SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

plotfont produces a character map for any font that is supported by the plotting utilities, which include graph(1), plot(1), pic2plot(1), tek2plot(1), and the GNU libplot 2-D graphics export library (see plot(3)). Which fonts are supported depends on the output format, which is specified by the -T option. A listing of the fonts available in any specified output format may be obtained with the --help-fonts option (see below).

The character map, or maps, will be written to standard output in the specified format. For example, the Times-Roman font is available when producing Postscript output. The command plotfont -T ps Times-Roman > charmap.ps will yield a character map of the Times-Roman font, in a Postscript format that can be viewed or edited with the idraw(1) drawing editor. The Times-Roman font is also available when producing Fig output, which can be viewed or edited with the xfig(1) drawing editor. The command plotfont -T fig Times-Roman > charmap.fig will yield the same character map, but in Fig format rather than in Postscript format.

As another example, the Univers font is available when producing PCL 5 output. The command plotfont -T pcl Univers > charmap.pcl will produce a character map of the Univers font, in PCL 5 format.

When producing output for the X Window System, i.e., for a popped-up window, any scalable X Window System font that has an XLFD (i.e., X Logical Font Description) name is supported. For example, the command plotfont -T X utopia-medium-r-normal will pop up a window, and draw a character map of the Utopia-Regular font. "utopia-medium-r-normal" is a truncated version of the Utopia-Regular font's XLFD name. The Utopia-Regular font is available on most X Window System displays.

OPTIONS

General Options

-T type

--output-format type

Select type as the output format. It may be "X", "png", "pnm", "gif", "svg", "ai", "ps", "cgm", "fig", "pcl", "hpgl", "regis", "tek", or "meta" (the default). These refer respectively to the X Window System, PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format, portable anymap format (PBM/PGM/PPM), a pseudo-GIF format that does not use LZW encoding, the new XML-based Scalable Vector Graphics format, the format used by Adobe Illustrator, Postscript or Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) that can be edited with idraw(1), CGM format (by default, confirming to the WebCGM profile), the format used by the xfig(1) drawing editor, the Hewlett-Packard PCL 5 printer language, the Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language, ReGIS graphics format (which can be displayed by the dxterm(1) terminal emulator or by a VT330 or VT340 terminal), Tektronix format (which can be displayed by the xterm(1) terminal emulator), and device-independent GNU metafile format itself. Unless type is "X", an output file is produced and written to standard output.

Files in PNG, PNM, pseudo-GIF, AI, or Fig format contain only a single page of graphics. So if the -T png option, the -T pnm option, the -T gif option, the -T ai option, or the -T fig option is used, the output file will contain a character map for only the first-specified font.

A listing of the fonts available in any specified output format may be obtained with the --help-fonts option (see below). If a requested font is unavailable, a default font will be substituted. The default font is "Helvetica" for "X", "svg", "ai", "ps", "cgm", and "fig", "Univers" for "pcl", and "HersheySerif" for "png", "pnm", "gif", "hpgl", "regis", "tek", and "meta".

-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.

--bg-color name

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 svg, plotfont -T cgm, and plotfont -T regis. An unrecognized name sets the color to the default, which is "white". 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. 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

Set the size of the graphics display in which the character map(s) will be drawn, in terms of pixels, to be bitmap_size. The default is "570x570". This is relevant only to plotfont -T X, plotfont -T png, plotfont -T pnm, and plotfont -T gif, all of which produce bitmaps. If you choose a rectangular (non-square) window size, the fonts in the character map(s) will be scaled anisotropically, i.e., by different factors in the horizontal and vertical directions. For plotfont -T X, this requires an X11R6 display. Any font that cannot be scaled in this way will be replaced by a default scalable font, such as the vector font "HersheySerif".

The environment variable BITMAPSIZE can equally well be used to specify the window size. For backward compatibility, the X resource Xplot.geometry may be used instead.

--emulate-color option

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.) You may equally well request color emulation by setting the environment variable EMULATE_COLOR to "yes".

--numbering-font name

Set the font used for the numbering of the characters in the character map(s) to be name, rather than the default.

--page-size pagesize

Set the size of size of the page on which the character map(s) will be positioned. This is relevant only to plotfont -T svg, plotfont -T ai, plotfont -T ps, plotfont -T cgm, plotfont -T fig, plotfont -T pcl, and plotfont -T hpgl. The default is "letter", which means an 8.5 inch by 11 inch 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" and "ledger" are recognized page sizes also. The environment variable PAGESIZE can equally well be used to specify the page size.

The graphics display in which each character map is drawn will be a square region that would occupy nearly the full width of the specified page. An alternative size for the graphics display can be specified. For example, the page size could be specified as "letter,xsize=4in,ysize=6in", or "a4,xsize=5.0cm,ysize=100mm". For all of the above except plotfont -T hpgl, the graphics display will, by default, be centered on the page. For all of the above except plotfont -T svg and plotfont -T cgm, the graphics display may be repositioned manually, by specifying the location of its lower left corner, relative to the lower left corner of the page. For example, the page size could be specified as "letter,xorigin=2in,yorigin=3in", or "a4,xorigin=0.5cm,yorigin=0.5cm". It is also possible to specify an offset vector. For example, the page size could be specified as "letter,xoffset=1in", or "letter,xoffset=1in,yoffset=1.2in", or "a4,yoffset=-1cm". In SVG format and WebCGM format it is possible to specify the size of the graphics display, but not its position.

--rotation angle

Rotate the graphics display by angle degrees. Recognized values are "0", "90", "180", and "270". "no" and "yes" are equivalent to "0" and "90", respectively. The environment variable ROTATION can also be used to specify a rotation angle.

--pen-color name

Set the pen color to be name. An unrecognized name sets the pen color to the default, which is "black".

Options for Metafile Output

The following option is relevant only if the -T option is omitted or if -T meta is used. In this case the output of plotfont will be in GNU graphics metafile format. It may be translated to other formats by invoking plot(1).

-O

--portable-output

Output the portable (human-readable) version of GNU metafile format, rather than the binary version (the default). The format of the binary version is machine-dependent.

Informational Options

--help

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

--help-fonts

Print a table of available fonts, and 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 pcl, and plotfont -T hpgl support the 45 standard PCL 5 fonts, and the latter two support a number of Hewlett-Packard vector fonts. All seven support a set of 22 Hershey vector fonts, as do plotfont -T png, plotfont -T pnm, plotfont -T gif, plotfont -T regis, and plotfont -T tek. plotfont without a -T option in principle supports any of these fonts, since its output must be translated to other formats by invoking plot(1).

--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.

AUTHORS