6.2 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 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:

1. General options.
2. Options relevant only to raw plotfont, i.e., relevant only if no output format is specified with the ‘-T’ option.
3. Options requesting information (e.g., ‘--help’).

Each option that takes an argument is followed, in parentheses, by the type and default value of the argument.

The following are general options.

‘-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. Rows 16...47 contain the JIS Level 1 Kanji, which are the most frequently used. They are arranged according to On (old Chinese) reading. Rows 48...84 contain the less frequently used JIS Level 2 Kanji.

The HersheyEUC font contains 596 of the 2965 Level 1 Kanji, and seven of the Level 2 Kanji. It uses the 8-bit EUC-JP encoding. This encoding is a multibyte encoding that includes the ASCII character set as well as the JIS X0208 characters. It represents each ASCII character in the usual way, i.e., as a single byte that does not have its high bit set. Each JIS X0208 character is represented as two bytes, each with the high bit set. The first byte contains the row number (plus 32), and the second byte contains the character number.

‘-T type’

‘--output-format type’

(String, default "meta".) Select an output format of type type, which may be one of the strings "X", "png", "pnm", "gif", "svg", "ai", "ps", "cgm", "fig", "pcl", "hpgl", "regis", "tek", and "meta". These refer respectively to the X Window System, PNG format, portable anymap (PBM/PGM/PPM) format, pseudo-GIF format, the XML-based Scalable Vector Graphics format, the format used by Adobe Illustrator, 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), the ReGIS (remote graphics instruction set) format developed by DEC, Tektronix format, and device-independent GNU graphics metafile format. The option ‘--display-type’ is an obsolete alternative to ‘--output-format’.

Files in PNG, PNM, pseudo-GIF, SVG, AI, or Fig format may contain only a single page of graphics. So if the ‘-T png’ option, the ‘-T pnm’ option, the ‘-T gif’ option, the ‘-T svg’ option, the ‘-T ai’ option, or the ‘-T fig’ option is used, a character map will be produced for only the first-specified font.

‘--bg-color name’

(String, default "white".) 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 cgm, plotfont -T regis, and plotfont -T meta. An unrecognized name sets the color to the default. For information on what names are recognized, see Color Names. 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. See plotfont Environment. 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’

(String, default "570x570".) Set the size of the graphics display in which the character map will be drawn, in terms of pixels, to be bitmap_size. This is relevant only to plotfont -T X, plotfont -T png, 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 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.

‘--emulate-color option’

(String, default "no".) 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. They usually map HP-GL/2's seven standard pen colors, including even yellow, to black.) You may equally well request color emulation by setting the environment variable EMULATE_COLOR to "yes".

‘--numbering-font-name font_name’

(String, default "Helvetica" except for plotfont -T pcl, for which "Univers" is the default, and plotfont -T png, plotfont -T pnm, plotfont -T gif, plotfont -T hpgl, plotfont -T regis, 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.

‘--page-size pagesize’

(String, default "letter".) Set the size of the page on which the character map(s) will be drawn. This is relevant only to plotfont -T svg, 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 (or `viewport') within which the character map is drawn will be, by default, 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. Either or both of the dimensions of the graphics display can be specified explicitly. For example, pagesize could be specified as "letter,xsize=4in", or "a4,xsize=10cm,ysize=15cm". The dimensions are allowed to be negative (a negative dimension results in a reflection).

The position of the graphics display, relative to its default position, may optionally 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". It is also possible to position the graphics display precisely, by specifying the location of its lower left corner relative to the lower left corner of the page. For example, pagesize could be specified as "letter,xorigin=2in,yorigin=3in", or "a4,xorigin=0.5cm,yorigin=0.5cm". The preceding options may be intermingled.

plotfont -T svg and plotfont -T cgm ignore the "xoffset", "yoffset", "xorigin", and "yorigin" options, since SVG format and WebCGM format have no notion of the Web page on which the graphics display will ultimately be positioned. However, they do respect the "xsize" and "ysize" options. For more on page sizes, see Page and Viewport Sizes.

‘--pen-color name’

(String, default "black".) Set the pen color to be name. An unrecognized name sets the pen color to the default. For information on what color names are recognized, see Color Names.

‘--rotation angle’

(Float, default 0.0.) Set the rotation angle of the graphics display to be angle degrees. The rotation is counterclockwise. The environment variable ROTATION can equally well be used to specify the rotation angle.

This option is used for switching between portrait and landscape orientations, which have rotation angles 0 and 90 degrees respectively. Postmodernists may also find it useful.

‘--title-font-name font_name’

(String) Set the font used for the title of each character map to be font_name. Normally the font used for the title is the same as the font whose character set is being displayed. This option is useful when producing character maps for unusual fonts such as "ZapfDingbats" and "Wingdings".

The following option is relevant only to raw plotfont, i.e., relevant only if no 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.

‘-O’

‘--portable-output’

Output the portable (human-readable) version of GNU metafile format, rather than a binary version (the default). This can also be requested by setting the environment variable META_PORTABLE to "yes".

The following options request information.

‘--help’

Print a list of command-line options, and then exit.

‘--help-fonts’

Print a table of available fonts, and then 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 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 png, plotfont -T pnm, plotfont -T gif, plotfont -T regis, 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.

‘--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.