NAME¶
plotfont - produce character maps of fonts supported by the plotting utilities
SYNOPSIS¶
plotfont [
options ]
fonts
DESCRIPTION¶
plotfont produces a character map for any font that is supported by the
plotting utilities, which include
graph(1),
plot(1),
pic2plot(1),
tek2plot(1), and the GNU libplot 2-D graphics
export library (see
plot(3)). Which fonts are supported depends on the
output format, which is specified by the
-T option. A listing of the
fonts available in any specified output format may be obtained with the
--help-fonts option (see below).
The character map, or maps, will be written to standard output in the specified
format. For example, the Times-Roman font is available when producing
Postscript output. The command
plotfont -T ps Times-Roman >
charmap.ps will yield a character map of the Times-Roman font, in a
Postscript format that can be viewed or edited with the
idraw(1)
drawing editor. The Times-Roman font is also available when producing Fig
output, which can be viewed or edited with the
xfig(1) drawing editor.
The command
plotfont -T fig Times-Roman > charmap.fig will yield the
same character map, but in Fig format rather than in Postscript format.
As another example, the Univers font is available when producing PCL 5 output.
The command
plotfont -T pcl Univers > charmap.pcl will produce a
character map of the Univers font, in PCL 5 format.
When producing output for the X Window System, i.e., for a popped-up window, any
scalable X Window System font that has an XLFD (i.e., X Logical Font
Description) name is supported. For example, the command
plotfont -T X
utopia-medium-r-normal will pop up a window, and draw a character map of
the Utopia-Regular font. "utopia-medium-r-normal" is a truncated
version of the Utopia-Regular font's XLFD name. The Utopia-Regular font is
available on most X Window System displays.
OPTIONS¶
General Options¶
- -T type
-
- --output-format type
- Select type as the output format. It may be "X",
"png", "pnm", "gif", "svg",
"ai", "ps", "cgm", "fig",
"pcl", "hpgl", "regis", "tek", or
"meta" (the default). These refer respectively to the X Window
System, PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format, portable anymap format
(PBM/PGM/PPM), a pseudo-GIF format that does not use LZW encoding, the new
XML-based Scalable Vector Graphics format, the format used by Adobe
Illustrator, Postscript or Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) that can be
edited with idraw(1), CGM format (by default, confirming to the
WebCGM profile), the format used by the xfig(1) drawing editor, the
Hewlett-Packard PCL 5 printer language, the Hewlett-Packard Graphics
Language, ReGIS graphics format (which can be displayed by the
dxterm(1) terminal emulator or by a VT330 or VT340 terminal),
Tektronix format (which can be displayed by the xterm(1) terminal
emulator), and device-independent GNU metafile format itself. Unless
type is "X", an output file is produced and written to
standard output.
-
- Files in PNG, PNM, pseudo-GIF, AI, or Fig format contain only a single
page of graphics. So if the -T png option, the -T pnm
option, the -T gif option, the -T ai option, or the -T
fig option is used, the output file will contain a character map for
only the first-specified font.
-
- A listing of the fonts available in any specified output format may be
obtained with the --help-fonts option (see below). If a requested
font is unavailable, a default font will be substituted. The default font
is "Helvetica" for "X", "svg",
"ai", "ps", "cgm", and "fig",
"Univers" for "pcl", and "HersheySerif" for
"png", "pnm", "gif", "hpgl",
"regis", "tek", and "meta".
- -1
-
- --lower-half
- Generate a character map for the lower half of each specified font. This
is the default.
- -2
-
- --upper-half
- Generate a character map for the upper half of each specified font.
- -o
-
- --octal
- Number the characters in octal rather than in decimal (the default).
- -x
-
- --hexadecimal
- Number the characters in hexadecimal rather than in decimal (the
default).
- --box
- Surround each character with a box, showing its extent to left and right.
The default is not to do this.
- -j row
-
- --jis-row row
- Generate a character map for row row of a Japanese font arranged
according to JIS [Japanese Industrial Standard] X0208. The only such font
currently available is the HersheyEUC [Extended Unix Code] font. If used,
this option overrides the -1 and -2 options. The valid rows
are 1...94. In the JIS X0208 standard, Roman characters are located in row
3, and Japanese syllabic characters (Hiragana and Katakana) are located in
rows 4 and 5. Greek and Cyrillic characters are located in rows 6 and 7.
Japanese ideographic characters (Kanji) are located in rows 16...84.
- --bg-color name
- Set the color used for the background to be name. This is relevant
only to plotfont -T X, plotfont -T png, plotfont -T
pnm, plotfont -T gif, plotfont -T svg, plotfont -T
cgm, and plotfont -T regis. An unrecognized name sets the color
to the default, which is "white". The environment variable
BG_COLOR can equally well be used to specify the background
color.
-
- If the -T png or -T gif option is used, a transparent PNG
file or a transparent pseudo-GIF, respectively, may be produced by setting
the TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable to the name of the
background color. If the -T svg or -T cgm option is used, an
output file without a background may be produced by setting the background
color to "none".
- --bitmap-size bitmap_size
- Set the size of the graphics display in which the character map(s) will be
drawn, in terms of pixels, to be bitmap_size. The default is
"570x570". This is relevant only to plotfont -T X,
plotfont -T png, plotfont -T pnm, and plotfont -T
gif, all of which produce bitmaps. If you choose a rectangular
(non-square) window size, the fonts in the character map(s) will be scaled
anisotropically, i.e., by different factors in the horizontal and vertical
directions. For plotfont -T X, this requires an X11R6 display. Any
font that cannot be scaled in this way will be replaced by a default
scalable font, such as the vector font "HersheySerif".
-
- The environment variable BITMAPSIZE can equally well be used to
specify the window size. For backward compatibility, the X resource
Xplot.geometry may be used instead.
- --emulate-color option
- If option is yes, replace each color in the output by an
appropriate shade of gray. This is seldom useful, except when using
plotfont -T pcl to prepare output for a PCL 5 device. (Many
monochrome PCL 5 devices, such as monochrome LaserJets, do a poor job of
emulating color on their own.) You may equally well request color
emulation by setting the environment variable EMULATE_COLOR to
"yes".
- --numbering-font name
- Set the font used for the numbering of the characters in the character
map(s) to be name, rather than the default.
- --page-size pagesize
- Set the size of size of the page on which the character map(s) will be
positioned. This is relevant only to plotfont -T svg, plotfont
-T ai, plotfont -T ps, plotfont -T cgm, plotfont -T
fig, plotfont -T pcl, and plotfont -T hpgl. The default
is "letter", which means an 8.5 inch by 11 inch 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" and "ledger"
are recognized page sizes also. The environment variable PAGESIZE
can equally well be used to specify the page size.
-
- The graphics display in which each character map is drawn will be a square
region that would occupy nearly the full width of the specified page. An
alternative size for the graphics display can be specified. For example,
the page size could be specified as
"letter,xsize=4in,ysize=6in", or
"a4,xsize=5.0cm,ysize=100mm". For all of the above except
plotfont -T hpgl, the graphics display will, by default, be
centered on the page. For all of the above except plotfont -T svg
and plotfont -T cgm, the graphics display may be repositioned
manually, by specifying the location of its lower left corner, relative to
the lower left corner of the page. For example, the page size could be
specified as "letter,xorigin=2in,yorigin=3in", or
"a4,xorigin=0.5cm,yorigin=0.5cm". It is also possible to specify
an offset vector. For example, the page size could be specified as
"letter,xoffset=1in", or
"letter,xoffset=1in,yoffset=1.2in", or
"a4,yoffset=-1cm". In SVG format and WebCGM format it is
possible to specify the size of the graphics display, but not its
position.
- --rotation angle
- Rotate the graphics display by angle degrees. Recognized values are
"0", "90", "180", and "270".
"no" and "yes" are equivalent to "0" and
"90", respectively. The environment variable ROTATION
can also be used to specify a rotation angle.
- --pen-color name
- Set the pen color to be name. An unrecognized name sets the pen
color to the default, which is "black".
The following option is relevant only if the
-T option is omitted or if
-T meta is used. In this case the output of
plotfont will be in
GNU graphics metafile format. It may be translated to other formats by
invoking
plot(1).
- -O
-
- --portable-output
- Output the portable (human-readable) version of GNU metafile format,
rather than the binary version (the default). The format of the binary
version is machine-dependent.
- --help
- Print a list of command-line options, and exit.
- --help-fonts
- Print a table of available fonts, and exit. The table will depend on which
output format is specified with the -T option. plotfont -T
X, plotfont -T svg, plotfont -T ai, plotfont -T
ps, plotfont -T cgm, and plotfont -T fig each support
the 35 standard Postscript fonts. plotfont -T svg, plotfont -T
pcl, and plotfont -T hpgl support the 45 standard PCL 5 fonts,
and the latter two support a number of Hewlett-Packard vector fonts. All
seven support a set of 22 Hershey vector fonts, as do plotfont -T
png, plotfont -T pnm, plotfont -T gif, plotfont -T
regis, and plotfont -T tek. plotfont without a -T
option in principle supports any of these fonts, since its output must be
translated to other formats by invoking plot(1).
- --list-fonts
- Like --help-fonts, but lists the fonts in a single column to
facilitate piping to other programs. If no output format is specified with
the -T option, the full set of supported fonts is listed.
- --version
- Print the version number of plotfont and the plotting utilities
package, and exit.
ENVIRONMENT¶
The environment variables
BITMAPSIZE, PAGESIZE, BG_COLOR,
EMULATE_COLOR, and
ROTATION serve as backups for the
options
--bitmap-size,
--page-size,
--bg-color,
--emulate-color, and
--rotation, respectively. The remaining
environment variables are specific to individual output formats.
plotfont -T X, which pops up a window on an X Window System display for
each character map, checks the
DISPLAY environment variable. Its value
determines the display that will be used.
plotfont -T png and
plotfont -T gif, which produce output in PNG
format and pseudo-GIF format respectively, are affected by the
INTERLACE
environment variable. If its value is "yes", the output will be
interlaced. Also, if the
TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable is set
to the name of a color, that color will be treated as transparent in the
output.
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 will be in a human-readable format rather
than binary (the default).
plotfont -T cgm, which produces output in CGM (Computer Graphics
Metafile) format, is affected by the
CGM_MAX_VERSION and
CGM_ENCODING environment variables. By default, it produces a
binary-encoded version of CGM version 3 format. For backward compatibility,
the version number may be reduced by setting
CGM_MAX_VERSION to
"2" or "1". Irrespective of version, the output CGM file
will use the human-readable clear text encoding if
CGM_ENCODING is set
to "clear_text". However, only binary-encoded CGM files conform to
the WebCGM profile.
plotfont -T pcl, which produces PCL 5 output for Hewlett-Packard printers
and plotters, 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 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 width. 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
plotfont -T hpgl graphics display on the page can be
rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise 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
HPGL_ROTATE 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. All color names recognized by the X
Window System may be used. 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 its
value 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.
Opaque filling and the drawing of visible white lines are supported only if
HPGL_VERSION is "2" and the environment variable
HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE is "yes" (the default). If its 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 opacity or 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.
plotfont -T tek, which produces output for a Tektronix terminal or
emulator, checks the
TERM environment variable. If the value of
TERM is a string beginning with "xterm", "nxterm",
or "kterm", it is taken as a sign that
plotfont is running in
an X Window System VT100 terminal emulator: a copy of
xterm(1),
nxterm(1), or
kterm(1). 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 a string beginning with "kermit",
"ansi.sys", or "nansi.sys", it is taken as a sign that
plotfont is running in the VT100 terminal emulator provided by the
MS-DOS version of
kermit(1). 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.
SEE ALSO¶
graph(1),
pic2plot(1),
tek2plot(1),
plot(1),
plot(3), and "The GNU Plotting Utilities Manual".
AUTHORS¶
plotfont was written by Robert S. Maier (
rsm@math.arizona.edu).
BUGS¶
Email bug reports to
bug-gnu-utils@gnu.org.