwoods'
contains the lines
m = 1 M = 1.0625 a = 0.5; adot = 0 l = 10; ldot = 0 ldot' = ( m * l * adot * adot - M * 9.8 + m * 9.8 * cos(a) ) / (m + M) l' = ldot adot' = (-1/l) * (9.8 * sin(a) + 2 * adot * ldot) a' = adot print l, ldot step 0, 400
The first few lines describe the functioning of a so-called swinging Atwood's machine. An ordinary Atwood's machine consists of a taut cord draped over a pulley, with a mass attached to the cord at each end. Normally, the heavier mass (M) would win against the lighter mass (m), and draw it upward. A swinging Atwood's machine allows the lighter mass to swing back and forth as well as move vertically.
The `print l, ldot' statement requests that the vertical position and vertical velocity of the lighter mass be printed out at each step. If you run the command
ode < atwoods | graph -T X -x 9 11 -y -1 1 -m 0 -S 1 -X l -Y ldot
you will obtain a real-time plot. The `-m 0' option requests that successive data points not be joined by line segments, and the `-S 1' option requests that plotting symbol #1 (a dot) be plotted at the location of each point. As you will see if you run this command, the heavy mass does not win against the lighter mass. Instead the machine oscillates non-periodically. Since the motion is non-periodic, the plot benefits from being drawn as a sequence of unconnected points.
We conclude by mentioning a few features of ode that may be
useful when things are not going quite right. One of them is the
`examine' statement. It may be used to discover pertinent
information about any variable in a system. For details, see section 8.8 The ode input language formally specified.
Another useful feature is that the `print' statement may be used to print out more than just the value of a variable. As we have seen, if the name of the variable is followed by `'', the derivative of the variable will be printed instead. In a similar way, following the variable name with `?', `!', or `~' prints respectively the relative single-step error, the absolute single-step error, or the accumulated error (not currently implemented). These quantities are discussed in section 8.6 Numerical error and how to avoid it.
The `print' statement may be more complicated than was shown in the preceding examples. Its general structure is
print <pr-list> [every <const>] [from <const>]
The bracket notation `[...]' means that the enclosed statements are optional. Until now we have not mentioned the `every' clause or the `from' clause. The <pr-list> is familiar, however; it is simply a comma-separated list of variables. For example, in the statement
print t, y, y' every 5 from 1
the <pr-list> is <t, y, y'>. The clauses `every 5' and `from 1' specify that printing should take place after every fifth step, and that the printing should begin when the independent variable t reaches 1. An `every' clause is useful if you wish to `thin out' the output generated by a `step' statement, and a `from' clause is useful if you wish to view only the final portion of a solution curve.
ode command-line options
The command-line options to ode are listed below. There are
several sorts of option:
The following option affects the way input is read.
The following options affect the output format.
The following options specify the numerical integration scheme. Only one of the three basic option `-R', `-A', and `-E' may be specified. The default is `-R' (Runge--Kutta--Fehlberg).
The following options set the error bounds on the numerical solution scheme.
ode to
continue even if this ceiling is exceeded. This may result in large
numerical errors.
Finally, the following options request information.
ode and the plotting utilities
package, and exit.
ode is always in one of two states:
ode moves from the first to the second state after it sees and
processes a `step' line. It returns to the first state after
the generated output has been printed. Errors may occur in either the
`reading' state or the `solving' state, and may terminate computations
or even cause ode to exit. We now explain the possible sorts of
error.
While reading input, ode may encounter a syntax error: an
ungrammatical line that it is unable to parse. (For a summary of its
input grammar, see section 8.8 The ode input language formally specified.) If so, it emits the error
message
ode::nnn: syntax error
where `nnn' is the number of the line containing the error. When the `-f filename' option is used to specify an input file, the error message will read
ode:filename:nnn: syntax error
for errors encountered inside the input file. Subsequently, when
ode begins reading the standard input, line numbers will start
over again from 1.
No effort is made to recover from syntax errors in the input. However, there is a meager effort to resynchronize, so that more than one syntax error in a file may be found at the same time.
It is also possible that a fatal arithmetic exception (such as a
division by zero, or a floating point overflow) may occur while
ode is reading input. If such an exception occurs, ode
will print an "Floating point exception" error message and exit.
Arithmetic exceptions are machine-dependent. On some machines, the
line
y = 1/0
would induce an arithmetic exception. Also on some machines (not necessarily the same ones), the lines
y = 1e100 z = y^4
@ifnottex
would induce an arithmetic exception. That is because on most
machines, the double precision quantities that ode uses
internally are limited to a maximum size of approximately 1.8x10^308.
When ode is in the `solving' state, i.e., computing a numerical
solution, similar arithmetic exceptions may occur. If so, the solution
will be interrupted and a message resembling
ode: arithmetic exception while calculating y'
will be printed. However, ode will not exit; the exception will
be `caught'. ode itself recognizes the following exceptional
conditions: square root of a negative number, logarithm of a
non-positive number, and negative number raised to a non-integer power.
ode will catch any of these operations before it is performed,
and print an error message specifying which illegal operation it has
encountered.
ode: square root of a negative number while calculating y'
would be a typical error message.
If the machine on which ode is running supports the
`matherr' facility for reporting errors in the computation of
standard mathematical functions, it will be used. This facility reports
domain errors and range errors (overflows, underflows, and losses of
significance) that could occur when evaluating such functions as
`log', `gamma', etc.; again, before they are performed. If
the matherr facility is present, the error message will be fairly
informative. For example, the error message
ode: range error (overflow) in lgamma while calculating y'
could be generated if the logarithmic gamma function `lgamma' is evaluated at a value of its argument that is too large. The generation of any such message, except a message warning of an underflow, will cause the numerical solution to be interrupted.
There is another sort of error that may occur during numerical solution:
the condition that an error ceiling, which the user may set with the
`-r' option or the `-e' option, is exceeded. This too will
cause the numerical solution to be abandoned, and ode to switch
back to reading input.
This discussion is necessarily incomplete. Entire books exist on any
subject mentioned below (e.g., floating point error). Our goals are
modest: first, to introduce the basic notions of error analysis as they
apply to ode; second, to steer you around the more obvious
pitfalls. You should look through a numerical analysis text (e.g.,
Atkinson's Introduction to Numerical Analysis) before beginning
this discussion.
We begin with some key definitions. The error of greatest concern is the difference between the actual solution and the numerical approximation to the solution; this is termed the accumulated error, since the error is built up during each numerical step. Unfortunately, an estimate of this error is usually not available without knowledge of the actual solution. There are, however, several more usable notions of error. The single-step error, in particular, is the difference between the actual solution and the numerical approximation to the solution after any single step, assuming the value at the beginning of the step is correct.
@ifnottex
The relative single-step error is the single-step error, divided
by the current value of the numerical approximation to the solution.
Why not divided by the current value of the solution itself? The reason
is that the solution is not exactly known. When free to choose a
stepsize, ode will do so on the basis of the relative single-step
error. By default, it will choose the stepsize so as to maintain an
accuracy of eight significant digits in each step. That is, it will
choose the stepsize so as not to violate an upper bound of
10^(-9) on the relative single-step error. This ceiling may be
adjusted with the `-r' option.
Where does numerical error come from? There are two sources. The first
is the finite precision of machine computation. All computers work with
floating point numbers, which are not real numbers, but only an
approximation to real numbers. However, all computations performed by
ode are done to double precision, so floating point error tends
to be relatively small. You may nonetheless detect the difference
between real numbers and floating point numbers by experimenting with
the `-p 17' option, which will print seventeen significant digits.
On most machines, that is the precision of a double precision
floating point number.
The second source of numerical error is often called the
theoretical truncation error. It is the difference between
the actual solution and the approximate solution due solely to the
numerical scheme. At the root of many numerical schemes is an infinite
series; for ordinary differential equations, it is a Taylor
expansion. Since the computer cannot compute all the terms in an
infinite series, a numerical scheme necessarily uses a truncated
series; hence the term. The single-step error is the sum of the
theoretical truncation error and the floating point error, though in
practice the floating point error is seldom included. The single-step
error estimated by ode consists only of the theoretical
truncation error.
We say that a numerical scheme is stable, when applied to a particular initial value problem, if the error accumulated during the solution of the problem over a fixed interval decreases as the stepsize decreases; at least, over a wide range of step sizes. With this definition both the Runge--Kutta--Fehlberg (`-R') scheme and the Adams--Moulton (`-A') scheme are stable (a statement based more on experience than on theoretical results) for a wide class of problems.
After these introductory remarks, we list some common sources of accumulated error and instability in any numerical scheme. Usually, problems with large accumulated error and instability are due to the single-step error in the vicinity of a `bad' point being large.
ode should not be used to generate a numerical solution on any
interval containing a singularity. That is, ode should not be
asked to step over points at which the system of differential equations
is singular or undefined.
You will find the definitions of singular point, regular singular point,
and irregular singular point in any good differential equations text.
If you have no favorite, try Birkhoff and Rota's Ordinary
Differential Equations, Chapter 9. Always locate and classify the
singularities of a system, if any, before applying ode.
ode to yield an accurate numerical solution on an interval,
the true solution must be defined and well-behaved on that interval.
The solution must also be real. Whenever any of these conditions is
violated, the problem is said to be ill-posed. Ill-posedness may
occur even if the system of differential equations is well-behaved on
the interval. Strange results, e.g., the stepsize suddenly shrinking to
the machine limit or the solution suddenly blowing up, may indicate
ill-posedness.
As an example of ill-posedness (in fact, an undefined solution) consider
the innocent-looking problem:
@ifnottex
y' = y^2 y(1) = -1The solution on the domain t > 0 is
y(t) = -1/t.With this problem you must not compute a numerical solution on any interval that includes t=0. To convince yourself of this, try to use the `step' statement
step 1, -1on this system. How does
ode react?
As another example of ill-posedness, consider the system
y'=1/ywhich is undefined at y=0. The general solution is @ifnottex
y = +/- (2(t-C))^(1/2),@ifnottex so that if the condition y(2)=2 is imposed, the solution will be (2t)^(1/2). Clearly, if the domain specified in a `step' statement includes negative values of t, the generated solution will be bogus. In general, when using a constant stepsize you should be careful not to `step over' bad points or bad regions. When allowed to choose a stepsize adaptively,
ode will often spot bad points, but not
always.
y' = 2x x' = 2yhas only one critical point, at (x,y) = (0,0). A critical point is sometimes referred to as a stagnation point. That is because a system at a critical point will remain there forever, though a system near a critical point may undergo more violent motion. Under some circumstances, passing near a critical point may give rise to a large accumulated error. As an exercise, solve the system above using
ode, with the
initial condition x(0) = y(0) = 0. The solution should be
constant in time. Now do the same with points near the critical point.
What happens?
You should always locate the critical points of a system before
attempting a solution with ode. Critical points may be
classified (as equilibrium, vortex, unstable, stable, etc.) and this
classification may be of use. To find out more about this, consult
any book dealing with the qualitative theory of differential equations
(e.g., Birkhoff and Rota's Ordinary Differential Equations,
Chapter 6).
ode are bad in the sense that
instability appears to be present, or an unusually small stepsize needs
to be chosen needed in order to reduce the single-step error to
manageable levels, it may simply be that the numerical scheme being used
is not suited to the problem. For example, ode currently has
no numerical scheme which handles so-called `stiff' problems very well.
As an example, you may wish to examine the stiff problem:
y' = -100 + 100t + 1 y(0) = 1on the domain [0,1]. The exact solution is @ifnottex
y(t) = e^(-100t) + t.It is a useful exercise to solve this problem with
ode using
various numerical schemes, stepsizes, and relative single-step error
bounds, and compare the generated solution curves with the actual
solution.
There are several rough and ready heuristic checks you may perform on
the accuracy of any numerical solution produced by ode. We
discuss them in turn.
# an equation arising in QCD (quantum chromodynamics) f' = fp fp' = -f*g^2 g' = gp gp' = g*f^2 f = 0; fp = -1; g = 1; gp = -1 print t, f step 0, 5Next make a file named `stability', containing the lines:
: sserr is the bound on the relative single-step error for sserr do ode -r $sserr < qcd done | spline -n 500 | graph -T X -CThis is a `shell script', which when run will superimpose numerical solutions with specified bounds on the relative single-step error. To run it, type:
sh stability 1 .1 .01 .001and a plot of the solutions with the specified error bounds will be drawn. The convergence, showing stability, should be quite illuminating.
The time required for ode to solve numerically a system of
ordinary differential equations depends on a great many factors. A
few of them are: number of equations, complexity of equations (number
of operators and nature of the operators), and number of steps taken
(a very complicated function of the difficulty of solution, unless
constant stepsizes are used). The most effective way to gauge the time
required for solution of a system is to clock a short or imprecise run
of the problem, and reason as follows: the time required to take two
steps is roughly twice that required for one; and there is a
relationship between the number of steps required and the relative error
ceiling chosen. That relationship depends on the numerical scheme being
used, the difficulty of solution, and perhaps on the magnitude of the
error ceiling itself. A few carefully planned short runs may be
used to determine this relationship, enabling a long but imprecise run
to be used as an aid in projecting the cost of a more precise run over
the same region. Lastly, if a great deal of data is printed, it is
likely that more time is spent in printing the results than in computing
the numerical solution.
ode input language formally specified
The following is a formal specification of the grammar for ode's
input language, in Backus--Naur form. Nonterminal symbols in the
grammar are enclosed in angle brackets. Terminal tokens are in all
capitals. Bare words and symbols stand for themselves.
<program> ::= ... empty ...
| <program> <statement>
<statement> ::= SEP
| IDENTIFIER = <const> SEP
| IDENTIFIER ' = <expression> SEP
| print <printlist> <optevery> <optfrom> SEP
| step <const> , <const> , <const> SEP
| step <const> , <const> SEP
| examine IDENTIFIER SEP
<printlist> ::= <printitem>
| <printlist> , <printitem>
<printitem> ::= IDENTIFIER
| IDENTIFIER '
| IDENTIFIER ?
| IDENTIFIER !
| IDENTIFIER ~
<optevery> ::= ... empty ...
| every <const>
<optfrom> ::= ... empty ...
| from <const>
<const> ::= <expression>
<expression> ::= ( <expression> )
| <expression> + <expression>
| <expression> - <expression>
| <expression> * <expression>
| <expression> / <expression>
| <expression> ^ <expression>
| FUNCTION ( <expression> )
| - <expression>
| NUMBER
| IDENTIFIER
Since this grammar is ambiguous, the following table summarizes the precedences and associativities of operators within expressions. Precedences decrease from top to bottom.
Class Operators Associativity Exponential ^ right Multiplicative * / left Additive + - left
As noted in the grammar, there are six types of nontrivial statement. We now explain the effects (the `semantics') of each type, in turn.
"y" is a dynamic variable value:2.718282 prime:2.718282 sserr:1.121662e-09 aberr:3.245638e-09 acerr:0 code: push "y"The phrase `dynamic variable' means that there is a differential equation describing the behavior of y. The numeric items in the table are:
The grammar for the ode input language contains four types of
terminal token: FUNCTION, IDENTIFIER, NUMBER, and
SEP. They have the following meanings.
gnuplot. All functions take a
single argument, except for ibeta, which takes three, and
igamma, which takes two. For trigonometric functions, all arguments
are expressed in radians. The atan function is defined to give a
value between -PI/2 and PI/2 (inclusive).
In the ode input language, upper and lower-case letters are
distinct. Comments begin with the character `#' and continue to
the end of the line. Long lines may be continued onto a second line by
ending the first line with a backslash (`\'). That is because
the combination backslash-newline is equivalent to a space.
Spaces or tabs are required in the input whenever they are needed to separate identifiers, numbers, and keywords from one another. Except as separators, they are ignored.
ode and solving differential equationsode.
ode: A
numerical simulation of ordinary differential equations,"
pp. 480--481 in Proceedings of the Conference on Computers in
Physics Instruction, Addison--Wesley, 1990.
libplot, a 2-D Vector Graphics Library@ifnottex This is the documentation for version 3.0 of GNU libplot, which is a free function library for drawing two-dimensional vector graphics.
libplot: An overview
GNU libplot 3.0 is a free function library for drawing
two-dimensional vector graphics. It can produce smooth, double-buffered
animations for the X Window System, and can export graphics files in
many file formats. It is `device-independent' in the sense that its
API (application programming interface) is to a large extent independent
of the display type or output file format. The API is thread-safe, so
it may be used in multithreaded programs.
There are bindings for C, C++, and other languages. The C binding,
which is the most frequently used, is also called libplot, and
the C++ binding, when it needs to be distinguished, is called
libplotter. In this section we use libplot to refer
to the library itself, irrespective of binding.
The graphical objects that libplot can draw include paths,
circles and ellipses, points (i.e., pixels), markers, and `adjusted
labels' (justified text strings). A path is a sequence of
line segments, circular arcs, elliptic arcs, quadratic Bezier curves,
and/or cubic Bezier curves. Paths may be open or closed.
User-specified filling of paths, circles, and ellipses is supported
(fill rule and fill color, as well as pen color, may be specified).
There is support for maintaining a Postscript-style stack of graphics
contexts, i.e., a stack of drawing attribute sets. Path-related
attributes include line thickness, line type, cap type, and join type,
and text-related attributes include font name, font size, and text
angle.
The fundamental abstraction provided by libplot is that of a
Plotter. A Plotter is an object with an interface for the
drawing of vector graphics which is similar to the interface provided by
a traditional pen plotter. There are many types of Plotter, which
differ in the output format they produce. Any number of Plotters, of
the same or different types, may exist simultaneously in an application.
The drawing operations supported by Plotters of different types are
identical, in agreement with the principle of device independence.
So a graphics application that is linked with libplot may
easily be written so as to produce output in any or all of the
supported output formats.
The following are the currently supported types of Plotter.
xv and the free ImageMagick package.
xv and the
ImageMagick package. The creation of animated pseudo-GIFs is
supported.
idraw drawing
editor. See section 9.6 How to get idraw.
xfig drawing editor. The
xfig editor can export drawings in various other formats for
inclusion in documents. See section 9.7 How to get xfig.
xterm, the X Window System terminal
emulation program. The MS-DOS version of kermit also includes
such an emulator.
plot.
(See section 3 The plot Program.)
A distinction among these types of Plotter is that all except X and X Drawable Plotters write graphics to a file or other output stream. An X Plotter pops up its own windows, and an X Drawable Plotter draws graphics in one or two X drawables.
Another distinction is that the first four types of Plotter (X, X Drawable, PNM, and GIF) produce bitmap output, while the remaining types produce output in a vector graphics format. In bitmap output the structure of the graphical objects is lost, but in a vector format it is retained.
An additional distinction is that X, X Drawable, Tektronix and Metafile Plotters are real-time. This means that they draw graphics or write to an output stream as the drawing operations are invoked on them. The remaining types of Plotter are not real-time, since their output streams can only be emitted after all functions have been called. For PNM and GIF Plotters, this is because the bitmap must be constructed before it is written out. For Illustrator and Postscript Plotters, it is because a `bounding box' line must be placed at the head of the output file. For a Fig Plotter, it is because color definitions must be placed at the head of the output file.
The most important operations supported by any Plotter are openpl
and closepl, which open and close it. Graphics may be drawn,
and drawing attributes set, only within an
openpl...closepl pair. The graphics produced within
each openpl...closepl pair constitute a `page'. In
principle, any Plotter may be opened and closed arbitrarily many times.
An X Plotter displays each page in a separate X window, and
Postscript, PCL, and HP-GL Plotters render each page as a separate
physical page. X Drawable Plotters and Tektronix Plotters
manipulate a single drawable or display, on which pages are displayed in
succession. Plotters that do not draw in real time (PNM, GIF,
Illustrator, Postscript, CGM, Fig, PCL, and HP-GL Plotters) may wait
until their existence comes to an end (i.e., until they are deleted)
before outputting their pages of graphics.
In the current release of libplot, Postscript and CGM Plotters
delay outputting graphics in this way, but PCL and HP-GL Plotters output
each page of graphics individually, i.e., when closepl is
invoked. PNM, GIF, Illustrator and Fig Plotters are similar, but output
only the first page. That is because PNM, GIF, Illustrator and Fig
formats support only a single page of graphics.
The graphics display, or `viewport', that is drawn in by a Plotter is normally a square or rectangular region on its output device. But when using any Plotter to draw graphics, a user will specify the coordinates of graphical objects in device-independent `user' coordinates, not in device coordinates. A Plotter transforms user coordinates to device coordinates by performing an affine transformation.
Immediately after invoking openpl to open a Plotter, an
application should invoke space. space specifies a
rectangular `window' in the user coordinate system that will be mapped
affinely to the viewport on the output device. The transformation from
user coordinates to device coordinates may be updated at any later time
by reinvoking space, or by invoking fconcat. The
fconcat operation will concatenate (i.e., compose) the current
affine transformation with any specified affine transformation. This
sort of concatenation is a capability familiar from, e.g., Postscript.
Each Plotter maintains a Postscript-style stack of graphics contexts.
This makes possible the rapid, efficient drawing of complicated pages of
graphics. A graphics context includes the current affine
transformation from user coordinates to device coordinates. It also
includes such modal drawing attributes as graphics cursor position,
linemode, line thickness, pen and fill colors, and the font used for
drawing text. The state of any uncompleted path (if any) is
included as well, since paths may be drawn incrementally, one
portion (line segment, arc, or Bezier curve) at a time. The current
graphics context is pushed onto the stack by calling savestate,
and popped off by calling restorestate.
To permit vector graphics animation, any page of graphics may be split
into `frames'. A frame is ended, and a new frame is begun, by
invoking the erase operation. On a Plotter that does
real-time plotting (i.e., an X, X Drawable, Tektronix, or
Metafile Plotter), this erases all plotted objects from the graphics
display, allowing a new frame to be drawn. Displaying a sequence of
frames in succession creates the illusion of smooth animation.
On most Plotters that do not do real-time plotting (i.e., PNM,
Illustrator, Postscript, CGM, Fig, PCL, or HP-GL Plotters), invoking
erase deletes all plotted objects from an internal buffer. For
this reason, most Plotters that do not do real-time plotting will
display only the final frame of any multiframe page.
GIF Plotters are in a class by themselves. Even though they do not do
real time plotting, a GIF Plotter can produce multi-image output,
i.e., an animated pseudo-GIF file, from a multiframe page. As noted
above, the pseudo-GIF file produced by a GIF Plotter will contain only
the first page of graphics. But if this page consists of multiple
frames, then each invocation of erase after the first will be
treated, by default, as a separator between successive images.
libplot
GNU libplot has bindings for several programming languages.
Regardless of which binding is used, the concepts behind libplot
(Plotters, and a fixed set of operations that may be applied to any
Plotter) remain the same. However, the ways in which Plotters are
manipulated (created, selected for use, and deleted) may differ
between bindings. This section discusses the current C binding.
For information on older C bindings, see section 9.2.2 Older C application programming interfaces.
In the C binding, a Plotter is implemented as an opaque datatype,
plPlotter, which must be accessed through a pointer. Each
drawing operation takes a pointer to a plPlotter as its first
argument. The functions pl_newpl_r and pl_deletepl_r are
the constructor and destructor for the plPlotter datatype. The
final argument of pl_newpl_r must be a pointer to a
plPlotterParams object, which specifies Plotter parameters.
pl_newpl_r returns a pointer to a plPlotter.
You should always call pl_deletepl_r when you are finished using
a Plotter. In general, Plotters that do not plot graphics in real time
(Postscript Plotters and CGM Plotters in particular) write out
graphics only when pl_deletepl_r is called.
The following tables summarize the action of the Plotter manipulation functions in the C binding.
plPlotterParams
object pointed to by params. A NULL return value indicates
the Plotter could not be created.
The functions pl_newplparams, pl_deleteplparams, and
pl_copyplparams are the constructor, destructor, and copy
constructor for the plPlotterParams datatype. The function
pl_setplparam sets any single Plotter parameter in a
plPlotterParams object.
char *, i.e., a string. If value is NULL,
the parameter is unset.
For a list of recognized parameters and their meaning, see section 9.5 Plotter parameters. Unrecognized parameters are ignored.
The reason why the plPlotterParams datatype exists is that even
though the Plotter interface is largely Plotter-independent, it is
useful to be able to specify certain aspects of a Plotter's behavior at
creation time. If a a parameter has been set in the specified
plPlotterParams object, that will be the value used by the
Plotter. If a parameter is not set, the Plotter will use a
default value for it, unless the parameter is string-valued and
there is an environment variable of the same name, in which case the
value of that environment variable will be used. This rule increases
run-time flexibility: an application programmer may allow
non-critical Plotter parameters to be specified by the user via
environment variables.
In the C binding, each drawing operation that may be invoked on a
Plotter is represented by a function whose name begins with "pl_" and
ends with "_r". For example, the openpl operation is invoked on
a Plotter by calling the function pl_openpl_r, the first argument
of which is a pointer to the corresponding plPlotter object.
The current C API (application programming interface), which is thread-safe, is a revision of an older API that is not thread-safe. That is why most functions in the current API have names that end in "_r", which stands for `revised' or `reentrant'.
In the old C API, the Plotter on which an operation was performed is not
specified as an argument of the function that was called to perform the
operation. Instead, a Plotter is first `selected'. Then the API
function is called. pl_openpl was one such function; it
opens the currently selected Plotter, i.e., begins a page of graphics.
The old API is deprecated, but is still supported. The four functions in the old API that perform Plotter manipulation have the following semantics.
In the old API, selecting a Plotter with pl_selectpl and setting
a value for a Plotter parameter with pl_parampl are global
operations. That is why the old API is not thread-safe.
An even older C API omitted the prefix "pl_" from the names of
libplot functions. The prefix "pl_" was added in part to
distinguish GNU libplot from pre-GNU versions of libplot.
If you need to compile code written for very early versions of GNU
libplot or for pre-GNU libplot, you should include the
header file plotcompat.h. plotcompat.h redefines
openpl as pl_openpl, and so forth. See section 9.2.3 C compiling and linking.
The source code for a graphics application written in C, if it is to use
the GNU libplot C API (C application programming
interface), must contain the lines
#include <stdio.h> #include <plot.h>
The header file `plot.h' is distributed with libplot, and
should have been installed on your system where your C compiler will
find it. It contains a prototype for each of the functions in the
C API, and some miscellaneous definitions.
To each Plotter operation there corresponds a function in the C API
whose name begins with "pl_" and ends with "_r". To invoke the
Plotter operation, this function would be called. For example, the
openpl operation would be invoked on a Plotter by calling the
function pl_openpl_r, the first argument of which is a pointer to
the Plotter. All such functions are declared in `plot.h'.
In releases of GNU libplot before libplot 3.0, Plotter
operations were performed in a different way. For example, there was a
function pl_openpl that operated on a Plotter that was
`selected', rather than specified as an argument. The old C API is
still supported by `plot.h'. For more information on it, see
section 9.2.2 Older C application programming interfaces.
In even older releases of GNU libplot, and in the non-GNU
versions of libplot that preceded it, the "pl_" prefix was not
used. If you need to compile code written for early versions of GNU
libplot or for non-GNU libplot, you should also include
the header file plotcompat.h. That file redefines openpl
as pl_openpl, and so forth.
To link your application with GNU libplot, you would use the
appropriate `-l' option(s) on the command line when compiling it.
You would use
-lplot -lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm
or, in recent releases of the X Window System,
-lplot -lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lSM -lICE -lXext -lX11 -lm
(Alternatively, you may need to use `-lplot -lXm -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm', `-lplot -lXm -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm -lc -lgen', or `-lplot -lXm -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm -lc -lPW', on systems that provide Motif widgets instead of Athena widgets. In recent releases of the X Window System, you would insert `-lSM -lICE'. Recent releases of Motif require `-lXp' and possibly `-lXpm' as well.)
On some platforms, the directories in which libplot or the other
libraries are stored must be specified on the command line. For
example, the options `-lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lSM -lICE -lXext -lX11',
which specify X Window System libraries, may need to be preceded by
an option like `-L/usr/X11/lib'.
On most systems libplot is installed as a shared library. This
means that the linking with your application will take place at run time
rather than compile time. The environment variable
LD_LIBRARY_PATH lists the directories which will be searched for
shared libraries at run time. For your application to be executable,
this environment variable should include the directory in which
libplot is stored.
The following is a sample application, written in C, that invokes GNU
libplot operations to draw vector graphics. It draws an
intricate and beautiful path (Bill Gosper's "C" curve, discussed
as Item #135 in HAKMEM, MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Memo #239, 1972). As the numeric constant MAXORDER (here
equal to 12) is increased, the path will take on the shape of a
curly letter "C", which is the envelope of a myriad of epicyclic
octagons.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <plot.h>
#define MAXORDER 12
void draw_c_curve (plPlotter *plotter, double dx, double dy, int order)
{
if (order >= MAXORDER)
/* continue path along (dx, dy) */
pl_fcontrel_r (plotter, dx, dy);
else
{
draw_c_curve (plotter,
0.5 * (dx - dy), 0.5 * (dx + dy), order + 1);
draw_c_curve (plotter,
0.5 * (dx + dy), 0.5 * (dy - dx), order + 1);
}
}
int main ()
{
plPlotter *plotter;
plPlotterParams *plotter_params;
/* set a Plotter parameter */
plotter_params = pl_newplparams ();
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "PAGESIZE", "letter");
/* create a Postscript Plotter that writes to standard output */
if ((plotter = pl_newpl_r ("ps", stdin, stdout, stderr,
plotter_params)) == NULL)
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't create Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
if (pl_openpl_r (plotter) < 0) /* open Plotter */
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't open Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
pl_fspace_r (plotter, 0.0, 0.0, 1000.0, 1000.0); /* set coor system */
pl_flinewidth_r (plotter, 0.25); /* set line thickness */
pl_pencolorname_r (plotter, "red"); /* use red pen */
pl_erase_r (plotter); /* erase graphics display */
pl_fmove_r (plotter, 600.0, 300.0); /* position the graphics cursor */
draw_c_curve (plotter, 0.0, 400.0, 0);
if (pl_closepl_r (plotter) < 0) /* close Plotter */
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't close Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
if (pl_deletepl_r (plotter) < 0) /* delete Plotter */
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't delete Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
return 0;
}
As you can see, this application begins by creating a
plPlotterParams object to hold Plotter parameters, and sets the
PAGESIZE parameter. It then calls the pl_newpl_r
function to create a Postscript Plotter. The Postscript Plotter will
produce output for a US letter-sized page, though any other standard
page size, e.g., "a4", could be substituted. This would be arranged by
altering the call to pl_setplparam. The PAGESIZE
parameter is one of several Plotter parameters that an application
programmer may set. For a list, see section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
After the Plotter is created, the application opens it and draws the
"C" curve recursively. The drawing of the curve is accomplished
by calling the pl_fmove_r function to position the Plotter's
graphics cursor, and then calling draw_c_curve. This subroutine
repeatedly calls pl_fcontrel_r. The pl_fcontrel_r
function continues a path by adding a line segment to it. The
endpoint of each line segment is specified in relative floating point
coordinates, i.e., as a floating point offset from the previous cursor
position. After the "C" curve is drawn, the Plotter is closed.
A Postscript file is written to standard output when
pl_deletepl_r is called to delete the Plotter.
Specifying "pnm", "gif", "ai", "cgm", "fig", "pcl", "hpgl", "tek", or
"meta" as the first argument in the call to pl_newpl_r, instead
of "ps", would yield a Plotter that would write graphics to standard
output in the specified format, instead of Postscript. The
PAGESIZE parameter is relevant to the "ai", "cgm", "fig", "pcl",
and "hpgl" output formats, but is ignored for the others. Specifying
"meta" as the Plotter type may be useful if you wish to avoid
recompilation for different output devices. Graphics metafile output
may be piped to the plot utility and converted to any other
supported output format, or displayed in an X window. See section 3 The plot Program.
If "X" were specified as the first argument of pl_newpl_r,
the curve would be drawn in a popped-up X window, and the output
stream argument would be ignored. Which X Window System display the
window would pop up on would be determined by the DISPLAY
parameter, or if that parameter were not set, by the DISPLAY
environment variable. The size of the X window would be determined
by the BITMAPSIZE parameter, or if that parameter were not set,
by the BITMAPSIZE environment variable. The default value is
"570x570". For the "pnm" and "gif" Plotter types, the interpretation of
BITMAPSIZE is similar.
You could also specify "Xdrawable" as the Plotter type. For you to make
this work, you would need to know a bit about X Window System
programming. You would need to create at least one X drawable
(i.e., window or a pixmap), and by invoking pl_setplparam before
pl_newpl_r is called, set it as the value of the parameter
XDRAWABLE_DRAWABLE1 or XDRAWABLE_DRAWABLE2. For the
parameters that affect X Drawable Plotters, see section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
The following is another sample application, written in C, that invokes
libplot operations to draw vector graphics. It draws a
spiral consisting of elliptically boxed text strings, each of which
reads "GNU libplot!". This figure will be sent to standard output in
Postscript format.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <plot.h>
#include <math.h>
#define SIZE 100.0 /* nominal size of user coordinate frame */
#define EXPAND 2.2 /* expansion factor for elliptical box */
void draw_boxed_string (plPlotter *plotter,
char *s, double size, double angle)
{
double true_size, width;
pl_ftextangle_r (plotter, angle); /* set text angle (degrees) */
true_size = pl_ffontsize_r (plotter, size); /* set font size */
width = pl_flabelwidth_r (plotter, s); /* compute width of string */
pl_fellipserel_r (plotter, 0.0, 0.0,
EXPAND * 0.5 * width, EXPAND * 0.5 * true_size,
angle); /* draw surrounding ellipse */
pl_alabel_r (plotter, 'c', 'c', s); /* draw centered text string */
}
int main()
{
plPlotter *plotter;
plPlotterParams *plotter_params;
int i;
/* set a Plotter parameter */
plotter_params = pl_newplparams ();
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "PAGESIZE", "letter");
/* create a Postscript Plotter that writes to standard output */
if ((plotter = pl_newpl_r ("ps", stdin, stdout, stderr,
plotter_params)) == NULL)
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't create Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
if (pl_openpl_r (plotter) < 0) /* open Plotter */
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't open Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
/* specify user coor system */
pl_fspace_r (plotter, -(SIZE), -(SIZE), SIZE, SIZE);
pl_pencolorname_r (plotter, "blue"); /* use blue pen */
pl_fillcolorname_r (plotter, "white"); /* set white fill color */
pl_filltype_r (plotter, 1); /* fill ellipses with fill color */
/* choose a Postscript font */
pl_fontname_r (plotter, "NewCenturySchlbk-Roman");
for (i = 80; i > 1; i--) /* loop through angles */
{
double theta, radius;
theta = 0.5 * (double)i; /* theta is in radians */
radius = SIZE / pow (theta, 0.35); /* this yields a spiral */
pl_fmove_r (plotter, radius * cos (theta), radius * sin (theta));
draw_boxed_string (plotter, "GNU libplot!", 0.04 * radius,
(180.0 * theta / M_PI) - 90.0);
}
if (pl_closepl_r (plotter) < 0) /* close Plotter */
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't close Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
if (pl_deletepl_r (plotter) < 0) /* delete Plotter */
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't delete Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
return 0;
}
This example shows what is involved in plotting a text string or text
strings. First, the desired font must be retrieved. A font is
fully specified by calling pl_fontname_r, pl_fontsize_r,
and pl_textangle_r, or their floating point counterparts
pl_ffontname_r, pl_ffontsize_r, and
pl_ftextangle_r. Since these three functions may be called in
any order, each of them returns the size of the font that it selects, as
a convenience to the programmer. This may differ slightly from the size
specified in the most recent call to pl_fontsize_r or
pl_ffontsize_r, since many Plotters have only a limited repertory
of fonts. The above example plots each text string in the
"NewCenturySchlbk-Roman" font, which is available on Postscript
Plotters. See section A.1 Available text fonts.
If you replace "ps" by "X" in the call to pl_newpl_r, an X
Plotter rather than a Postscript Plotter will be used, and the spiral
will be drawn in a popped-up X window. If your X display does
not support the "NewCenturySchlbk-Roman" font, you may substitute any
other scalable font, such as the widely available
"utopia-medium-r-normal". For the format of font names, see section A.3 Available text fonts for the X Window System. If the X Plotter is unable to retrieve the font
you specify, it will first attempt to use a default scalable font
("Helvetica"), and if that fails, use a default Hershey vector font
("HersheySerif") instead. Hershey fonts are constructed from line
segments, so each built-in Hershey font is available on all types of
Plotter.
If you are using an older (pre-X11R6) X Window System display, you will find that retrieving a scalable font is a time-consuming operation. The above example may run slowly on some older X displays, since a new font must be retrieved before each text string is drawn. That is because each text string has a different angle of inclination. It is possible to retrieve individual characters from an X11R6 display, rather than retrieving an entire rasterized font. If this feature is available, the X Plotter will automatically take advantage of it to save time.
GNU libplot can draw graphics over an entire page of paper, not
merely within the graphics display or `viewport' that it normally uses.
The viewport used by an Illustrator, Postscript, Fig, or PCL Plotter is
a square region centered on the page. The size of the viewport depends
on the PAGESIZE parameter, which may be "letter", "a4", etc. See
section C Page Sizes and Viewport Sizes. For example, the viewport on a
letter-sized page, which has width 8.5in and height 11in, is
8in on a side.
The point is that graphics will not be clipped to the viewport, so that
the entire page will in principle be imageable. You may, in fact,
define a user coordinate system in terms of which the lower left corner
of the page is (0,0), and in which the units are physical inches or
centimeters. To do so, you would use appropriate arguments when
invoking the space operation on the Plotter.
On a letter-sized page, the viewport has lower left corner (0.25,1.5)
and upper right corner (8.25,9.5), provided that inches are used. The
following program shows how the space operation would be invoked.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <plot.h>
int main()
{
plPlotter *plotter;
plPlotterParams *plotter_params;
/* set Plotter parameters */
plotter_params = pl_newplparams ();
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "PAGESIZE", "letter");
/* create a Postscript Plotter with the specified parameters */
plotter = pl_newpl_r ("ps", stdin, stdout, stderr, plotter_params);
pl_openpl_r (plotter); /* begin page of graphics */
pl_fspace_r (plotter,
0.25, 1.5, 8.25, 9.5); /* set user coor system */
pl_fontname_r (plotter, "Times-Bold");
pl_ffontsize_r (plotter, 0.5); /* font size = 0.5in = 36pt */
pl_fmove_r (plotter, 1.0, 10.0);
pl_alabel_r (plotter, 'l', 'x', "One inch below the top");
pl_fline_r (plotter, 1.0, 10.0, 7.5, 10.0);
pl_fmove_r (plotter, 7.5, 1.0);
pl_alabel_r (plotter, 'r', 'x', "One inch above the bottom");
pl_fline_r (plotter, 1.0, 1.0, 7.5, 1.0);
pl_closepl_r (plotter); /* end page of graphics */
pl_deletepl_r (plotter); /* delete Plotter */
return 0;
}
The program will print two strings and draw the baseline for each. The
first string will be left-justified at position (1.0,11.0), which is one
inch below the top of the page. The second string will be
right-justified at position (7.5,1.0), which is one inch above the
bottom of the page. For both strings, the 'x' argument of
pl_alabel_r specifies the vertical positioning: it requests
that the baseline of the string, rather than (say) its top or bottom, be
positioned at the current vertical position.
The preceding discussion and sample program dealt with the portrait
orientation of the printed page, which is the default. Drawing in
landscape orientation is only slightly more complicated. For this, the
viewport would be rotated on the page by setting the Plotter parameter
ROTATION. Its default value is "0" (or "no"), and other
allowed values are "90" (or "yes"), "180", and "270". On a
letter-sized page in landscape orientation, a rotated viewport has lower
left corner (1.5,0.25) and upper right corner (9.5,8.25), provided that
inches are used. The following program is a modified version of the
preceding, showing how a landscape orientation would be produced.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <plot.h>
int main()
{
plPlotter *plotter;
plPlotterParams *plotter_params;
/* set Plotter parameters */
plotter_params = pl_newplparams ();
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "PAGESIZE", "letter");
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "ROTATION", "90");
/* create a Postscript Plotter with the specified parameters */
plotter = pl_newpl_r ("ps", stdin, stdout, stderr, plotter_params);
pl_openpl_r (plotter); /* begin page of graphics */
pl_fspace_r (plotter,
1.5, 0.25, 9.5, 8.25); /* set user coor system */
pl_fontname_r (plotter, "Times-Bold");
pl_ffontsize_r (plotter, 0.5); /* font size = 0.5in = 36pt */
pl_fmove_r (plotter, 1.0, 7.5);
pl_alabel_r (plotter, 'l', 'x', "One inch below the top");
pl_fline_r (plotter, 1.0, 7.5, 10.0, 7.5);
pl_fmove_r (plotter, 10.0, 1.0);
pl_alabel_r (plotter, 'r', 'x', "One inch above the bottom");
pl_fline_r (plotter, 1.0, 1.0, 10.0, 1.0);
pl_closepl_r (plotter); /* end page of graphics */
pl_deletepl_r (plotter); /* delete Plotter */
return 0;
}
Using GNU libplot to create pseudo-GIF files, including animated
pseudo-GIFs, is straightforward. A GIF Plotter is a Plotter like
any other, and it supports the same drawing operations. However, it has
two special properties. (1) It can draw only a single page of
graphics, i.e., only the graphics contained in the first
openpl...closepl pair appear in the output file.
In this, it resembles other Plotters that do not plot in real time.
(2) Within this page, each invocation of erase is normally
treated as the beginning of a new image in the output file. There is an
exception to this: the first invocation of erase begins a new
image only if something has already been drawn.
The reason for the exception is that many programmers who use
libplot are in the habit of invoking erase immediately
after a Plotter is opened. That is not a bad habit, since a few types
of Plotter (e.g., X Drawable and Tektronix Plotters) are
`persistent' in the sense that previously drawn graphics remain visible.
The following program creates a simple animated pseudo-GIF, 150 pixels wide and 100 pixels high.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <plot.h>
int main()
{
plPlotter *plotter;
plPlotterParams *plotter_params;
int i;
/* set Plotter parameters */
plotter_params = pl_newplparams ();
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "BITMAPSIZE", "150x100");
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "BG_COLOR", "orange");
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "TRANSPARENT_COLOR", "orange");
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "GIF_ITERATIONS", "100");
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "GIF_DELAY", "5");
/* create a GIF Plotter with the specified parameters */
plotter = pl_newpl_r ("gif", stdin, stdout, stderr, plotter_params);
pl_openpl_r (plotter); /* begin page of graphics */
pl_fspace_r (plotter,
-0.5, -0.5, 149.5, 99.5); /* set user coor system */
pl_pencolorname_r (plotter, "red"); /* use red pen */
pl_linewidth_r (plotter, 5); /* set line thickness */
pl_filltype_r (plotter, 1); /* objects will be filled */
pl_fillcolorname_r (plotter, "black"); /* set the fill color */
for (i = 0; i < 180 ; i += 15)
{
pl_erase_r (plotter); /* begin new GIF image */
pl_ellipse_r (plotter, 75, 50, 40, 20, i); /* draw an ellipse */
}
pl_closepl_r (plotter); /* end page of graphics */
pl_deletepl_r (plotter); /* delete Plotter */
return 0;
}
The animated pseudo-GIF will be written to standard output. It will consist of twelve images, showing the counterclockwise rotation of a black-filled red ellipse through 180 degrees. The pseudo-GIF will be `looped' (see below), so the ellipse will rotate repeatedly.
The parameters of the ellipse are expressed in terms of user
coordinates, not pixel coordinates. But the call to pl_fspace_r
defines user coordinates that are effectively the same as pixel
coordinates. In the user coordinate system, the lower left corner of
the rectangle mapped into the 150x100 pseudo-GIF image is given
coordinates (-0.5,-0.5), and the upper right corner is
given coordinates (149.5,99.5). So individual pixels may be addressed
in terms of integer user coordinates. For example, invoking
pl_point_r(plotter,0,0) and pl_point_r(plotter,149,99)
would set the pixels in the lower left and upper right corners of the
image to the current pen color.
Besides BITMAPSIZE and BG_COLOR, there are several
important GIF Plotter parameters that may be set with the
pl_setplparam function. The TRANSPARENT_COLOR parameter
may be set to the name of a color. Pixels in a pseudo-GIF that have
that color will be treated as transparent by most software. This is
usually used to create a transparent background. In the example
above, the background color is specified as orange, but the transparent
color is also specified as orange. So the background will not
actually be displayed.
The GIF_ITERATIONS parameter, if set, specifies the number of
times that a multi-frame pseudo-GIF should be looped. The
GIF_DELAY parameter specifies the number of hundredths of a
seconds that should elapse between successive images.
The INTERLACE parameter is sometimes useful. If it is set to
"yes", the pseudo-GIF will be interlaced. This is of greatest value for
single-frame GIFs. For full details on Plotter parameters, see
section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
You may use GNU libplot to produce vector graphics animations on
any Plotter that does real-time plotting (i.e., an X, X
Drawable, Tektronix, or Metafile Plotter). By definition, the `frames'
in any page of graphics are separated by invocations of erase.
So the graphics display will be cleared after each frame. If
successive frames differ only slightly, a smooth animation will
result.
The following is a sample application, written in C, that produces an animation for the X Window System. It displays a `drifting eye'. As the eye drifts across a popped-up window from left to right, it slowly rotates. After the eye has drifted across twice, the window will vanish.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <plot.h>
int main ()
{
plPlotter *plotter;
plPlotterParams *plotter_params;
int i = 0, j;
/* set Plotter parameters */
plotter_params = pl_newplparams ();
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "BITMAPSIZE", "300x150");
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "VANISH_ON_DELETE", "yes");
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "USE_DOUBLE_BUFFERING", "yes");
/* create an X Plotter with the specified parameters */
if ((plotter = pl_newpl_r ("X", stdin, stdout, stderr,
plotter_params)) == NULL)
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't create Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
if (pl_openpl_r (plotter) < 0) /* open Plotter */
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't open Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
pl_fspace_r (plotter,
-0.5, -0.5, 299.5, 149.5); /* set user coor system */
pl_linewidth_r (plotter, 8); /* set line thickness */
pl_filltype_r (plotter, 1); /* objects will be filled */
pl_bgcolorname_r (plotter, "saddle brown"); /* set background color */
for (j = 0; j < 300; j++)
{
pl_erase_r (plotter); /* erase window */
pl_pencolorname_r (plotter, "red"); /* use red pen */
pl_fillcolorname_r (plotter, "cyan"); /* use cyan filling */
pl_ellipse_r (plotter, i, 75, 35, 50, i); /* draw an ellipse */
pl_colorname_r (plotter, "black"); /* use black pen and filling */
pl_circle_r (plotter, i, 75, 12); /* draw a circle [the pupil] */
i = (i + 2) % 300; /* shift rightwards */
}
if (pl_closepl_r (plotter) < 0) /* close Plotter */
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't close Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
if (pl_deletepl_r (plotter) < 0) /* delete Plotter */
{
fprintf (stderr, "Couldn't delete Plotter\n");
return 1;
}
return 0;
}
As you can see, this application begins by calling pl_setplparam
several times to set Plotter parameters, and then calls
pl_newpl_r to create an X Plotter. The X Plotter window
will have size 300x150 pixels. This window will vanish when the Plotter
is deleted. If the VANISH_ON_DELETE parameter were not set
to "yes", the window would remain on the screen until removed by the
user (by typing `q' in it, or by clicking with a mouse).
Setting the parameter USE_DOUBLE_BUFFERING to "yes" requests that
double buffering be used. This is very important if you wish to produce
a smooth animation, with no jerkiness. Normally, an X Plotter draws
graphics into a window in real time, and erases the window when
pl_erase_r is called. But if double buffering is used, each
frame of graphics is written into an off-screen buffer, and is copied
into the window, pixel by pixel, when pl_erase_r is called or the
Plotter is closed. This is a bit counterintuitive, but is exactly what
is needed for smooth animation.
After the Plotter is created, it is selected for use and opened. When
pl_openpl_r is called, the window pops up, and the animation
begins. In the body of the for loop there is a call to
pl_erase_r, and also a sequence of libplot operations that
draws the eye. The pen color and fill color are changed twice with each
passage through the loop. You may wish to experiment with the animation
parameters to produce the best effects on your video hardware.
The positions of the objects that are plotted in the animation are
expressed in terms of user coordinates, not pixel coordinates. But the
call to pl_fspace_r defines user and pixel coordinates to be
effectively the same. User coordinates are chosen so that the lower
left corner of the rectangle mapped to the X window is
(-0.5,-0.5) and the upper right corner is (299.5,149.5).
Since this agrees with the window size, individual pixels may be
addressed in terms of integer user coordinates. For example,
pl_point_r(plotter,299,149) would set the pixel in the upper
right corner of the window to the current pen color.
The following is another sample animation, this time of a rotating letter `A'.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <plot.h>
int main()
{
plPlotter *plotter;
plPlotterParams *plotter_params;
int angle = 0;
/* set Plotter parameters */
plotter_params = pl_newplparams ();
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "BITMAPSIZE", "300x300");
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "USE_DOUBLE_BUFFERING", "yes");
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "BG_COLOR", "blue");
/* create an X Plotter with the specified parameters */
plotter = pl_newpl_r ("X", stdin, stdout, stderr, plotter_params);
/* open X Plotter, initialize coordinates, pen, and font */
pl_openpl_r (plotter);
pl_fspace_r (plotter, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0); /* use normalized coors */
pl_pencolorname_r (plotter, "white");
pl_ffontsize_r (plotter, 1.0);
pl_fontname_r (plotter, "NewCenturySchlbk-Roman");
pl_fmove_r (plotter, 0.5, 0.5); /* move to center */
while (1) /* loop endlessly */
{
pl_erase_r (plotter);
pl_textangle_r (plotter, angle++); /* set new rotation angle */
pl_alabel_r (plotter, 'c', 'c', "A"); /* draw a centered `A' */
}
pl_closepl_r (plotter); /* close Plotter */
pl_deletepl_r (plotter); /* delete Plotter */
return 0;
}
This animation serves as a good test of the capabilities of an X Window System display. On a modern X11R6 display, animation will be smooth and fast. That is because X11R6 displays can rasterize individual characters from a font without rasterizing the entire font. If your X display does not support the "NewCenturySchlbk-Roman" font, you may substitute any other scalable font, such as the widely available "utopia-medium-r-normal". For the format of font names, see section A.3 Available text fonts for the X Window System. If the X Plotter is unable to retrieve the font you specify, it will first attempt to use a default scalable font ("Helvetica"). If that too fails, it will use a default Hershey vector font ("HersheySerif") instead.
Animations that use Hershey fonts are normally faster than ones that use Postscript fonts or other X Window System fonts, since the Hershey fonts are constructed from line segments. Rasterizing line segments can be done rapidly. But if you use a scalable font such as "NewCenturySchlbk-Roman" or "utopia-medium-r-normal", you will notice that the rotation speeds up after the letter `A' has rotated through 360 degrees. That is because the `A' at angles past 360 degrees has already been rasterized.
If you are writing an application that performs a lengthy sequence of
drawing operations on an X Plotter, you may find it useful to set
the Plotter parameter X_AUTO_FLUSH to "no". By default, an X
Plotter flushes all graphics to its X Window System display after
each drawing operation. This flushing ensures that graphics are visible
to the user immediately after they are drawn. However, it sometimes
considerably slows down the rendering process. For additional details
on Plotter parameters, see section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
Applications that run under the X Window System are often built using Xt, the X Toolkit. In Xt, an application is constructed from `widgets' such as text entry fields, buttons, sliders, drawing areas, etc. When the application starts up, each widget is configured to respond appropriately to `events', which include key presses and mouse clicks. After the widgets are configured, control is transferred to the Xt event loop.
GNU libplot can be used within the Xt event loop to draw vector
graphics. For this, it would use one or more X Drawable Plotters.
An X Drawable Plotter is a Plotter that can plot into an off-screen
pixmap or an on-screen window, such as a window associated with a
widget.
The following sample application shows how an X Drawable Plotter would be used. The application draws a `C' curve, as defined in a previous section, in a popped-up window. The usual Xt command-line options may be used: the window background color is specified with the `-bg' option, the window geometry with `-geometry', etc. The curve is initially drawn in red, but clicking once with the mouse will redraw it in green. A second mouse click will redraw it in red, and so forth. The application will terminate when `q' is typed.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <plot.h>
#include <X11/Xlib.h>
#include <X11/Intrinsic.h>
#include <X11/Shell.h>
#include <X11/StringDefs.h>
#include <X11/Core.h>
plPlotter *plotter;
int green = 0; /* draw in green, not red? */
#define MAXORDER 12
void draw_c_curve (double dx, double dy, int order)
{
if (order >= MAXORDER)
/* continue path along (dx, dy) */
pl_fcontrel_r (plotter, dx, dy);
else
{
draw_c_curve (0.5 * (dx - dy), 0.5 * (dx + dy), order + 1);
draw_c_curve (0.5 * (dx + dy), 0.5 * (dy - dx), order + 1);
}
}
void Redraw (Widget w, XEvent *ev, String *params, Cardinal *n_params)
{
/* draw C curve */
pl_erase_r (plotter);
pl_pencolorname_r (plotter, green ? "green" : "red");
pl_fmove_r (plotter, 600.0, 300.0);
draw_c_curve (0.0, 400.0, 0);
pl_endpath_r (plotter);
}
void Toggle (Widget w, XEvent *ev, String *params, Cardinal *n_params)
{
green = (green ? 0 : 1);
Redraw (w, ev, params, n_params);
}
void Quit (Widget w, XEvent *ev, String *params, Cardinal *n_params)
{
exit (0);
}
/* mapping of events to actions */
static const String translations =
"<Expose>: redraw()\n\
<Btn1Down>: toggle()\n\
<Key>q: quit()";
/* mapping of actions to subroutines */
static XtActionsRec actions[] =
{
{"redraw", Redraw},
{"toggle", Toggle},
{"quit", Quit},
};
/* default parameters for widgets */
static String default_resources[] =
{
"Example*geometry: 250x250",
(String)NULL
};
int main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
plPlotterParams *plotter_params;
Arg wargs[10]; /* storage of widget args */
Display *display; /* X display */
Widget shell, canvas; /* toplevel widget; child */
Window window; /* child widget's window */
XtAppContext app_con; /* application context */
int i;
char *bg_colorname = "white";
/* take background color from command line */
for (i = 0; i < argc - 1; i++)
if (strcmp (argv[i], "-bg") == 0)
bg_colorname = argv[i + 1];
/* create toplevel shell widget */
shell = XtAppInitialize (&app_con,
(String)"Example", /* app class */
NULL, /* options */
(Cardinal)0, /* num of options */
&argc, /* command line */
argv, /* command line */
default_resources,
NULL, /* ArgList */
(Cardinal)0 /* num of Args */
);
/* set default widget parameters (including window size) */
XtAppSetFallbackResources (app_con, default_resources);
/* map actions to subroutines */
XtAppAddActions (app_con, actions, XtNumber (actions));
/* create canvas widget as child of shell widget; realize both */
XtSetArg(wargs[0], XtNargc, argc);
XtSetArg(wargs[1], XtNargv, argv);
canvas = XtCreateManagedWidget ((String)"", coreWidgetClass,
shell, wargs, (Cardinal)2);
XtRealizeWidget (shell);
/* for the canvas widget, map events to actions */
XtSetArg (wargs[0], XtNtranslations,
XtParseTranslationTable (translations));
XtSetValues (canvas, wargs, (Cardinal)1);
/* initialize GNU libplot */
plotter_params = pl_newplparams ();
display = XtDisplay (canvas);
window = XtWindow (canvas);
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "XDRAWABLE_DISPLAY", display);
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "XDRAWABLE_DRAWABLE1", &window);
pl_setplparam (plotter_params, "BG_COLOR", bg_colorname);
plotter = pl_newpl_r ("Xdrawable", NULL, NULL, stderr,
plotter_params);
pl_openpl_r (plotter);
pl_fspace_r (plotter, 0.0, 0.0, 1000.0, 1000.0);
pl_flinewidth_r (plotter, 0.25);
/* transfer control to X Toolkit event loop (doesn't return) */
XtAppMainLoop (app_con);
return 1;
}
Even if you are not familiar with X Window System programming, the
structure of this application should be clear. It defines three
callbacks: Redraw, Toggle, and Quit. They are
invoked respectively in response to (1) a window expose event or
mouse click, (2) a mouse click, and (3) a typed `q'.
The first drawing of the `C' curve (in red) takes place because
the window receives an initial expose event.
This example could be extended to take window resizing into account. Actually, X Drawable Plotters are usually used to draw vector graphics in off-screen pixmaps rather than on-screen windows. Pixmaps, unlike windows, are never resized.
libplotterPlotter class
The C++ binding for libplot is provided by a class library named
libplotter. This library implements a Plotter class of
which all Plotters are instances. Actually, a Plotter would normally
be an instance of an appropriate derived class, determined by the
Plotter's output format. Derived classes include XPlotter,
XDrawablePlotter, PNMPlotter, GIFPlotter,
AIPlotter, PSPlotter, CGMPlotter,
FigPlotter, PCLPlotter, HPGLPlotter,
TekPlotter, and MetaPlotter. The names should be
self-explanatory. The operations that may be applied to any Plotter
(e.g., the openpl operation, which begins a page of graphics) are
implemented as public function members of the Plotter class.
At the time a Plotter is created, its input, output, and error streams
must be specified, along with a PlotterParams object that optionally
contains other Plotter parameters. (The input stream is ignored, since
at present, all Plotters are write-only.) The streams may be
specified either as iostreams or as FILE pointers. That is, the
two constructors
Plotter(istream& instream, ostream& outstream, ostream& errstream,
PlotterParams ¶ms);
Plotter(FILE *infile, FILE *outfile, FILE *errfile,
PlotterParams ¶ms);
are provided for the base Plotter class, and similarly for each of its derived classes. So, for example, both
PSPlotter plotter(cin, cout, cerr, params);
and
PSPlotter plotter(stdin, stdout, stderr, params);
are possible declarations of a Postscript Plotter that writes to
standard output. In the iostream case, an ostream with a null stream
buffer may be specified as the output stream and/or the error stream, to
request that no output take place. In the FILE pointer case,
specifying a null FILE pointer would accomplish the same thing.
Instances of the XPlotter and XDrawablePlotter classes
always ignore the output stream argument, since they write graphics to
an X Display rather than to a stream.
The PlotterParams class supports copying and assignment, but has
only a single public function member, setplparam. The following
is a formal description.
char *, i.e., a
string. Unrecognized parameters are ignored. For a list of the
recognized parameters and their meaning, see section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
Like the plPlotterParams datatype and the function
pl_setplparam of the C binding, the PlotterParams class
and the PlotterParams::setplparam function of the C++ binding
give the programmer fine control over the parameters of subsequently
created Plotters. The parameter values used by any Plotter are constant
over the lifetime of the Plotter, and are those that were specified when
the Plotter was created. If at Plotter creation time a parameter
has not been set in the specified PlotterParams object,
its default value will be used, unless the parameter is string-valued
and there is an environment variable of the same name, in which case the
value of that environment variable will be used.
Once set in a PlotterParams object, a parameter may be unset by the
programmer by invoking PlotterParams::setplparam with a value
argument of NULL. This further increases flexibility.
There is an alternative (older) way of constructing a Plotter, which is deprecated but still supported. By using either of
Plotter(istream& instream, ostream& outstream, ostream& errstream); Plotter(FILE *infile, FILE *outfile, FILE *errfile);
one may construct a Plotter without specifying a PlotterParams object.
In this case the parameter values for the Plotter are copied from
static storage. A parameter may be set in static storage by
invoking a static member function of the Plotter class,
Plotter::parampl, which has declaration
This alternative way of creating a Plotter is not thread-safe, which is why it is deprecated.
The source code for a graphics application written in C++, if it is to
use libplotter, must contain the line
#include <plotter.h>
The header file plotter.h is distributed with libplotter,
and should have been installed on your system where your C++
compiler will find it. It declares the Plotter class and
its derived classes, and also contains some miscellaneous definitions.
It includes the header files <iostream.h> and
<stdio.h>, so you do not need to include them separately.
To link your application with libplotter, you would use the
appropriate `-l' option(s) on the command line when compiling it.
You would use
-lplotter -lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm
or, in recent releases of the X Window System,
-lplotter -lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lSM -lICE -lXext -lX11 -lm
(Alternatively, you may need to use `-lplotter -lXm -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm', `-lplotter -lXm -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm -lc -lgen', or `-lplotter -lXm -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lm -lc -lPW', on systems that provide Motif widgets instead of Athena widgets. In recent releases of the X Window System, you would insert `-lSM -lICE'. Recent releases of Motif require `-lXp' and possibly `-lXpm' as well.)
On some platforms, the directories in which libplotter or the
other libraries are stored must be specified on the command line.
For example, the options `-lXaw -lXmu -lXt -lSM -lICE -lXext
-lX11', which specify X Window System libraries, may need to be
preceded by an option like `-L/usr/X11/lib'.
On most systems libplotter is installed as a shared library.
This means that the linking with your application will take place at run
time rather than compile time. The environment variable
LD_LIBRARY_PATH lists the directories which will be searched for
shared libraries at run time. For your application to be executable,
this environment variable should include the directory in which
libplotter is stored.
In a previous section, there are several sample C programs that show
how to draw vector graphics using libplot's C binding.
See section 9.2.4 Sample drawings in C. In this section, we give a modified
version of one of the C programs, showing how libplot's C++
binding, i.e., libplotter, can be used similarly.
The following C++ program draws an intricate and beautiful path (Bill Gosper's "C" curve).
#include <plotter.h>
const int maxorder = 12;
void draw_c_curve (Plotter& plotter, double dx, double dy, int order)
{
if (order >= maxorder)
plotter.fcontrel (dx, dy); // continue path along (dx, dy)
else
{
draw_c_curve (plotter,
0.5 * (dx - dy), 0.5 * (dx + dy), order + 1);
draw_c_curve (plotter,
0.5 * (dx + dy), 0.5 * (dy - dx), order + 1);
}
}
int main ()
{
// set a Plotter parameter
PlotterParams params;
params.setplparam ("PAGESIZE", "letter");
PSPlotter plotter(cin, cout, cerr, params); // declare Plotter
if (plotter.openpl () < 0) // open Plotter
{
cerr << "Couldn't open Plotter\n";
return 1;
}
plotter.fspace (0.0, 0.0, 1000.0, 1000.0); // specify user coor system
plotter.flinewidth (0.25); // line thickness in user coordinates
plotter.pencolorname ("red"); // path will be drawn in red
plotter.erase (); // erase Plotter's graphics display
plotter.fmove (600.0, 300.0); // position the graphics cursor
draw_c_curve (plotter, 0.0, 400.0, 0);
if (plotter.closepl () < 0) // close Plotter
{
cerr << "Couldn't close Plotter\n";
return 1;
}
return 0;
}
The above is a straightforward translation of the corresponding C
program. Here, plotter is declared as an instance of the
PSPlotter class, which will write Postscript graphics to the
output stream cout. The graphics are drawn by invoking member
functions.
libplot: A detailed listing
In the current release of GNU libplot, any Plotter supports 93
distinct operations. A language binding for libplot
necessarily includes 93 functions that correspond to these operations.
In the C binding, these 93 functions belong to the C API
(application programming interface). The name of each function begins
with the prefix "pl_" and ends with the suffix "_r". In the C++
binding, the 93 functions are implemented as public members of the
Plotter class. No prefix or suffix is used.
A language binding may also include functions for creating,
selecting, and deleting Plotters. For example, the C binding
includes the additional functions pl_newpl_r and
pl_deletepl_r. See section 9.2.1 The C application programming interface.
The 93 functions that operate on a specified Plotter are divided into the four sets tabulated below.
Many functions come in two versions: integer and double precision
floating point. Internally, libplot uses double precision
floating point. The integer versions are provided for backward
compatibility. If there are two versions of a function, the name of
the floating point version begins with the letter `f'.
Many functions come in both absolute and relative versions, also. The latter use relative coordinates (i.e., coordinates relative to the current position of the graphics cursor), and their names end in `rel'.
Currently, only a few of the 93 functions have meaningful return values.
The following are the "setup functions" in libplot. They are
the basic functions that open, initialize, or close an already-created
Plotter. They are listed in the approximate order in which they would
be called.
In the current C binding, each of these functions takes a pointer to
a plPlotter as its first argument. Also in the current C
binding, the name of each function begins with "pl_" and ends with
"_r". ("_r" stands for `revised' or `reentrant'.) For information
on older C bindings, see section 9.2.2 Older C application programming interfaces. In the C++
binding, these are member functions of the Plotter class and its
subclasses, and the prefix and suffix are not used.
openpl. Future releases may support window re-use.
openpl...closepl pair remain on the graphics display
even after a new page is begun by a subsequent invocation of
openpl. Currently, only X Drawable Plotters and Tektronix
Plotters are persistent. Future releases may support optional
persistence for X Plotters also.
On X Plotters and X Drawable Plotters the effects of invoking erase
will be altogether different if the Plotter parameter
USE_DOUBLE_BUFFERING is set to "yes". In this case, objects
will be written to an off-screen buffer rather than to the graphics
display, and invoking erase will (1) copy the contents of this
buffer to the display, and (2) erase the buffer by filling it with
the background color. This `double buffering' feature facilitates
smooth animation. See section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
plot.
libplot, some Plotters output each page
of graphics immediately after it is plotted, i.e., when closepl is
invoked to end the page. That is the case with PCL and HP-GL Plotters,
in particular. Plotters that can output only a single page of graphics
(PNM, GIF, Illustrator, and Fig Plotters) do so immediately after the
first page is plotted, i.e., when closepl is invoked for the first
time. Postscript and CGM Plotters store all pages of graphics
internally, and do not produce output until they are deleted.
The following are the "drawing functions" in libplot. When
invoked on a Plotter, these functions cause it to draw objects (paths,
circles, ellipses, points [i.e., pixels], marker symbols, and text
strings) on the associated graphics display. A path is a
sequence of line segments, arc segments (either circular or elliptic),
and/or Bezier curve segments (either quadratic or cubic). Paths are
drawn incrementally, one segment at a time.
In the current C binding, each of these functions takes a pointer to
a plPlotter as its first argument. Also in the current C
binding, the name of each function begins with "pl_" and ends with
"_r". ("_r" stands for `revised' or `reentrant'.) For information
on older C bindings, see section 9.2.2 Older C application programming interfaces. In the C++
binding, these are member functions of the Plotter class and its
subclasses, and the prefix and suffix are not used.
textangle has
been called.
arc and farc,
but use cursor-relative coordinates.
p0=(x0, y0) and end p2=(x2, y2) of
a quadratic Bezier curve, and its intermediate control point
p1=(x1, y1). If the graphics cursor is at
p0 and a path is under construction, then the curve is added to
the path. Otherwise the current path (if any) is ended, and the
curve begins a new path. In all cases the graphics cursor is moved
to p2. bezier2rel and fbezier2rel are similar to
bezier2 and fbezier2, but use cursor-relative coordinates.
The quadratic Bezier curve is tangent at p0 to the line segment
joining p0 to p1, and is tangent at p2 to
the line segment joining p1 to p2. So it fits
snugly into a triangle with vertices p0, p1, and
p2.
When using a PCL Plotter to draw Bezier curves on a LaserJet III, you
should set the parameter PCL_BEZIERS to "no". That is because
the LaserJet III, which was Hewlett--Packard's first PCL 5 printer,
does not recognize the Bezier instructions supported by later PCL 5
printers. See section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
p0=(x0, y0) and end p3=(x3,
y3) of a cubic Bezier curve, and its intermediate control points
p1=(x1, y1) and p2=(x2, y2).
If the graphics cursor is at p0 and a path is under
construction, then the curve is added to the path. Otherwise the
current path (if any) is ended, and the curve begins a new path.
In all cases the graphics cursor is moved to p3.
bezier3rel and fbezier3rel are similar to bezier3 and
fbezier3, but use cursor-relative coordinates.
The cubic Bezier curve is tangent at p0 to the line segment
joining p0 to p1, and is tangent at p3 to
the line segment joining p2 to p3. So it fits
snugly into a quadrangle with vertices p0, p1, p2,
and p3.
When using a PCL Plotter to draw Bezier curves on a LaserJet III, you
should set the parameter PCL_BEZIERS to "no". That is because
the LaserJet III, which was Hewlett--Packard's first PCL 5 printer,
does not recognize the Bezier instructions supported by later PCL 5
printers. See section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
pc=(xc,yc), p0=(x0,y0), and
p1=(x1,y1) that define a so-called quarter ellipse.
This is an elliptic arc from p0 to p1 with center
pc. If the graphics cursor is at point p0 and a path
is under construction, the quarter-ellipse is added to it. Otherwise
the path under construction (if any) is ended, and the
quarter-ellipse begins a new path. In all cases the graphics cursor
is moved to p1.
The quarter-ellipse is an affinely transformed version of a quarter
circle. It is drawn so as to have control points p0,
p1, and p0+p1-pc. This means that it
is tangent at p0 to the line segment joining p0 to
p0+p1-pc, and is tangent at p1 to the
line segment joining p1 to p0+p1-pc.
So it fits snugly into a triangle with these three control points as
vertices. Notice that the third control point is the reflection of
pc through the line joining p0 and p1.
ellarcrel and fellarcrel are similar to ellarc and
fellarc, but use cursor-relative coordinates.
point function (see below). Marker symbol types
0...31 are taken from a standard set, and marker symbol types 32 and
above are interpreted as the index of a character in the current text
font. See section A.5 Available marker symbols.
point should really be called pixel.
The following are the "attribute functions" in libplot. When
invoked on a Plotter, these functions set its drawing attributes, or
save them or restore them. Path-related attributes include graphics
cursor position, pen color, fill color, fill rule, line thickness, line
style, cap style, join style, and miter limit. Text-related attributes
include pen color, font name, font size, and text angle.
Setting any path-related drawing attribute automatically terminates the
path under construction (if any), as if the endpath
operation had been invoked.
In the current C binding, each of these functions takes a pointer to
a plPlotter as its first argument. Also in the current C
binding, the name of each function begins with "pl_" and ends with
"_r". ("_r" stands for `revised' or `reentrant'.) For information
on older C bindings, see section 9.2.2 Older C application programming interfaces. In the C++
binding, these are member functions of the Plotter class and its
subclasses, and the prefix and suffix are not used.
HPGL_VERSION is set to
a value less than "2" (the default), or on CGM Plotters if the
parameter CGM_MAX_VERSION is set to a value less than "3".
See section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
HPGL_VERSION is
set to a value less than "2" (the default). See section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
The LaserJet III, which was Hewlett--Packard's first PCL 5 printer,
did not support the nonzero-winding fill rule. However, all later
PCL 5 printers from Hewlett--Packard support it.
HPGL_VERSION is
equal to "1.5" or "2" (the default). (If the version is "1"
then only circles and rectangles aligned with the coordinate axes may be
filled.) Opaque filling, including white filling, is supported
only if the parameter HPGL_VERSION is "2" and the parameter
HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE is "yes" (the default). See section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
HPGL_VERSION is set to a value less than "2" (the default).
See section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
HPGL_VERSION is set to
a value less than "2" (the default), or on CGM Plotters if the
parameter CGM_MAX_VERSION is set to a value less than "3".
See section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
HPGL_VERSION is
less than "2" (the default), or on CGM Plotters for which the
parameter CGM_MAX_VERSION is less than "3". For information
on Plotter parameters, see section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
Warning: If the transformation from the user coordinate system
to the device coordinate system is anisotropic, each dash pattern should
ideally be drawn on the graphics display with a length that depends on
its direction. But currently, only Postscript Plotters do this.
Other Plotters always draw any specified dash pattern with the same
length, irrespective of its direction. The length that is used is the
minimum length, in the device coordinate system, that can correspond to
the specified dash pattern length in the user coordinate system.
"solid" -------------------------------- "dotted" - - - - - - - - "dotdashed" ---- - ---- - ---- - "shortdashed" ---- ---- ---- ---- "longdashed" ------- ------- ------- "dotdotdashed" ---- - - ---- - - "dotdotdotdashed" ---- - - - ---- - - -In the preceding patterns, each hyphen stands for one line thickness. This is the case for sufficiently thick lines, at least. So for sufficiently thick lines, the distance over which a dash pattern repeats is scaled proportionately to the line thickness. The "disconnected" line style is special. A "disconnected" path is rendered as a set of filled circles, each of which has diameter equal to the nominal line thickness. One of these circles is centered on each of the juncture points of the path (i.e., the endpoints of the line segments or arcs from which it is constructed). Circles and ellipses with "disconnected" line style are invisible. Disconnected paths, circles, and ellipses are not filled. All line styles are supported by all Plotters, with the following exceptions. HP-GL Plotters do not support the "dotdotdotdashed" style unless the parameter
HPGL_VERSION is set to "2" (the default).
Tektronix Plotters do not support the "dotdotdotdashed" style, and do
not support the "dotdotdashed" style unless the parameter TERM is
set to "kermit". See section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
idraw and xfig treat
zero-thickness lines as invisible. So when producing editable
graphics with a Postscript or Fig Plotter, using a zero line thickness
may not be desirable.
Tektronix Plotters do not support drawing with other than a default
thickness, and HP-GL Plotters do not support doing so if the parameter
HPGL_VERSION is set to a value less than "2" (the default;
see section 9.5 Plotter parameters).
Warning: If the transformation from the user coordinate system
to the device coordinate system is anisotropic, each line segment in a
polygonal path should ideally be drawn on the graphics display with a
thickness that depends on its direction. But currently, only Postscript
Plotters do this. Other Plotters draw all line segments in a path
with the same thickness. The thickness that is used is the minimum
thickness, in the device coordinate system, that can correspond to the
specified line thickness in the user coordinate system.
HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default), and the value of
the parameter HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE is "yes" (the default).
See section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default) and the value of
the parameter HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE is "yes" (the default).
See section 9.5 Plotter parameters.
libplot's drawing attributes, which are set by the attribute
functions documented in this section. So popping off the graphics
context restores the drawing attributes to values they previously had.
A path under construction is regarded as part of the graphics
context. For this reason, calling restorestate automatically calls
endpath to terminate the path under construction, if any. All
graphics contexts on the stack are popped off when closepl is
called, as if restorestate had been called repeatedly.
libplot's drawing attributes, which are set by the attribute
functions documented in this section. A path under construction,
if any, is regarded as part of the graphics context. That is
because paths may be drawn incrementally, one line segment or arc at a
time. When a graphics context is returned to, the path under
construction may be continued.
The following are the "mapping functions" in libplot. When
invoked on a Plotter, these functions affect the affine transformation
it employs for mapping from the user coordinate system to the device
coordinate system. They may be viewed as performing transformations of
the user coordinate system. Their names resemble those of the
corresponding functions in the Postscript language. For information on
how to use them to draw graphics efficiently, consult any good book on
Postscript programming, or the Postscript Language Reference
Manual.
In the current C binding, each of these functions takes a pointer to
a plPlotter as its first argument. Also in the current C
binding, the name of each function begins with "pl_" and ends with
"_r". ("_r" stands for `revised' or `reentrant'.) For information
on older C bindings, see section 9.2.2 Older C application programming interfaces. In the C++
binding, these are member functions of the Plotter class and its
subclasses, and the prefix and suffix are not used.
In designing the libplot library, every effort was made to make
the Plotter interface independent of the type of Plotter. To the
extent that Plotters display individual (i.e., instance-specific)
behavior, that behavior is captured by a manageable number of
Plotter parameters. Each parameter has a value that is allowed
to be a generic pointer (a void *). For most parameters, the
value is a string (a char *).
The parameter values of any Plotter are constant over the lifetime of
the Plotter, and are specified when the Plotter is created. In the C
binding, a value for any parameter is specified by calling the
pl_setplparam function. The pl_setplparam function acts
on a plPlotterParams object, which encapsulates Plotter
parameters. When a Plotter is created by calling pl_newpl_r,
a pointer to a plPlotterParams object is passed as the final
argument.
If at Plotter creation time a parameter is not specified, its default value will be used, unless the parameter is string-valued and there is an environment variable of the same name, in which case the value of that environment variable will be used. This rule increases run-time flexibility: an application programmer may allow non-critical Plotter parameters to be specified by the user via environment variables.
In the C++ binding, the PlotterParams class and
PlotterParams::setplparam, a member function, are the
analogues of the plPlotterParams datatype and the function
pl_setplparam.
The following are the currently recognized parameters (unrecognized ones
are ignored). The most important ones are DISPLAY, which affects
X Plotters, BITMAPSIZE, which affects X Plotters, PNM
Plotters, and GIF Plotters, PAGESIZE, which affects Illustrator,
Postscript, CGM, Fig, and HP-GL Plotters, and ROTATION, which
affects all Plotters except Metafile Plotters. These four parameters
are listed first and the others alphabetically. Most of the remaining
parameters, such as the several whose names begin with "HPGL", affect
only a single type of Plotter.
DISPLAY
BITMAPSIZE
Xplot.geometry. That is for backward compatibility.
X Plotters support precise positioning of the graphics display. For
example, if BITMAPSIZE is "570x570+0+0" then it will be
positioned in the upper left corner of the X Window System display.
PAGESIZE
PAGESIZE is "letter".)
For HP-GL Plotters, it will be a square region of the same size, but
will not by default be centered. WebCGM format has no notion of the
size of the Web page on which the graphics display will ultimately be
positioned. It does have a notion of default display size, though
this will normally be overridden when the WebCGM file is placed on a Web
page. For the default display size, CGM Plotters will use the graphics
display size that is used by other Plotters.
For Plotters other than CGM Plotters, the position of the graphics
display on the page, relative to its default position, can be adjusted
by specifying an offset vector. For example, PAGESIZE could be
specified as "letter,yoffset=1.2in", or
"a4,xoffset=-5mm,yoffset=2.0cm". Inches, centimeters, and
millimeters are the supported units. The offset vector, unlike the page
type, is ignored by CGM Plotters. For more information on page types,
see section C Page Sizes and Viewport Sizes.
ROTATION
BG_COLOR
erase is invoked). For information on what color names are
recognized, see section B Specifying Colors by Name. The background color may be changed
at any later time by invoking the bgcolor (or bgcolorname) and
erase operations.
CGM_ENCODING
CGM_MAX_VERSION
libplot produces
version 3 CGM files, i.e., it does not use version 4 features.
GIF_ANIMATION
erase operation will have special semantics: with the exception
of its first invocation, it will act as a separator between successive
images in the written-out pseudo-GIF file. "no" means that
erase should act as it does on other Plotters that do not write
graphics in real time, i.e., it should erase the image under
construction by filling it with the background color. If "no" is
specified, the pseudo-GIF file will contain only a single image.
GIF_DELAY
GIF_ITERATIONS
HPGL_ASSIGN_COLORS
HPGL_VERSION is "2". "no" means to draw with a fixed
set of pens, specified by setting the HPGL_PENS parameter. "yes"
means that pen colors will not restricted to the palette specified in
HPGL_PENS: colors will be assigned to "logical pens" in the
range #1...#31, as needed. Other than color LaserJet printers
and DesignJet plotters, not many HP-GL/2 devices allow the assignment of
colors to logical pens. So this parameter should be used with
caution.
HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE
HPGL_VERSION is "2". "yes" means that the HP-GL/2 output
device should be switched into opaque mode, rather than transparent
mode. This allows objects to be filled with opaque white and other
opaque colors. It also allows the drawing of visible white lines,
which by convention are drawn with pen #0. Not all HP-GL/2 devices
support opaque mode or the use of pen #0 to draw visible white
lines. In particular, HP-GL/2 pen plotters do not. Some older
HP-GL/2 devices reportedly malfunction if asked to switch into opaque
mode. If the output of an HP-GL Plotter is to be sent to such a
device, a "no" value is recommended.
HPGL_PENS
HPGL_VERSION is "1.5" or "2" and "1=black" if the
value of HPGL_VERSION is "1". Relevant only to HP-GL
Plotters. The set of available pens; the format should be
self-explanatory. The color for any pen in the range #1...#31 may
be specified. For information on what color names are recognized, see
section B Specifying Colors by Name. Pen #1 must always be present, though it need
not be black. Any other pen in the range #1...#31 may be omitted.
HPGL_ROTATE
HPGL_VERSION is "2".
The rotation requested by HPGL_ROTATE is different from the sort
requested by the ROTATION parameter. ROTATION rotates the
graphics display in place, but HPGL_ROTATE both rotates the
graphics display and moves its lower left corner toward another corner
of the page. Altering the plotting area in such a way is supported by
the HP-GL language.
The HPGL_ROTATE parameter facilitates switching between portrait
and landscape orientations. For HP-GL devices that is frequently a
concern, since some HP-GL devices ("plotters") draw with a default
landscape orientation, while others ("printers") draw with a default
portrait orientation. There is no programmatic way of determining which
is which.
HPGL_VERSION
INTERLACE
MAX_LINE_LENGTH
META_PORTABLE
PCL_ASSIGN_COLORS
PCL_BEZIERS
PNM_PORTABLE
TERM
xterm. Before drawing graphics, a Tektronix
Plotter will emit an escape sequence that causes the terminal emulator's
auxiliary Tektronix window, which is normally hidden, to pop up.
After the graphics are drawn, an escape sequence that returns control to
the original VT100 window will be emitted. The Tektronix window will
remain on the screen.
If the value is "kermit", "ansi.sys", "ansissys", "ansi.sysk", or
"ansisysk", it is taken as a sign that the current application is
running in the VT100 terminal emulator provided by the MS-DOS version of
kermit. Before drawing graphics, a Tektronix Plotter will emit
an escape sequence that switches the terminal emulator to Tektronix
mode. Also, some of the Tektronix control codes emitted by the Plotter
will be kermit-specific. There will be a limited amount of color
support, which is not normally the case (the 16 ansi.sys colors
will be supported). The "dotdotdashed" line style will be supported,
which is also not normally the case. After drawing graphics, the
Plotter will emit an escape sequence that returns the emulator to VT100
mode. The key sequence `ALT minus' may be employed manually within
kermit to switch between the two modes.
TRANSPARENT_COLOR
TRANSPARENT_COLOR is set and an animated pseudo-GIF file is
produced, the `restore to background' disposal method will be used for
each image in the file. Otherwise, the `unspecified' disposal method
will be used.
USE_DOUBLE_BUFFERING
VANISH_ON_DELETE
XDRAWABLE_COLORMAP
Colormap *, a pointer to a
colormap from which colors should be allocated. NULL indicates that the
colormap to be used should be the default colormap of the default screen
of the X display.
XDRAWABLE_DISPLAY
Display *, a pointer to the X display with
which the drawable(s) to be drawn in are associated.
XDRAWABLE_DRAWABLE1
XDRAWABLE_DRAWABLE2
Drawable *, a
pointer to a drawable to be drawn in. A `drawable' is either a
window or a pixmap. At the time an X Drawable Plotter is created,
at least one of the two parameters must be set.
X Drawable Plotters support simultaneous drawing in two drawables
because it is often useful to be able to draw graphics simultaneously in
both an X window and its background pixmap. If two drawables are
specified, they must have the same dimensions and depth, and be
associated with the same screen of the X display.
X_AUTO_FLUSH
XFlush operation is performed after each drawing operation.
That ensures that graphics are flushed to the X Window System
display, and are visible to the user, immediately after they are drawn.
However, it slows down rendering considerably. If the value is
"no", drawing is faster, since it does not take place in real time.
@ifnottex
The following appendices contain supplementary information on the GNU
plotting utilities and the GNU libplot library.
The GNU libplot graphics library and applications built on
it, such as graph, plot, pic2plot,
tek2plot, and plotfont, can draw text strings in a wide
variety of fonts. Text strings may include characters from more than
one font in a typeface, and may include superscripts, subscripts, and
square roots. A wide variety of marker symbols can also be drawn.
The following sections explain how to use these features.
The GNU libplot library and applications built on it, such as
graph, plot, pic2plot, tek2plot, and
plotfont, can use many fonts. These include 22 Hershey vector
fonts, 35 Postscript fonts, 45 PCL 5 fonts, and 18 Hewlett--Packard
vector fonts. We call these 120 supported fonts the `built-in'
fonts. The Hershey fonts are constructed from stroked characters
digitized c. 1967 by Dr. Allen V. Hershey at the U.S. Naval
Surface Weapons Center in Dahlgren, VA. The 35 Postscript fonts
are the outline fonts resident in all modern Postscript printers, and
the 45 PCL 5 fonts are the outline fonts resident in modern
Hewlett--Packard LaserJet printers and plotters. (Of the PCL 5
fonts, the old LaserJet III, which was Hewlett--Packard's first PCL
5 printer, supported only eight: the Univers and CGTimes fonts.) The
18 Hewlett--Packard vector fonts are fonts that are resident in
Hewlett--Packard printers and plotters (mostly the latter).
The Hershey fonts can be used by all types of Plotter supported by
libplot, and the Postscript fonts can be used by X, Illustrator,
Postscript, and Fig Plotters. So, for example, all variants of
graph can use the Hershey fonts, and graph -T X,
graph -T ai, graph -T ps, graph -T cgm and
graph -T fig can use the Postscript fonts. The PCL 5 fonts
can be used by by Illustrator, PCL, and HP-GL Plotters, and by
graph -T ai, graph -T pcl, and graph -T hpgl. The
Hewlett--Packard vector fonts can be used by by PCL and HP-GL Plotters,
and by graph -T pcl and graph -T hpgl. X Plotters and
graph -T X are not restricted to the built-in Hershey and
Postscript fonts. They can use any X Window System font.
The plotfont utility, which accepts the `-T' option, will
print a character map of any font that is available in the specified
output format. See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
For the purpose of plotting text strings (see section A.4 Text string format and escape sequences), the 120 built-in fonts are divided into typefaces. As you can see from the following tables, our convention is that in any typeface with more than a single font, font #1 is the normal font, font #2 is italic or oblique, font #3 is bold, and font #4 is bold italic or bold oblique. Additional variants (if any) are numbered #5 and higher.
The 22 Hershey fonts are divided into typefaces as follows.
Nearly all Hershey fonts except the Symbol fonts use the ISO-Latin-1 encoding, which is a superset of ASCII. The Symbol fonts consist of Greek characters and mathematical symbols, and use the symbol font encoding documented in the Postscript Language Reference Manual. By convention, each Hershey typeface contains a symbol font (HersheySerifSymbol or HersheySansSymbol, as appropriate) as font #0.
HersheyCyrillic, HersheyCyrillic-Oblique, and HersheyEUC (which is a Japanese font) are the only non-Symbol Hershey fonts that do not use the ISO-Latin-1 encoding. For their encodings, see section A.2 Cyrillic and Japanese fonts.
The 35 Postscript fonts are divided into typefaces as follows.
All Postscript fonts except the ZapfDingbats and Symbol fonts use the ISO-Latin-1 encoding. The encodings used by the ZapfDingbats and Symbol fonts are documented in the Postscript Language Reference Manual. By convention, each Postscript typeface contains the Symbol font as font #0.
The 45 PCL 5 fonts are divided into typefaces as follows.
All PCL 5 fonts except the Wingdings and Symbol fonts use the ISO-Latin-1 encoding. The encoding used by the Symbol font is the symbol font encoding documented in the Postscript Language Reference Manual. By convention, each PCL typeface contains the Symbol font as font #0.
The 18 Hewlett--Packard vector fonts are divided into typefaces as follows.
The Hewlett--Packard vector fonts with an asterisk (the ANK and Symbol
fonts) are only available when producing HP-GL output for the HP7550A
graphics plotter and the HP758x, HP7595A and HP7596A drafting plotters.
The ANK fonts are Japanese fonts (see section A.2 Cyrillic and Japanese fonts), and
the Symbol fonts contain a few miscellaneous mathematical symbols.
To ensure that these fonts are available, you must set the
environment variable or Plotter parameter HPGL_VERSION to
"1.5".
All Hewlett--Packard vector fonts except the ANK and Symbol fonts use
the ISO-Latin-1 encoding. The Arc fonts are proportional
(variable-width) fonts, and the Stick fonts are fixed-width fonts. If
HPGL_VERSION is "1.5" then the Arc fonts will be kerned. But if
HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default), there will be no kerning.
Apparently Hewlett--Packard dropped support for device-resident kerning
tables when moving from HP-GL to modern HP-GL/2 and PCL 5. For
information about Hewlett--Packard vector fonts and the way in which
they are kerned (in pen plotters, at least), see the article by
L. W. Hennessee et al. in the Nov. 1981 issue of the
Hewlett--Packard Journal.
To what extent do the fonts supported by libplot contain
ligatures? The Postscript fonts, the PCL 5 fonts, and the
Hewlett--Packard vector fonts, at least as implemented in
libplot, do not contain ligatures. However, six of the 22
Hershey fonts contain ligatures. The character combinations "fi", "ff",
"fl", "ffi", and "ffl" are automatically drawn as ligatures in
HersheySerif and HersheySerif-Italic. (Also in the two HersheyCyrillic
fonts and HersheyEUC, since insofar as printable ASCII characters are
concerned, they are identical [or almost identical] to HersheySerif.)
In addition, "tz" and "ch" are ligatures in HersheyGothicGerman.
The German double-s character `ß', which is called an `eszet',
is not treated as a ligature in any font. To obtain an eszet, you
must either request one with the escape sequence "\ss" (see section A.4 Text string format and escape sequences), or, if you have an 8-bit keyboard, type an eszet
explicitly.
The built-in fonts discussed in the previous section include Cyrillic
and Japanese vector fonts. This section explains how these fonts are
encoded, i.e., how their character maps are laid out. You may use
the plotfont utility to display the character map for any font,
including the Cyrillic and Japanese vector fonts. See section 6 The plotfont Utility.
The HersheyCyrillic and HersheyCyrillic-Oblique fonts use an encoding called KOI8-R, a superset of ASCII that has become the de facto standard for Unix and networking applications in the former Soviet Union. Insofar as printable ASCII characters go, they resemble the HersheySerif vector font. But their upper halves are different. The byte range 0xc0...0xdf contains lower-case Cyrillic characters and the byte range 0xe0...0xff contains upper case Cyrillic characters. Additional Cyrillic characters are located at 0xa3 and 0xb3. For more on the encoding scheme, see the official KOI8-R Web page and Internet RFC 1489, which is available from the Information Sciences Institute.
The HersheyEUC font is a vector font that is used for displaying Japanese text. It uses the 8-bit EUC-JP encoding. EUC stands for `extended Unix code', which is a scheme for encoding Japanese, and also other character sets (e.g., Greek and Cyrillic) as multibyte character strings. The format of EUC strings is explained in Ken Lunde's Understanding Japanese Information Processing (O'Reilly, 1993), which contains much additional information on Japanese text processing. See also his on-line supplement, and his more recent book CJKV Information Processing (O'Reilly, 1999).
In the HersheyEUC font, characters in the printable ASCII range,
0x20...0x7e, are similar to HersheySerif (their encoding is
`JIS Roman', an ASCII variant standardized by the Japanese Industrial
Standards Committee). Also, each successive pair of bytes in the
0xa1...0xfe range defines a single character in the
JIS X0208 standard. The characters in the JIS X0208 standard include
Japanese syllabic characters (Hiragana and Katakana), ideographic
characters (Kanji), Roman, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets, punctuation
marks, and miscellaneous symbols. For example, the JIS X0208 standard
indexes the 83 Hiragana as 0x2421...0x2473. To
obtain the EUC code for any JIS X0208 character, you would add
0x80 to each byte (i.e., `set the high bit' on each byte). So
the first of the 83 Hiragana (0x2421) would be encoded as the
successive pair of bytes 0xa4 and 0xa1.
The implementation of the JIS X0208 standard in the HersheyEUC font is based on Dr. Hershey's digitizations, and is complete enough to be useful. All 83 Hiragana and 86 Katakana are available, though the little-used `half-width Katakana' are not supported. Also, 603 Kanji are available, including 596 of the 2965 JIS Level 1 (i.e., frequently used) Kanji. The Hiragana, the Katakana, and the available Kanji all have the same width. The file `kanji.doc', which on most systems is installed in `/usr/share/libplot' or `/usr/local/share/libplot', lists the 603 available Kanji. Each JIS X0208 character that is unavailable will be drawn as an `undefined character' glyph (a bundle of horizontal lines).
The eight Hewlett--Packard vector fonts in the ArcANK and StickANK
typefaces are also used for displaying Japanese text. They are
available when producing HP-GL output for the HP7550A graphics plotter
and the HP758x, HP7595A and HP7596A drafting plotters. To ensure
that they are available, you must set the environment variable or
Plotter parameter HPGL_VERSION to "1.5".
ANK stands for Alphabet, Numerals, and Katakana. The ANK fonts use the `Kana-8' encoding. The lower half of each font uses the JIS Roman encoding, and the upper half contains half-width Katakana. Half-width Katakana are simplified Katakana that may need to be equipped with diacritical marks. The diacritical marks are included in the encoding, as separate characters.
The command-line graphics programs graph -T X, plot
-T X, pic2plot -T X, tek2plot -T X, and
plotfont -T X, and the libplot library that they are
built on, can draw text on an X Window System display in a wide
variety of fonts. This includes the 22 built-in Hershey vector fonts.
They can use the 35 built-in Postscript fonts too, if those fonts are
available on the X display. Most releases of the plotting utilities
include freely distributable versions of the 35 Postscript fonts, in
Type 1 format, that are easily installed on any X display.
In fact, the plotting utilities can use most fonts that are available on the current X display. This includes all scalable fonts that have a so-called XLFD (X Logical Font Description) name. For example, the "CharterBT-Roman" font is available on many X displays. It has a formal XLFD name, namely "-bitstream-charter-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1". The plotting utilities would refer to it as "charter-medium-r-normal". The command
echo 0 0 1 1 2 0 | graph -T X -F charter-medium-r-normal
would draw a plot in a popped-up X window, in which all axis ticks are labeled in this font.
You may determine which fonts are available on an X display by using
the xlsfonts command. Fonts whose names end in
"-0-0-0-0-p-0-iso8859-1" or "-0-0-0-0-m-0-iso8859-1" are scalable
ISO-Latin-1 fonts that can be used by libplot's X Plotters
and by the plotting utilities that are built on libplot. The two
sorts of font are variable-width and fixed-width fonts, respectively.
Fonts whose names end in "iso8859-2", etc., and "adobe-fontspecific",
may also be used, even though they do not employ the standard
ISO-Latin-1 encoding.
The escape sequences that provide access to the non-ASCII `8-bit' characters in the built-in ISO-Latin-1 fonts may be employed when using any ISO-Latin-1 X Window System font. For more on escape sequences, see section A.4 Text string format and escape sequences. As an example, "\Po" will yield the British pounds sterling symbol `£'. The command
echo 0 0 1 1 | graph -T X -F charter-medium-r-normal -L "A \Po1 Plot"
shows how this symbol could be used in a graph label. In the same way, the escape sequences that provide access to mathematical symbols and Greek characters may be employed when using any X Window System font, whether or not it is an ISO-Latin-1 font.
The plotting utilities, including graph, support a
`--bitmap-size' option. If the `-T X' option is used,
it sets the size of the popped-up X Window. You may use it to
obtain some interesting visual effects. Each of the plotting utilities
assumes that it is drawing in a square region, so if you use the
`--bitmap-size 800x400' option, your plot will be scaled
anisotropically, by a larger factor in the horizontal direction than in
the vertical direction. The fonts in the plot will be scaled in the
same way. Actually, this requires a modern (X11R6) display. If
your X display cannot scale a font, a default scalable font
(such as "HersheySerif") will be substituted.
Text strings that are drawn by the GNU libplot library and by
applications built on it, such as graph, plot,
pic2plot, tek2plot, and plotfont, must consist of
printable characters. No embedded control characters, such as
newlines or carriage returns, are allowed. Technically, a character is
`printable' if it comes from either of the two byte ranges
0x20...0x7e and 0xa0...0xff. The former is the
printable ASCII range and the latter is the printable `8-bit' range.
Text strings may, however, include embedded `escape sequences' that
shift the font, append subscripts or superscripts, or include non-ASCII
characters and mathematical symbols. As a consequence, the axis labels
on a plot prepared with graph may include such features. So may
the text strings that pic2plot uses to label objects.
The format of the escape sequences should look familiar to anyone who is
familiar with the TeX or groff document formatters. Each
escape sequence consists of three characters: a backslash and two
additional characters. The most frequently used escape sequences are as
follows.
For example, the string "x\sp2\ep" would be interpreted as `x squared'. Subscripts on subscripts, etc., are allowed. Subscripts and superscripts may be vertically aligned by judicious use of the "\mk" and "\rt" escape sequences. For example, "a\mk\sbi\eb\rt\sp2\ep" produces "a sub i squared", with the exponent `2' placed immediately above the subscript.
There are also escape sequences that switch from font to font within a
typeface. For an enumeration of the fonts within each typeface, see
section A.1 Available text fonts. Suppose for example that the current font is
Times-Roman, which is font #1 in the `Times' typeface. The string
"A \f2very\f1 well labeled axis" would be a string in which the word `very'
appears in Times-Italic rather than Times-Roman. That is because
Times-Italic is the #2 font in the typeface. Font-switching escape
sequences are of the form "\fn", where n is the number of
the font to be switched to. For compatibility with groff,
"\fR", "\fI", "\fB" are equivalent to "\f1", "\f2", "\f3", respectively.
"\fP" will switch the font to the previously used font (only one font is
remembered). There is currently no support for switching between fonts
in different typefaces.
There are also a few escape sequences for horizontal shifts, which are useful for improving horizontal alignment, such as when shifting between italic and non-italic fonts. "\r1", "\r2", "\r4", "\r6", "\r8", and "\r^" are escape sequences that shift right by 1 em, 1/2 em, 1/4 em, 1/6 em, 1/8 em, and 1/12 em, respectively. "\l1", "\l2", "\l4", "\l6", "\l8", and "\l^" are similar, but shift left instead of right. "A \fIvery\r^\fP well labeled axis" would look slightly better than "A \fIvery\fP well labeled axis".
Square roots are handled with the aid of a special pair of escape sequences, together with the "\mk" and "\rt" sequences discussed above. A square root symbol is begun with "\sr", and continued arbitrarily far to the right with the overbar (`run') escape sequence, "\rn". For example, the string "\sr\mk\rn\rn\rtab" would be plotted as `the square root of ab'. To adjust the length of the overbar, you may need to experiment with the number of times "\rn" appears.
To underline a string, you would use "\ul", the underline escape sequence, one or more times. The "\mk"..."\rt" trick would be employed in the same way. So, for example, "\mk\ul\ul\ul\rtabc" would yield an underlined "abc". To adjust the length of the underline, you may need to experiment with the number of times "\ul" appears. You may also need to use one or more of the abovementioned horizontal shifts. For example, if the "HersheySerif" font were used, "\mk\ul\ul\l8\ul\rtabc" would yield a better underline than "\mk\ul\ul\ul\rtabc".
Besides the preceding escape sequences, there are also escape sequences for the printable non-ASCII characters in each of the built-in ISO-Latin-1 fonts (which means in every built-in font, except for the symbol fonts, the HersheyCyrillic fonts, HersheyEUC, and ZapfDingbats). The useful non-ASCII characters include accented characters among others. Such `8-bit' characters, in the 0xa0...0xff byte range, may be included directly in a text string. But if your terminal does not permit this, you may use the escape sequences for them instead.
There are escape sequences for the mathematical symbols and Greek characters in the symbol fonts, as well. This is how the symbol fonts are usually accessed. Which symbol font the mathematical symbols and Greek characters are taken from depends on whether your current font is a Hershey font or a non-Hershey font. They are taken from the HersheySerifSymbol font or the HersheySansSymbol font in the former case, and from the Symbol font in the latter.
The following are the escape sequences that provide access to the non-ASCII characters of the current font, provided that it is an ISO-Latin-1 font. Each escape sequence is followed by the position of the corresponding character in the ISO-Latin-1 encoding (in decimal), and the official Postscript name of the character. Most names should be self-explanatory. For example, `eacute' is a lower-case `e', equipped with an acute accent.
The following are the escape sequences that provide access to mathematical symbols and Greek characters in the current symbol font, whether HersheySerifSymbol or HersheySansSymbol (for Hershey fonts) or Symbol (for Postscript fonts). Each escape sequence is followed by the position (in octal) of the corresponding character in the symbol encoding, and the official Postscript name of the character. Many escape sequences and names should be self-explanatory. "\*a" represents a lower-case Greek alpha, for example. For a table displaying each of the characters below, see the Postscript Language Reference Manual.
Finally, there are escape sequences that apply only if the current font is a Hershey font. Most of these escape sequences provide access to special symbols that belong to no font, and are accessible by no other means. These symbols are of two sorts: miscellaneous, and astronomical or zodiacal. The escape sequences for the miscellaneous symbols are as follows.
The final escape sequence in the table above, "\s-", yields a letter rather than a symbol. It is provided because in some Hershey fonts, the shape of the lower-case letter `s' differs if it is the last letter in a word. This is the case for HersheyGothicGerman. The German word "besonders", for example, should be written as "besonder\s-" if it is to be rendered correctly in this font. The same is true for the two Hershey symbol fonts, with their Greek alphabets (in Greek text, lower-case final `s' is different from lower-case non-final `s'). In Hershey fonts where there is no distinction between final and non-final `s', "s" and "\s-" are equivalent.
The escape sequences for the astronomical symbols, including the signs for the twelve constellations of the zodiac, are listed in the following table. We stress that that like the preceding miscellaneous escape sequences, they apply only if the current font is a Hershey font.
The preceding miscellaneous and astronomical symbols are not the only
special non-font symbols that can be used if the current font is a
Hershey font. The entire library of glyphs digitized by Allen Hershey
is built into GNU libplot. So text strings may include any
Hershey glyph. Each of the available Hershey glyphs is identified by a
four-digit number. Standard Hershey glyph #1 would be specified as
"\#H0001". The standard Hershey glyphs range from "\#H0001" to
"\#H3999", with a number of gaps. Some additional glyphs designed by
others appear in the "\#H4000"..."\#H4194" range. Syllabic Japanese
characters (Kana) are located in the "\#H4195"..."\#H4399" range.
You may order a table of nearly all the Hershey glyphs in the "\#H0001"..."\#H3999" range from the U.S. National Technical Information Service, at +1 703 487 4650. Ask for item number PB251845; the current price is about US$40. By way of example, the string
"\#H0744\#H0745\#H0001\#H0002\#H0003\#H0869\#H0907\#H2330\#H2331"
when drawn will display a shamrock, a fleur-de-lys, cartographic (small) letters A, B, C, a bell, a large circle, a treble clef, and a bass clef. Again, this assumes that the current font is a Hershey font.
You may also use Japanese syllabic characters (Hiragana and Katakana) and ideographic characters (Kanji) when drawing strings in any Hershey font. In all, 603 Kanji are available; these are the same Kanji that are available in the HersheyEUC font. The Japanese characters are indexed according to the JIS X0208 standard for Japanese typography, which represents each character by a two-byte sequence. The file `kanji.doc', which is distributed along with the GNU plotting utilities, lists the available Kanji. On most systems it is installed in `/usr/share/libplot' or `/usr/local/share/libplot'.
Each JIS X0208 character would be specified by an escape sequence which
expresses this two-byte sequence as four hexadecimal digits, such as
"\#J357e". Both bytes must be in the 0x21...0x7e
range in order to define a JIS X0208 character. Kanji are located at
"\#J3021" and above. Characters appearing elsewhere in the JIS X0208
encoding may be accessed similarly. For example, Hiragana and Katakana
are located in the "\#J2421"..."\#J257e" range, and Roman characters
in the "\#J2321"..."\#J237e" range. The file `kana.doc', which
is installed in the same directory as `kanji.doc', lists the
encodings of the Hiragana and Katakana. For more on the JIS X0208
standard, see Ken Lunde's Understanding Japanese Information
Processing (O'Reilly, 1993), and
his on-line
supplement.
The Kanji numbering used in A. N. Nelson's Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary, a longtime standard, is also supported. (This dictionary is published by C. E. Tuttle and Co., with ISBN 0-8048-0408-7. A revised edition [ISBN 0-8048-2036-8] appeared in 1997, but uses a different numbering.) `Nelson' escape sequences for Kanji are similar to JIS X0208 escape sequences, but use four decimal instead of four hexadecimal digits. The file `kanji.doc' gives the correspondence between the JIS numbering scheme and the Nelson numbering scheme. For example, "\#N0001" is equivalent to "\#J306c". It also gives the positions of the available Kanji in the Unicode encoding.
All available Kanji have the same width, which is the same as that of the syllabic Japanese characters (Hiragana and Katakana). Each Kanji that is not available will print as an `undefined character' glyph (a bundle of horizontal lines). The same is true for non-Kanji JIS X0208 characters that are not available.
The GNU libplot library supports a standard set of marker
symbols, numbered 0...31. A marker symbol is a visual
representation of a point. The libplot marker symbols are the
symbols that the graph program will plot at each point of a
dataset, if the `-S' option is specified.
Like a text string, a marker symbol has a font size. In any output format, a marker symbol is guaranteed to be visible if its font size is sufficiently large. Marker symbol #0 is an exception to this: by convention, symbol #0 means no symbol at all. Marker symbols in the range 1...31 are defined as follows.
The interpretation of marker symbols 1 through 5 is the same as in the well known Graphical Kernel System (GKS).
By convention, symbols 32 and up are interpreted as characters in a
certain text font. For libplot, this is simply the current font.
But for the graph program, it is the symbol font selected
with the `--symbol-font-name' option. By default, the symbol
font is the ZapfDingbats font except in graph -T pnm, graph
-T gif, graph -T pcl, graph -T hpgl and graph -T
tek. Those variants of graph normally have no access to
ZapfDingbats and other Postscript fonts, so they use the HersheySerif
font instead.
Many of the characters in the ZapfDingbats font are suitable for use as marker symbols. For example, character #74 is the Texas star. Doing
echo 0 0 1 2 2 1 3 2 4 0 | graph -T ps -m 0 -S 74 0.1 > plot.ps
will produce a Postscript plot consisting of five data points, not joined by line segments. Each data point will be marked by a Texas star, of a large font size (0.1 times the width of the plotting box).
If you are using graph -T pcl or graph -T hpgl and wish to
use font characters as marker symbols, you should consider using the
Wingdings font, which is available when producing PCL 5 or HP-GL/2
output. Doing
echo 0 0 1 2 2 1 3 2 4 0 |
graph -T pcl -m 0 --symbol-font Wingdings -S 181 0.1 > plot.pcl
will produce a PCL 5 plot that is similar to the preceding Postscript plot. The Wingdings font has the Texas star in location #181.
The GNU libplot library allows colors to be specified by name.
It includes the bgcolorname, pencolorname, and
fillcolorname functions, each of which takes a color name as an
argument. The graphics programs built on libplot, namely
graph, plot, pic2plot, tek2plot, and
plotfont, allow colors to be specified on the command line by
name. Each of them supports a `--bg-color' option, and each of
them, other than graph, supports a `--pen-color' option.
(graph supports a more complicated `--pen-colors' option.)
In any of these contexts, 665 distinct color names are recognized, including obscure ones like "dark magenta", "forest green", and "olive drab". Color names are case-insensitive, and spaces are ignored. So, for example, "RosyBrown" is equivalent to "rosy brown", and "DarkGoldenrod3" to "dark goldenrod 3".
The file `colors.txt', which is distributed along with the GNU plotting utilities, lists the recognized color names. On most systems it is installed in `/usr/share/libplot' or `/usr/local/share/libplot'. The color names are essentially those recognized by recent releases of the X Window System, which on most machines are listed in the file `/usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt'. However, for every color name containing the string "gray", a version containing "grey" has been included. For example, both "dark slate gray 4" and "dark slate grey 4" are recognized color names.
When producing output in such formats as Illustrator, Postscript, PCL
5, HP-GL, and Fig, it is important to specify the size of the page on
which the output will be printed. The GNU libplot library allows
the user to specify a PAGESIZE parameter, which can be used for
this. The command-line graphics programs graph, plot,
pic2plot, tek2plot, and plotfont, which are
built on libplot, support a PAGESIZE environment
variable and a `--page-size' option.
Graphics drawn by libplot are nominally drawn within a graphics
display, or `viewport'. When producing such raster formats as PNM and
pseudo-GIF, it will use a square or rectangular bitmap as its
viewport. But when producing Illustrator, Postscript, PCL 5, HP-GL,
and Fig format, it will use a square region on the page as its viewport.
Except in the HP-GL case, the viewport will by default be centered
on the page. Graphics will not be clipped to the viewport, so the
entire page will in principle be imageable.
In all cases, the viewport position may be adjusted relative to its
default position by specifying an offset vector. For example, the page
size could be specified not merely as "letter" or "a4", but as
"letter,yoffset=1.2in", or "a4,xoffset=-5mm,yoffset=2.0cm".
Inches, centimeters, and millimeters are the supported units. The
viewport may also be rotated, by setting the ROTATION parameter
or environment variable, or (in the case of the graphics programs)
by using the `--rotation' option. A rotated viewport does not
change its position.
Any ISO page size in the range "a0"..."a4" or ANSI page size in the range "a"..."e" may be specified. ("letter" is an alias for "a", which is the default, and "tabloid" is an alias for "b"). "legal", "ledger", and the JIS [Japanese Industrial Standard] size "b5" are recognized also. The following are the supported page sizes and the viewport size that corresponds to each.
WebCGM format has no notion of the size of the Web page on which the
viewport will ultimately be positioned. It does have a notion of
default viewport size, though this will normally be overridden when the
WebCGM file is placed on a Web page. In WebCGM output, the default
viewport size is set by PAGESIZE, or (in the case of the
graphics programs) the `--page-size' option. The offset vector,
if any, is ignored.
A GNU graphics metafile is produced by any application that uses the
Metafile Plotter support contained in GNU libplot. That includes
the raw variants of graph, plot, pic2plot,
tek2plot, and plotfont. A metafile is a sort of audit
trail, which specifies a sequence of Plotter operations. Each operation
is represented by an `op code': a single ASCII character. The
arguments of the operation, if any, immediately follow the op
code.
A metafile may use either of two encodings: binary (the default) or
portable (human-readable). Metafiles in the binary encoding begin with
the magic string "#PLOT 1\n", and metafiles in the portable encoding
with the magic string "#PLOT 2\n". If you intend to transfer
metafiles between machines of different types, you should use the
portable rather than the binary encoding. Portable metafiles are
produced by Metafile Plotters if the META_PORTABLE parameter is
set to "yes", and by the raw variants of GNU graph and the other
command-line graphics programs if the `-O' option is specified.
Both binary and portable metafiles can be translated to other formats by
GNU plot. See section 3 The plot Program.
In the portable encoding, the arguments of each operation (integers, floating point numbers, or strings) are printed in a human-readable form, separated by spaces, and each argument list ends with a newline. In the binary encoding, the arguments are represented as integers, single precision floating point numbers, or newline-terminated ASCII strings. Using the newline character as a terminator is acceptable because each Plotter operation includes a maximum of one string among its arguments, and such a string may not include a newline. Also, the string must come last among the arguments.
There are 93 Plotter operations in all. The most important are
openpl and closepl, which open and close a Plotter, i.e.,
begin and end a page of graphics. They are represented by the op
codes `o' and `x', respectively. The erase
operation, if present, separates frames within a page. On real-time
display devices, it is interpreted as a screen erasure. It is
represented by the op code `e'.
Each of the 90 other Plotter operations has a corresponding op code,
with 12 exceptions. These 12 exceptions are (1) the setup operation
flushpl, (2) the operations havecap,
labelwidth, and flabelwidth, which merely return
information, (3) the color, colorname,
pencolorname, fillcolorname, and bgcolorname
operations, which are internally mapped to pencolor,
fillcolor, and bgcolor, (4) the frotate,
fscale, and ftranslate operations, which are internally
mapped to fconcat, and (5) the ffontname operation,
which in a metafile would be indistinguishable from fontname.
So besides `o' and `x', there are 79 possible op
codes, for a total of 81. The following table lists 10 of the
op codes other than `o' and `x', followed by the
Plotter operation they stand for.
arc
circle
erase
linemod
line
move
cont
point
space
label
The full set of 81 op codes is listed in the libplot header
file `plot.h' and the libplotter header file
`plotter.h', which are distributed along with the plotting
utilities. On most systems they are installed in
`/usr/include' or `/usr/local/include'.
It is worth noting that of the 81 op codes, only 51 are used in
portable metafiles. That is because in the portable encoding, there is
no point in distinguishing the floating point libplot operations
from their integer counterparts.
The 10 op codes in the table above are actually the op codes of the
traditional `plot(5)' format produced by pre-GNU versions of
graph and libplot. The use of these op codes make GNU
metafile format compatible with plot(5) format. The absence of a magic
string, and the absence of the `o' and `x' op codes,
makes it possible to distinguish files in plot(5) format from GNU
metafiles in the binary encoding. GNU plot can convert files in
plot(5) format to GNU metafiles in either the binary or the portable
encoding. See section 3 The plot Program.
idraw
The idraw utility mentioned several times in this documentation
is a freely distributable interactive drawing editor for the X
Window System. It can display and edit the output of any
application that uses the Postscript Plotter support contained in GNU
libplot. That includes graph -T ps, plot -T ps,
pic2plot -T ps, tek2plot -T ps, and plotfont -T ps.
The current version of idraw is maintained by Vectaport, Inc.,
and is available at their Web site.
It is part of the ivtools package, which is a framework for
building custom drawing editors. idraw was originally part of
the InterViews package, developed by Stanford University and
Silicon Graphics. The InterViews package is available at
a distribution site, but is
no longer supported. Retrieving the ivtools package instead
is recommended.
Also available at Vectaport's Web site
is an enhanced version of idraw called drawtool.
drawtool can import additional graphics in TIFF and PBM/PGM/PPM
formats, besides the X11 bitmaps that idraw can import.
xfig
The xfig utility mentioned several times in this documentation is
a freely distributable interactive drawing editor for the X Window
System. It can display and edit the output of any application that
uses the Fig Plotter support contained in GNU libplot. That
includes graph -T fig, plot -T fig, pic2plot -T
fig, tek2plot -T fig, and plotfont -T fig.
The current version is available at
ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications/drawing_tools/. It can
import additional graphics in GIF, X11 bitmap, and Postscript formats.
Accompanying the editor is a package called transfig, which
allows xfig graphics to be exported in many formats. GIF, X11
bitmap, LaTeX, and Postscript formats are supported.
There is a Web page on Fig
format, which discusses application software that can interoperate with
xfig.
Several of the GNU plotting utilities were inspired by Unix plotting
utilities. A graph utility and various plot filters were present
in the first releases of Unix from Bell Laboratories, going at least
as far back as the Version 4 distribution (1973). The first
supported display device was a Tektronix 611 storage scope. Most of the
work on tying the plot filters together and breaking out
device-dependent versions of libplot was performed by
Lorinda Cherry.
By the time of Version 7 Unix (1979) and the subsequent Berkeley
releases, the package consisting of graph, plot,
spline, and several device-dependent versions of libplot
was a standard Unix feature. Supported devices by the early 1980's
included Tektronix storage scopes, early graphics terminals,
200dpi electrostatic printer/plotters from Versatec and Varian,
and pen plotters from Hewlett--Packard.
In 1989, Rich Murphey wrote the first GNU
versions of graph, plot, and spline, and the
earliest documentation. Richard Stallman further directed development
of the programs and provided editorial support for the documentation.
John Interrante, then of the
InterViews team at Stanford, generously provided the idraw
Postscript prologue now included in libplot, and helpful
comments. The package as it stood in 1991 was distributed under the
name `GNU graphics'.
In 1995 Robert S. Maier took over
development of the package, and designed and wrote the current,
maximally device-independent, standalone version of libplot.
He also rewrote graph from scratch, turning it into a real-time
filter that would use the new library. He fleshed out spline
too, by adding support for splines in tension, periodicity, and cubic
Bessel interpolation.
libplot now incorporates the X Window System code for filling
polygons and drawing wide polygonal lines and arcs. The code is used
when producing output in bitmap formats (PNM and pseudo-GIF). It was
written by Brian Kelleher, Joel McCormack, Todd Newman, Keith Packard,
Robert Scheifler and Ken Whaley, who worked for Digital Equipment Corp.,
MIT, and/or the X Consortium, and is copyright © 1985--89
by the X Consortium.
The pseudo-GIF support now in libplot uses the `miGIF' run-length
encoding routines developed by
der Maus and
ivo, which are copyright © 1998
by Hutchison Avenue Software Corporation.
The copyright notice and permission notice for the miGIF routines
are distributed with the source code distribution of the plotting utilities.
Most development work on ode was performed by
Nick Tufillaro in 1978--1994, on a sequence of
platforms that extended back to a PDP-11 running Version 4 Unix. In
1997 Robert Maier modified his 1994 version to agree with GNU
conventions on coding and command-line parsing, extended it to support
the full set of special functions supported by gnuplot, and
extended the exception handling.
Many other people aided the development of the plotting utilities
package along the way. The Hershey vector fonts now in libplot
are of course based on the characters digitized in the mid to late
1960's by Allen V. Hershey, who deserves a vote of thanks.
Additional characters and/or marker symbols were taken from the SLAC
Unified Graphics System developed by Robert C. Beach in the
mid-1970's, and from the fonts designed by
Thomas Wolff for Ghostscript. The
interpolation algorithms used in spline are based on the
algorithms of Alan K. Cline, as
described in his papers in the Apr. 1974 issue of Communications
of the ACM. The table-driven parser used in tek2plot was
written at Berkeley in the mid-1980's by Edward Moy. The `sagitta' algorithm used in an extended form in
libplot for drawing circular and elliptic arcs was developed by
Peter Karnow of URW and Ken Turkowski of Apple.
Raymond Toy
helped with the tick mark
spacing code in graph and was the first to incorporate GNU
getopt. Arthur Smith, formerly of LASSP at Cornell, provided
code for his xplot utility.
Nelson Beebe
exhaustively tested the package installation process.
Robert Maier wrote the documentation, which now incorporates Nick
Tufillaro's ode manual. Julie Sussmann checked over the
documentation for style and clarity.
Please report all bugs in the GNU plotting utilities to bug-gnu-utils@gnu.org. Be sure to say which version of the plotting utilities package you have. Each command-line program announces the package version if you use the `--version' argument.
If you installed the plotting utilities from scratch, be sure to say what compiler (and compiler version) you used. If your problems are installation-related, be sure to give all relevant information.
This document was generated on 27 May 2000 using the texi2html translator version 1.51a.