TEK2PLOT(1) GNU Plotting Utilities TEK2PLOT(1)
NAME
tek2plot - translate Tektronix files to other graphics formats
SYNOPSIS
tek2plot [ options ] [ files ]
DESCRIPTION
tek2plot translates Tektronix graphics files to other formats, or
displays them on an X Window System display. The output format is
specified with the -T option. The possible output formats are the same
as those supported by graph(1), plot(1), pic2plot(1), and plotfont(1).
If an output file is produced, it is written to standard output.
Options and file names may be interspersed on the command line, but the
options are processed before the file names are read. If -- is seen,
it is interpreted as the end of the options. If no file names are
specified, or the file name - is encountered, the standard input is
read.
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 itself, and device-independent GNU
metafile format. Unless type is "X", an output file is produced
and written to standard output.
Omitting the -T option is equivalent to specifying -T meta. GNU
metafile format may be translated to other formats with plot(1).
-p n
--page-number n
Output only page number n, within the Tektronix file or sequence
of Tektronix files that is being translated. n must be a non-
negative integer, since a Tektronix file may consist of one or
more pages, numbered beginning with zero.
The default behavior if the -p option is not used is to output
all nonempty pages in succession. For example, tek2plot -T X
displays each Tektronix page in its own X window. If the -T
png, -T pnm, -T gif, -T ai, or -T fig option is used, the
default behavior is to output only the first nonempty Tektronix
page, since files in those output formats 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 name
--font-name name
Use the font name for rendering the native Textronix fonts, if
it is available. The default font is "Courier" except for
tek2plot -T png, tek2plot -T pnm, tek2plot -T gif, tek2plot -T
hpgl, tek2plot -T regis, and tek2plot -T tek, for which it is
"HersheySerif". A list of available fonts can be obtained with
the --help-fonts option (see below). If a font outside the
Courier family is used, the --position-chars option (see below)
should probably be specified.
The -F option is useful only if you have a Tektronix file 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: they use Hershey vector fonts
instead.
-W line_width
--line-width line_width
Set the width of lines, as a fraction of the width of the
display, to be line_width. A negative value means that a
default value should be used. This value is format-dependent.
The interpretation of zero line width is also format-dependent
(in some output formats, a zero-width line is the thinnest line
that can be drawn; in others, a zero-width line is invisible).
--bg-color name
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 svg, tek2plot -T cgm, and
tek2plot -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 svg or -T cgm option is used, an output file without a
background may be produced by setting the background color to
"none".
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.
--bitmap-size bitmap_size
Set the size of the graphics display in which the plot will be
drawn, in terms of pixels, to be bitmap_size. The default is
"570x570". This is relevant only to plot -T X, plot -T png,
plot -T pnm, and plot -T gif. 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 directions. For plot -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 ` 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.) You may equally
well request color emulation by setting the environment variable
EMULATE_COLOR to "yes".
--max-line-length max_line_length
Set the maximum number of points that a polygonal line may
contain, before it is flushed out, to be 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 default value of max_line_length is 500.
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.
--page-size pagesize
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. 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 the plot 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 tek2plot -T hpgl, the graphics
display will, by default, be centered on the page. For all of
the above except tek2plot -T svg and tek2plot -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.
--pen-color name
Set the pen color to be name. An unrecognized name sets the pen
color to the default, which is "black".
--position-chars
Position the characters in each text string individually. 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(1), idraw(1), or Illustrator.
--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.
--use-tek-fonts
Use the bitmap fonts that were used on the original Tektronix
4010/4014 terminal. This option is relevant only to tek2plot -T
X. The four relevant bitmap fonts are distributed with most
versions of the GNU plotting utilities, under the names
"tekfont0"..."tekfont3". They can 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. This is
because bitmap fonts, unlike the scalable fonts that tek2plot
normally uses, cannot be rescaled.
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: they use Hershey vector
fonts instead.
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 tek2plot outputs a GNU graphics
metafile, which must be translated to other formats with plot(1).
-O
--portable-output
Output the portable (human-readable) version of GNU metafile
format, rather than a 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.
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 pcl,
and tek2plot -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
tek2plot -T png, tek2plot -T pnm, tek2plot -T gif, tek2plot -T
regis, and tek2plot -T tek. tek2plot without a -T option in
principle supports any of these fonts, since its output must be
translated to other formats with plot(1).
The plotfont(1) utility may be used to obtain a character map of
any supported font.
--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.
ENVIRONMENT
The environment variables BITMAPSIZE, PAGESIZE, BG_COLOR,
EMULATE_COLOR, MAX_LINE_LENGTH and ROTATION serve as backups for the
options --bitmap-size, --page-size, --bg-color, --emulate-color,
--max-line-length, and --rotation, respectively. The remaining
environment variables are specific to individual output formats.
tek2plot -T X, which pops up a window on an X Window System display and
draws graphics in it, checks the DISPLAY environment variable. Its
value determines the display that will be used.
tek2plot -T png and tek2plot -T gif, which produce output in PNG format
and pseudo-GIF format respectively, are affected by the INTERLACE
environment variable. If its value is "yes", the output will be
interlaced. Also, if the TRANSPARENT_COLOR environment variable is
set to the name of a color, that color will be treated as transparent
in the output.
tek2plot -T pnm, which produces output in portable anymap (PBM/PGM/PPM)
format, is affected by the PNM_PORTABLE environment variable. If its
value is "yes", the output will be in a human-readable format rather
than binary (the default).
tek2plot -T cgm, which produces output in CGM (Computer Graphics
Metafile) format, is affected by the CGM_MAX_VERSION and CGM_ENCODING
environment variables. By default, it produces a binary-encoded
version of CGM version 3 format. For backward compatibility, the
version number may be reduced by setting CGM_MAX_VERSION to "2" or
"1". Irrespective of version, the output CGM file will use the human-
readable clear text encoding if CGM_ENCODING is set to "clear_text".
However, only binary-encoded CGM files conform to the WebCGM profile.
tek2plot -T pcl, which produces PCL 5 output for Hewlett-Packard
printers and plotters, is affected by the environment variable
PCL_ASSIGN_COLORS. It should be set to "yes" when producing PCL 5
output for a color printer or other color device. This will ensure
accurate color reproduction by giving the output device complete
freedom in assigning colors, internally, to its "logical pens". If it
is "no" then the device will use a fixed set of colored pens, and will
emulate other colors by shading. The default is "no" because
monochrome PCL 5 devices, which are much more common than colored ones,
must use shading to emulate color.
tek2plot -T hpgl, which produces Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language
output, is affected by several environment variables. The most
important is HPGL_VERSION, which may be set to "1", "1.5", or "2" (the
default). "1" means that the output should be generic HP-GL, "1.5"
means that the output should be suitable for the HP7550A graphics
plotter and the HP758x, HP7595A and HP7596A drafting plotters (HP-GL
with some HP-GL/2 extensions), and "2" means that the output should be
modern HP-GL/2. If the version is "1" or "1.5" then the only available
fonts will be vector fonts, and all lines will be drawn with a default
width (the -W option will not work).
The position of the tek2plot -T hpgl graphics display on the page can
be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise by setting the HPGL_ROTATE
environment variable to "yes". This is not the same as the rotation
obtained with the --rotation option, since it both rotates the graphics
display and repositions its lower left corner toward another corner of
the page. Besides "no" and "yes", recognized values for HPGL_ROTATE
are "0", "90", "180", and "270". "no" and "yes" are equivalent to "0"
and "90", respectively. "180" and "270" are supported only if
HPGL_VERSION is "2" (the default).
By default, tek2plot -T hpgl will draw with a fixed set of pens. Which
pens are present may be specified by setting the HPGL_PENS environment
variable. If HPGL_VERSION is "1", the default value of HPGL_PENS is
"1=black"; if HPGL_VERSION is "1.5" or "2", the default value of
HPGL_PENS is "1=black:2=red:3=green:4=yellow:5=blue:6=magenta:7=cyan".
The format should be self-explanatory. By setting HPGL_PENS you may
specify a color for any pen in the range #1...#31. All color names
recognized by the X Window System may be used. Pen #1 must always be
present, though it need not be black. Any other pen in the range
#1...#31 may be omitted.
If HPGL_VERSION is "2" then tek2plot -T hpgl will also be affected by
the environment variable HPGL_ASSIGN_COLORS. If its value is "yes",
then tek2plot -T hpgl will not be restricted to the palette specified
in HPGL_PENS: it will assign colors to "logical pens" in the range
#1...#31, as needed. The default value is "no" because other than
color LaserJet printers and DesignJet plotters, not many HP-GL/2
devices allow the assignment of colors to logical pens.
The drawing of visible white lines is supported only if HPGL_VERSION
is "2" and the environment variable HPGL_OPAQUE_MODE is "yes" (the
default). If its value is "no" then white lines (if any), which are
normally drawn with pen #0, will not be drawn. This feature is to
accommodate older HP-GL/2 devices. HP-GL/2 pen plotters, for example,
do not support the use of pen #0 to draw visible white lines. Some
older HP-GL/2 devices may, in fact, malfunction if asked to draw opaque
objects.
SEE ALSO
plot(1), plotfont(1), and "The GNU Plotting Utilities Manual".
AUTHORS
tek2plot was written by Robert S. Maier (rsm@math.arizona.edu). It
incorporates a Tektronix parser written by Edward Moy
(moy@parc.xerox.com).
BUGS
Email bug reports to bug-gnu-utils@gnu.org.
FSF Jun 2000 TEK2PLOT(1)