1PLOTFONT(1) GNU Plotting Utilities PLOTFONT(1)
2
6 plotfont - produce character maps of fonts supported by the plotting
7 utilities
8
10 plotfont [ options ] fonts
11
13 plotfont produces a character map for any font that is supported by the
14 plotting utilities, which include graph(1), plot(1), pic2plot(1),
15 tek2plot(1), and the GNU libplot 2-D graphics export library (see
16 plot(3)). Which fonts are supported depends on the output format,
17 which is specified by the -T option. A listing of the fonts available
18 in any specified output format may be obtained with the --help-fonts
19 option (see below).
20 The character map, or maps, will be written to standard output in the
22 specified format. For example, the Times-Roman font is available when
23 producing Postscript output. The command plotfont -T ps Times-Roman >
24 charmap.ps will yield a character map of the Times-Roman font, in a
25 Postscript format that can be viewed or edited with the idraw(1) draw‐
26 ing editor. The Times-Roman font is also available when producing Fig
27 output, which can be viewed or edited with the xfig(1) drawing editor.
28 The command plotfont -T fig Times-Roman > charmap.fig will yield the
29 same character map, but in Fig format rather than in Postscript format.
30 As another example, the Univers font is available when producing PCL 5
32 output. The command plotfont -T pcl Univers > charmap.pcl will produce
33 a character map of the Univers font, in PCL 5 format.
34 When producing output for the X Window System, i.e., for a popped-up
36 window, any scalable X Window System font that has an XLFD (i.e., X
37 Logical Font Description) name is supported. For example, the command
38 plotfont -T X utopia-medium-r-normal will pop up a window, and draw a
39 character map of the Utopia-Regular font. "utopia-medium-r-normal" is
40 a truncated version of the Utopia-Regular font's XLFD name. The
41 Utopia-Regular font is available on most X Window System displays.
42
44 General Options
45 -T type
46 --output-format type
47 Select type as the output format. It may be "X", "png", "pnm",
48 "gif", "svg", "ai", "ps", "cgm", "fig", "pcl", "hpgl", "regis",
49 "tek", or "meta" (the default). These refer respectively to the
50 X Window System, PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format, porta‐
51 ble anymap format (PBM/PGM/PPM), a pseudo-GIF format that does
52 not use LZW encoding, the new XML-based Scalable Vector Graphics
53 format, the format used by Adobe Illustrator, Postscript or
54 Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) that can be edited with idraw(1),
55 CGM format (by default, confirming to the WebCGM profile), the
56 format used by the xfig(1) drawing editor, the Hewlett-Packard
57 PCL 5 printer language, the Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language,
58 ReGIS graphics format (which can be displayed by the dxterm(1)
59 terminal emulator or by a VT330 or VT340 terminal), Tektronix
60 format (which can be displayed by the xterm(1) terminal emula‐
61 tor), and device-independent GNU metafile format itself. Unless
62 type is "X", an output file is produced and written to standard
63 output.
64 Files in PNG, PNM, pseudo-GIF, AI, or Fig format contain only a
66 single page of graphics. So if the -T png option, the -T pnm
67 option, the -T gif option, the -T ai option, or the -T fig
68 option is used, the output file will contain a character map for
69 only the first-specified font.
70 A listing of the fonts available in any specified output format
72 may be obtained with the --help-fonts option (see below). If a
73 requested font is unavailable, a default font will be substi‐
74 tuted. The default font is "Helvetica" for "X", "svg", "ai",
75 "ps", "cgm", and "fig", "Univers" for "pcl", and "HersheySerif"
76 for "png", "pnm", "gif", "hpgl", "regis", "tek", and "meta".
77 -1
79 --lower-half
80 Generate a character map for the lower half of each specified
81 font. This is the default.
82 -2
84 --upper-half
85 Generate a character map for the upper half of each specified
86 font.
87 -o
89 --octal
90 Number the characters in octal rather than in decimal (the
91 default).
92 -x
94 --hexadecimal
95 Number the characters in hexadecimal rather than in decimal (the
96 default).
97 --box Surround each character with a box, showing its extent to left
99 and right. The default is not to do this.
100 -j row
102 --jis-row row
103 Generate a character map for row row of a Japanese font arranged
104 according to JIS [Japanese Industrial Standard] X0208. The only
105 such font currently available is the HersheyEUC [Extended Unix
106 Code] font. If used, this option overrides the -1 and -2
107 options. The valid rows are 1...94. In the JIS X0208 standard,
108 Roman characters are located in row 3, and Japanese syllabic
109 characters (Hiragana and Katakana) are located in rows 4 and 5.
110 Greek and Cyrillic characters are located in rows 6 and 7. Ja‐
111 panese ideographic characters (Kanji) are located in rows
112 16...84.
113 --bg-color name
115 Set the color used for the background to be name. This is rele‐
116 vant only to plotfont -T X, plotfont -T png, plotfont -T pnm,
117 plotfont -T gif, plotfont -T svg, plotfont -T cgm, and plotfont
118 -T regis. An unrecognized name sets the color to the default,
119 which is "white". The environment variable BG_COLOR can equally
120 well be used to specify the background color.
121 If the -T png or -T gif option is used, a transparent PNG file
123 or a transparent pseudo-GIF, respectively, may be produced by
124 setting the TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable to the name
125 of the background color. If the -T svg or -T cgm option is
126 used, an output file without a background may be produced by
127 setting the background color to "none".
128 --bitmap-size bitmap_size
130 Set the size of the graphics display in which the character
131 map(s) will be drawn, in terms of pixels, to be bitmap_size.
132 The default is "570x570". This is relevant only to plotfont -T
133 X, plotfont -T png, plotfont -T pnm, and plotfont -T gif, all of
134 which produce bitmaps. If you choose a rectangular (non-square)
135 window size, the fonts in the character map(s) will be scaled
136 anisotropically, i.e., by different factors in the horizontal
137 and vertical directions. For plotfont -T X, this requires an
138 X11R6 display. Any font that cannot be scaled in this way will
139 be replaced by a default scalable font, such as the vector font
140 "HersheySerif".
141 The environment variable BITMAPSIZE can equally well be used to
143 specify the window size. For backward compatibility, the X
144 resource Xplot.geometry may be used instead.
145 --emulate-color option
147 If option is yes, replace each color in the output by an appro‐
148 priate shade of gray. This is seldom useful, except when using
149 plotfont -T pcl to prepare output for a PCL 5 device. (Many
150 monochrome PCL 5 devices, such as monochrome LaserJets, do a
151 poor job of emulating color on their own.) You may equally well
152 request color emulation by setting the environment variable EMU‐
153 LATE_COLOR to "yes".
154 --numbering-font name
156 Set the font used for the numbering of the characters in the
157 character map(s) to be name, rather than the default.
158 --page-size pagesize
160 Set the size of size of the page on which the character map(s)
161 will be positioned. This is relevant only to plotfont -T svg,
162 plotfont -T ai, plotfont -T ps, plotfont -T cgm, plotfont -T
163 fig, plotfont -T pcl, and plotfont -T hpgl. The default is
164 "letter", which means an 8.5 inch by 11 inch page. Any ISO page
165 size in the range "a0"..."a4" or ANSI page size in the range
166 "a"..."e" may be specified ("letter" is an alias for "a" and
167 "tabloid" is an alias for "b"). "legal" and "ledger" are recog‐
168 nized page sizes also. The environment variable PAGESIZE can
169 equally well be used to specify the page size.
170 The graphics display in which each character map is drawn will
172 be a square region that would occupy nearly the full width of
173 the specified page. An alternative size for the graphics dis‐
174 play can be specified. For example, the page size could be
175 specified as "letter,xsize=4in,ysize=6in", or
176 "a4,xsize=5.0cm,ysize=100mm". For all of the above except plot‐
177 font -T hpgl, the graphics display will, by default, be centered
178 on the page. For all of the above except plotfont -T svg and
179 plotfont -T cgm, the graphics display may be repositioned manu‐
180 ally, by specifying the location of its lower left corner, rela‐
181 tive to the lower left corner of the page. For example, the
182 page size could be specified as "letter,xorigin=2in,yori‐
183 gin=3in", or "a4,xorigin=0.5cm,yorigin=0.5cm". It is also pos‐
184 sible to specify an offset vector. For example, the page size
185 could be specified as "letter,xoffset=1in", or "letter,xoff‐
186 set=1in,yoffset=1.2in", or "a4,yoffset=-1cm". In SVG format and
187 WebCGM format it is possible to specify the size of the graphics
188 display, but not its position.
189 --rotation angle
191 Rotate the graphics display by angle degrees. Recognized values
192 are "0", "90", "180", and "270". "no" and "yes" are equivalent
193 to "0" and "90", respectively. The environment variable ROTA‐
194 TION can also be used to specify a rotation angle.
195 --pen-color name
197 Set the pen color to be name. An unrecognized name sets the pen
198 color to the default, which is "black".
199 Options for Metafile Output
201 The following option is relevant only if the -T option is omitted or if
202 -T meta is used. In this case the output of plotfont will be in GNU
203 graphics metafile format. It may be translated to other formats by
204 invoking plot(1).
205 -O
207 --portable-output
208 Output the portable (human-readable) version of GNU metafile
209 format, rather than the binary version (the default). The for‐
210 mat of the binary version is machine-dependent.
211 Informational Options
213 --help Print a list of command-line options, and exit.
214 --help-fonts
216 Print a table of available fonts, and exit. The table will
217 depend on which output format is specified with the -T option.
218 plotfont -T X, plotfont -T svg, plotfont -T ai, plotfont -T ps,
219 plotfont -T cgm, and plotfont -T fig each support the 35 stan‐
220 dard Postscript fonts. plotfont -T svg, plotfont -T pcl, and
221 plotfont -T hpgl support the 45 standard PCL 5 fonts, and the
222 latter two support a number of Hewlett-Packard vector fonts.
223 All seven support a set of 22 Hershey vector fonts, as do plot‐
224 font -T png, plotfont -T pnm, plotfont -T gif, plotfont -T
225 regis, and plotfont -T tek. plotfont without a -T option in
226 principle supports any of these fonts, since its output must be
227 translated to other formats by invoking plot(1).
228 --list-fonts
230 Like --help-fonts, but lists the fonts in a single column to
231 facilitate piping to other programs. If no output format is
232 specified with the -T option, the full set of supported fonts is
233 listed.
234 --version
236 Print the version number of plotfont and the plotting utilities
237 package, and exit.
238
240 The environment variables BITMAPSIZE, PAGESIZE, BG_COLOR, EMU‐
241 LATE_COLOR, and ROTATION serve as backups for the options --bit‐
242 map-size, --page-size, --bg-color, --emulate-color, and --rotation,
243 respectively. The remaining environment variables are specific to
244 individual output formats.
245 plotfont -T X, which pops up a window on an X Window System display for
247 each character map, checks the DISPLAY environment variable. Its value
248 determines the display that will be used.
249 plotfont -T png and plotfont -T gif, which produce output in PNG format
251 and pseudo-GIF format respectively, are affected by the INTERLACE envi‐
252 ronment variable. If its value is "yes", the output will be inter‐
253 laced. Also, if the TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable is set to
254 the name of a color, that color will be treated as transparent in the
255 output.
256 plotfont -T pnm, which produces output in portable anymap (PBM/PGM/PPM)
258 format, is affected by the PNM_PORTABLE environment variable. If its
259 value is "yes", the output will be in a human-readable format rather
260 than binary (the default).
261 plotfont -T cgm, which produces output in CGM (Computer Graphics
263 Metafile) format, is affected by the CGM_MAX_VERSION and CGM_ENCODING
264 environment variables. By default, it produces a binary-encoded ver‐
265 sion of CGM version 3 format. For backward compatibility, the version
266 number may be reduced by setting CGM_MAX_VERSION to "2" or "1". Irre‐
267 spective of version, the output CGM file will use the human-readable
268 clear text encoding if CGM_ENCODING is set to "clear_text". However,
269 only binary-encoded CGM files conform to the WebCGM profile.
270 plotfont -T pcl, which produces PCL 5 output for Hewlett-Packard print‐
272 ers and plotters, is affected by the environment variable
273 PCL_ASSIGN_COLORS. It should be set to "yes" when producing PCL 5 out‐
274 put for a color printer or other color device. This will ensure accu‐
275 rate color reproduction by giving the output device complete freedom in
276 assigning colors, internally, to its "logical pens". If it is "no"
277 then the device will use a fixed set of colored pens, and will emulate
278 other colors by shading. The default is "no" because monochrome PCL 5
279 devices, which are much more common than colored ones, must use shading
280 to emulate color.
281 plotfont -T hpgl, which produces Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language out‐
283 put, is affected by several environment variables. The most important
284 is HPGL_VERSION, which may be set to "1", "1.5", or "2" (the default).
285 "1" means that the output should be generic HP-GL, "1.5" means that the
286 output should be suitable for the HP7550A graphics plotter and the
287 HP758x, HP7595A and HP7596A drafting plotters (HP-GL with some HP-GL/2
288 extensions), and "2" means that the output should be modern HP-GL/2.
289 If the version is "1" or "1.5" then the only available fonts will be
290 vector fonts, and all lines will be drawn with a default width. Addi‐
291 tionally, if the version is "1" then the filling of arbitrary curves
292 with solid color will not be supported (circles and rectangles aligned
293 with the coordinate axes may be filled, though).
294 The position of the plotfont -T hpgl graphics display on the page can
296 be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise by setting the HPGL_ROTATE envi‐
297 ronment variable to "yes". This is not the same as the rotation
298 obtained with the --rotation option, since it both rotates the graphics
299 display and repositions its lower left corner toward another corner of
300 the page. Besides "no" and "yes", recognized values for HPGL_ROTATE
301 are "0", "90", "180", and "270". "no" and "yes" are equivalent to "0"
302 and "90", respectively. "180" and "270" are supported only if
303 HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default).
304 By default, plotfont -T hpgl will draw with a fixed set of pens. Which
306 pens are present may be specified by setting the HPGL_PENS environment
307 variable. If HPGL_VERSION is "1", the default value of HPGL_PENS is
308 "1=black"; if HPGL_VERSION is "1.5" or "2", the default value of
309 HPGL_PENS is "1=black:2=red:3=green:4=yellow:5=blue:6=magenta:7=cyan".
310 The format should be self-explanatory. By setting HPGL_PENS you may
311 specify a color for any pen in the range #1...#31. All color names
312 recognized by the X Window System may be used. Pen #1 must always be
313 present, though it need not be black. Any other pen in the range
314 #1...#31 may be omitted.
315 If HPGL_VERSION is "2" then plotfont -T hpgl will also be affected by
317 the environment variable HPGL_ASSIGN_COLORS. If its value is "yes",
318 then plotfont -T hpgl will not be restricted to the palette specified
319 in HPGL_PENS: it will assign colors to "logical pens" in the range
320 #1...#31, as needed. The default value is "no" because other than
321 color LaserJet printers and DesignJet plotters, not many HP-GL/2
322 devices allow the assignment of colors to logical pens.
323 Opaque filling and the drawing of visible white lines are supported
325 only if HPGL_VERSION is "2" and the environment variable
326 HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE is "yes" (the default). If its value is "no" then
327 white lines (if any), which are normally drawn with pen #0, will not be
328 drawn. This feature is to accommodate older HP-GL/2 devices. HP-GL/2
329 pen plotters, for example, do not support opacity or the use of pen #0
330 to draw visible white lines. Some older HP-GL/2 devices may, in fact,
331 malfunction if asked to draw opaque objects.
332 plotfont -T tek, which produces output for a Tektronix terminal or emu‐
334 lator, checks the TERM environment variable. If the value of TERM is a
335 string beginning with "xterm", "nxterm", or "kterm", it is taken as a
336 sign that plotfont is running in an X Window System VT100 terminal emu‐
337 lator: a copy of xterm(1), nxterm(1), or kterm(1). Before drawing
338 graphics, plotfont -T tek will emit an escape sequence that causes the
339 terminal emulator's auxiliary Tektronix window, which is normally hid‐
340 den, to pop up. After the graphics are drawn, an escape sequence that
341 returns control to the original VT100 window will be emitted. The Tek‐
342 tronix window will remain on the screen.
343 If the value of TERM is a string beginning with "kermit", "ansi.sys",
345 or "nansi.sys", it is taken as a sign that plotfont is running in the
346 VT100 terminal emulator provided by the MS-DOS version of kermit(1).
347 Before drawing graphics, plotfont -T tek will emit an escape sequence
348 that switches the terminal emulator to Tektronix mode. Also, some of
349 the Tektronix control codes emitted by plotfont -T tek will be kermit-
350 specific. There will be a limited amount of color support, which is
351 not normally the case (the 16 `ansi.sys' colors will be supported).
352 After drawing graphics, plotfont -T tek will emit an escape sequence
353 that returns the emulator to VT100 mode. The key sequence `ALT minus'
354 can be employed manually within kermit to switch between the two modes.
355
357 graph(1), pic2plot(1), tek2plot(1), plot(1), plot(3), and "The GNU
358 Plotting Utilities Manual".
359
361 plotfont was written by Robert S. Maier (rsm@math.arizona.edu).
362
364 Email bug reports to bug-gnu-utils@gnu.org.
365FSF Jun 2000 PLOTFONT(1)