1PS2RASTER(1) Generic Mapping Tools PS2RASTER(1)
2
6 ps2raster - Converts one or several PostScript file(s) to other formats
7 using GhostScript
8
10 ps2raster psfile(s) [ -A[u|-] ] [ -Cgs_option ] [ -Doutdir ] [ -Ereso‐
11 lution ] [ -Gghost_path ] [ -Llistfile ] [ -P ] [ -Q[g|t][1|2|4] ] [ -S
12 ] [ -Tb|e|f|j|g|G|m|t ] [ -V ] [ -W[+g][+tdocname][+nlayername][+aalt‐
13 mode[alt]][+lminLOD/maxLOD][+fminfade/maxfade][+uURL] ]
14
16 ps2raster converts one or more PostScript files to other formats (BMP,
17 EPS, JPEG, PDF, PNG, PPM, TIFF) using GhostScript. Input file names are
18 read from the command line or from a file that lists them. The size of
19 the resulting images is determined by the BoundingBox (or HiResBound‐
20 ingBox, if present). As an option, a tight (HiRes)BoundingBox may be
21 computed first. As another option, it can compute ESRI type world files
22 used to reference, for instance, tif files and make them be recognized
23 as geotiff.
24 psfiles
26 Names of PostScript files to be converted. The output files will
27 have the same name (unless -F is used) but with the conventional
28 extension name associated to the raster format (e.g. .jpg for
29 the jpeg format). Use -D to redirect the output to a different
30 directory.
31
33 -A Adjust the BoundingBox and HiResBoundingBox to the minimum
34 required by the image content. Append u to first remove any
35 GMT-produced time-stamps. Use -A- to override any automatic
36 setting of -A by -W.
37 -C Specify a single, custom option that will be passed on to Ghost‐
39 Script as is. Repeat to add several options [none].
40 -D Sets an alternative output directory (which must exist) [Default
42 is the same directory as the PS files]. Use -D. to place the
43 output in the current directory instead.
44 -E Set raster resolution in dpi [default = 720 for PDF, 300 for
46 others].
47 -F Force the output file name. By default output names are con‐
49 structed using the input names as base, which are appended with
50 an appropriate extension. Use this option to provide a different
51 name, but without extension. Extension is still determined auto‐
52 matically.
53 -G Full path to your GhostScript executable. NOTE: For Unix sys‐
55 tems this is generally not necessary. However, under Windows,
56 GhostScript is not added to the system's path. So either you do
57 it yourself, or give the full path here. (e.g., -Gc:\pro‐
58 grams\gs\gs7.05\bin\gswin32c).
59 -L The listfile is an ASCII file with the names of the PostScript
61 files to be converted.
62 -N This option is obsolete. Use -S to print the GhostScript com‐
64 mand, if applicable. Use -Te to save the intermediate EPS file.
65 -P Force Portrait mode. All Landscape mode plots will be rotated
67 back so that they show unrotated in Portrait mode. This is prac‐
68 tical when converting to image formats or preparing EPS or PDF
69 plots for inclusion in documents.
70 -Q Set the anti-aliasing options for graphics or text. Append the
72 size of the subsample box (1, 2, or 4) [4]. Default is no anti-
73 aliasing (same as bits = 1).
74 -S Print to standard output the GhostScript command after it has
76 been executed.
77 -T Sets the output format, where b means BMP, e means EPS, f means
79 PDF, j means JPEG, g means PNG, G means transparent PNG
80 (untouched regions are transparent), m means PPM, and t means
81 TIFF [default is JPEG]. For bjgt you can append - to get a
82 grayscale image only. The EPS format can be combined with any
83 of the other formats. For example, -Tef creates both an EPS and
84 a PDF file.
85 -V Selects verbose mode, which will send progress reports to stderr
87 [Default runs "silently"].
88 -W Write a ESRI type world file suitable to make (e.g) .tif files
90 be recognized as geotiff by softwares that know how to do it. Be
91 aware, however, that different results are obtained depending on
92 the image contents and if the -B option has been used or not.
93 The trouble with the -B option is that it creates a frame and
94 very likely its annotations. That introduces pixels outside the
95 map data extent, and therefore the map extents estimation will
96 be wrong. To avoid this problem use --BASEMAP_TYPE=inside
97 option which plots all annotations and ticks inside the image
98 and therefore does not compromise the coordinate computations.
99 Pay attention also to the cases when the plot has any of the
100 sides with whites only because than the algorithm will fail mis‐
101 erably as those whites will be eaten by the GhostScript. In that
102 case you really must use -B or use a slightly off-white color.
103 Together with -V it prints on screen the gdal_translate
104 (gdal_translate is a command line tool from the GDAL package)
105 command that reads the raster + world file and creates a true
106 geotiff file. Use -W+g to do a system call to gdal_translate and
107 create a geoTIFF image right away. The output file will have a
108 .tiff extension.
109 The world file naming follows the convention of jamming a 'w' in
110 the file extension. So, if output is tif -Tt the world file is a
111 .tfw, for jpeg we have a .jgw and so on. This option automati‐
112 cally sets -A -P.
113 Use -W+k to create a minimalist KML file that allows loading the
114 image in GoogleEarth. Note that for this option the image must
115 be in geographical coordinates. If not, a warning is issued but
116 the KML file is created anyway. Several modifier options are
117 available to customize the KML file in the form of +opt strings.
118 Append +ttitle to set the document title [GMT KML Document],
119 +nlayername to set the layer name, and +a/altmode[altitude] to
120 select one of 5 altitude modes recognized by Google Earth that
121 determines the altitude (in m) of the image: G clamped to the
122 ground, g append altitude relative to ground, a append absolute
123 altitude, s append altitude relative to seafloor, and S clamp it
124 to the seafloor. Control visibility of the layer with the
125 +lminLOD/maxLOD and +fminfade/maxfade options. FInally, if you
126 plan to leave the image itself on a server and only distribute
127 the KML, use +uURL to prepend the URL to the image reference.
128 See the KML documentation for further explanation
129 (http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/).
130 Further notes on the creation of georeferenced rasters.
131 ps2raster can create a georeferenced raster image with a world
132 file OR uses GDAL to convert the GMT PostScript file to geotiff.
133 GDAL uses Proj.4 for it's projection library. To provide with
134 the information it needs to do the georeferencing, GMT 4.5
135 embeds a comment near the start of the PostScript file defining
136 the projection using Proj.4 syntax. Users with pre-GMT v4.5
137 PostScript files, or even non-GMT ps files, can provide the
138 information ps2raster requires by manually editing a line into
139 the PostScript file, prefixed with %%PROJ.
140 For example the command pscoast -JM0/12c -R-10/-4/37/43 -W1 -Di
141 -Bg30m --BASEMAP_TYPE=inside > cara.ps
142 adds this comment line
143 %%PROJ: merc -10.0 -4.0 37.0 43.0 -1113194.908 -445277.963
144 4413389.889 5282821.824 +proj=merc +lon_0=0 +k=-1 +x_0=0 +y_0=0
145 +a=6378137.0 +b=6356752.314245
146 where 'merc' is the keyword for the coordinate conversion; the 2
147 to 5th elements contain the map limits, 6 to 9th the map limits
148 in projected coordinates and the rest of the line has the regu‐
149 lar proj4 string for this projection.
150
152 The conversion to raster images (BMP, JPEG, PNG, PPM or TIFF) inher‐
153 ently results in loss of details that are available in the original
154 PostScript file. Choose a resolution that is large enough for the
155 application that the image will be used for. For web pages, smaller dpi
156 values suffice, for Word documents and PowerPoint presentations a
157 higher dpi value is recommended. ps2raster uses the loss-less Flate
158 compression technique when creating JPEG, PNG and TIFF images.
159 EPS is a vector, not a raster format. Therefore, the -E option has no
161 effect on the creation of EPS files. Using the option -Te will remove
162 PageSize commands from the PostScript file and will adjust the Bound‐
163 ingBox when the -A option is used. Note the original and required
164 BoundingBox is limited to integer points, hence Adobe added the
165 optional HiResBoundingBox to add more precision in sizing. The -A
166 option calculates both and writes both to the EPS file used in the ras‐
167 terization (and output if -Te is set).
168 Although PDF is also a vector format, the -E option has an effect on
170 the resolution of pattern fills and fonts that are stored as bitmaps in
171 the document. ps2raster therefore uses a larger default resolution when
172 creating PDF files. In order to obtain high-quality PDF files, the
173 /prepress options are in effect, allowing only loss-less Flate compres‐
174 sion of raster images embedded in the PostScript file.
175 Although ps2raster was developed as part of the GMT, it can be used to
177 convert PostScript files created by nearly any graphics program. How‐
178 ever, -Au is GMT-specific.
179 See Appendix C of the GMT Technical Reference and Cookbook for more
181 information on how ps2raster is used to produce graphics that can be
182 inserted into other documents (articles, presentations, posters, etc.).
183
185 To convert the file psfile.ps to PNG using a tight BoundingBox and
186 rotating it back to normal orientation in case it was in Landscape
187 mode:
188 ps2raster psfile.ps -A -P -Tg
190 To create a simple linear map with pscoast and convert it to tif with a
192 .tfw the tight BoundingBox computation.
193 pscoast -JX12cd -R-10/-4/37/43 -W1 -Di -Bg30m -P -G200
195 --BASEMAP_TYPE=inside > cara.ps
196 ps2raster cara -Tt -W
198 To create a Mercator version of the above example and use GDAL to pro‐
200 duce a true geotiff file.
201 pscoast -JM0/12c -R-10/-4/37/43 -W1 -Di -Bg30m -P -G200
203 --BASEMAP_TYPE=inside > cara.ps
204 gdalwarp -s_srs +proj=merc cara.tif carageo.tiff
206 To create a Polar Stereographic geotiff file of Patagonia
208 pscoast -JS-55/-60/15c -R-77/-55/-57.5/-48r -Di -Gred -P -Bg2
210 --BASEMAP_TYPE=inside > patagonia.ps
211 ps2raster patagonia.ps -Tt -W+g -V
213 To create a simple KMZ file for use in Google Earth, try
215 grdimage lonlatgrid.nc -Jx1 -Ccolors.cpt -P -B0g2 --BASEMAP_TYPE=inside
217 > tile.ps
218 ps2raster tile.ps -Tg -W+k+t"my title"+l256/-1 -V
220 (These commands assume that GhostScript can be found in your system's
222 path.)
223
225 GMT programs can produce binary PostScript image data and this is
226 determined by the default setting PS_IMAGE_FORMAT. Because ps2raster
227 needs to process the input files on a line-by-line basis you need to
228 make sure the image format is set to ascii and not bin.
229
231 Most of the conversions done in ps2raster are handled by GhostScript.
232 On most Unixes this program is available as gs; for Windows there is a
233 version called gswin32c. GhostScript accepts a rich selection of com‐
234 mand-line options that modify its behavior. Many of these are set
235 indirectly by the options available above. However, hard-core usage
236 may require some users to add additional options to fine-tune the
237 result. Use -S to examine the actual command used, and add custom
238 options via one or more instances of the -C option. For instance, to
239 turn on image interpolation for all images, improving image quality for
240 scaled images at the expense of speed, use -C-dDOINTERPOLATE. See
241 www.ghostscript.com for complete documentation.
242
244 GMT(1), gs(1)
245GMT 4.5.6 10 Mar 2011 PS2RASTER(1)