5.2 tek2plot command-line options

The tek2plot program translates the Tektronix graphics files produced by many older applications to other formats. The output format is specified with the ‘-T’ option. The possible output formats are the same formats that are supported by the GNU graph, plot, and pic2plot programs.

Input file names may be specified anywhere on the command line. That is, the relative order of file names and command-line options does not matter. If no files are specified, or the file name ‘-’ is specified, the standard input is read. An output file is written to standard output, unless the ‘-T X’ option is specified. In that case the output is displayed in one or more windows on an X Window System display, and there is no output file.

The full set of command-line options is listed below. There are three sorts of option:

1. General options.
2. Options relevant only to raw tek2plot, 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.

‘-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.

‘-p n’

‘--page-number n’

(Nonnegative integer.) Display only page number n, within the Tektronix file or sequence of Tektronix files that is being translated. Tektronix files may consist of one or more pages, numbered beginning with zero.

The default behavior, if the ‘-p’ option is not used, is to display all nonempty pages in succession. For example, tek2plot -T X displays each page in its own X window. 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, the default behavior is to display only the first page, since files in PNG, PNM, pseudo-GIF, SVG, AI, or Fig format may contain only a single page of graphics.

Most Tektronix files consist of either one page (page #0) or two pages (an empty page #0, and page #1). Tektronix files produced by the GNU plotting utilities (e.g., by graph -T tek) are normally of the latter sort.

‘-F font_name’

‘--font-name font_name’

(String, default "Courier" except for tek2plot -T png, tek2plot -T pnm, tek2plot -T gif, tek2plot -T hpgl, tek2plot -T regis, and raw tek2plot, for all of which "HersheySerif" is the default.) Set the font used for text to font_name. Font names are case-insensitive. If a font outside the Courier family is chosen, the ‘--position-chars’ option (see below) should probably be used. For a list of all fonts, see Text Fonts. If the specified font is not available, the default font will be used.

If you intend to print a PCL 5 file prepared with tek2plot -T pcl on a LaserJet III, you should specify a font other than Courier. That is because the LaserJet III, which was Hewlett–Packard's first PCL 5 printer, did not come with a scalable Courier typeface. The only PCL 5 fonts it supported were the eight fonts in the CGTimes and Univers families. See Text Fonts.

‘-W line_width’

‘--line-width line_width’

(Float, default −1.0.) Set the thickness of lines, as a fraction of the size (i.e., minimum dimension) of the graphics display, to line_width. A negative value means that the default value provided by the GNU libplot graphics library should be used. This is usually 1/850 times the size of the display, although if ‘-T X’, ‘-T png’, ‘-T pnm’, or ‘-T gif’ is specified, it is zero. By convention, a zero-thickness line is the thinnest line that can be drawn. This is the case in all output formats. Note, however, that the drawing editors idraw and xfig treat zero-thickness lines as invisible.

tek2plot -T regis does not support drawing lines with other than a default thickness, and tek2plot -T hpgl does not support doing so if the environment variable HPGL_VERSION is set to a value less than "2" (the default).

‘--bg-color name’

(String, default "white".) Set the color used for the background to be name. This is relevant only to tek2plot -T X, tek2plot -T png, tek2plot -T pnm, tek2plot -T gif, tek2plot -T cgm, tek2plot -T regis, and tek2plot -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 tek2plot 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 plot will be drawn, in terms of pixels, to be bitmap_size. This is relevant only to tek2plot -T X, tek2plot -T png, tek2plot -T pnm, and tek2plot -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 tek2plot -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. Any font that cannot be anisotropically scaled will be replaced by a default scalable font, such as the Hershey vector font "HersheySerif".

For backward compatibility, tek2plot -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 ‘tek2plot -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".

‘--max-line-length max_line_length’

(Integer, default 500.) Set the maximum number of points that a polygonal line may contain, before it is flushed to the output device, to equal max_line_length. If this flushing occurs, the polygonal line will be split into two or more sub-lines, though the splitting should not be noticeable.

The reason for splitting long polygonal lines is that some display devices (e.g., old Postscript printers and HP-GL pen plotters) have limited buffer sizes. The environment variable MAX_LINE_LENGTH can also be used to specify the maximum line length. This option has no effect on raw tek2plot, since it draws polylines in real time and has no buffer limitations.

‘--page-size pagesize’

(String, default "letter".) Set the size of the page on which the plot will be positioned. This is relevant only to tek2plot -T svg, tek2plot -T ai, tek2plot -T ps, tek2plot -T cgm, tek2plot -T fig, tek2plot -T pcl, and tek2plot -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 tek2plot -T ai, tek2plot -T ps, tek2plot -T pcl, and tek2plot -T fig, the graphics display (or `viewport') within which the plot is drawn will be, by default, a square region centered on the specified page. For tek2plot -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.

tek2plot -T svg and tek2plot -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.

‘--position-chars’

Position the characters in each text string individually on the display. If the text font is not a member of the Courier family, and especially if it is not a fixed-width font, this option is recommended. It will improve the appearance of text strings, at the price of making it difficult to edit the output file with xfig or idraw.

‘--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.

‘--use-tek-fonts’

Use the fonts that were used on the original Tektronix 4010/4014 terminal, to produce the most faithful rendition possible. This option is relevant only to tek2plot -T X. Bitmap versions of the the four original Tektronix fonts are distributed with the plotting utilities package, under the names tekfont0...tekfont3. They may easily be installed on any modern X Window System display. For this option to work properly, you must also select a window size of 1024x1024 pixels, either by using the ‘--bitmap-size 1024x1024’ option or by setting the value of the Xplot.geometry resource. The reason for this restriction is to prevent rescaling of the bitmap fonts.

This option is useful only if you have a file in Tektronix format that draws text using native Tektronix fonts. Tektronix files produced by the GNU plotting utilities (e.g., by graph -T tek) do not use native Tektronix fonts to draw text.

The following option is relevant only to raw tek2plot, i.e., relevant only if no output format is specified with the ‘-T’ option. In this case tek2plot 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. tek2plot -T X, tek2plot -T svg, tek2plot -T ai, tek2plot -T ps, tek2plot -T cgm, and tek2plot -T fig each support the 35 standard Postscript fonts. tek2plot -T svg, tek2plot -T ai, tek2plot -T pcl, and tek2plot -T hpgl support the 45 standard PCL 5 fonts, and tek2plot -T pcl and tek2plot -T hpgl support a number of Hewlett–Packard vector fonts. All of the preceding, together with tek2plot -T png, tek2plot -T pnm, tek2plot -T gif, tek2plot -T regis, and tek2plot -T tek, support a set of 22 Hershey vector fonts. Raw tek2plot in principle supports any of these fonts, since its output must be translated to other formats with plot. The plotfont utility will produce a character map of any available font. See plotfont.

‘--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 tek2plot and the plotting utilities package, and exit.