5.1 What tek2plot 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. Supported output formats include "X", "png", "pnm", "gif", "svg", "ai", "ps", "cgm", "fig", "pcl", "hpgl", "regis", "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.