PSLEGEND(1) Generic Mapping Tools PSLEGEND(1)NAMEpslegend - To plot a map legend
SYNOPSISpslegend textfile -D[x]lon/lat/width/height/just -Jparameters
-Rwest/east/south/north[r] [ -B[p|s]parameters ] [ -Cdx/dy ] [ -F ] [
-Gfill ] [ -K ] [ -Lspacing ] [ -O ] [ -P ] [ -S[script] ] [
-U[just/dx/dy/][c|label] ] [ -V ] [ -X[a|c|r][x-shift[u]] ] [ -ccopies
] [ -Y[a|c|r][y-shift[u]] ]
DESCRIPTIONpslegend will make legends that can be overlaid on maps. It reads spe‐
cific legend-related information from an input file [or stdin].
Because all the elements of the legend can already be created with
other tools (psxy, pstext) we use those tools by creating a batch job
of commands that are executed to make the final PostScript overlay.
Because of this process, the option exists to just output the script
which can then be fine-tuned manually. Unless otherwise noted, annota‐
tions will be made using the annotation font and size in effect.
textfile
This file contains instruction for the layout of items in the
legend. Each legend item is described by a unique record. All
records begin with a unique character that is common to all
records of the same kind. The order of the legend items is
implied by the order of the records. Ten different record types
are recognized, and the syntax for each of these records are
presented below:
# comment Records starting with # and blank lines are skipped.
B cptname offset height [ optional arguments ]
The B record will plot a horizontal color bar, psscale-
style in the middle, starting at offset from the left
edge, and of the given height. You may add any addi‐
tional psscale options from the list: -A -B -E -I -L -M
-N -S and -Z.
C textcolor
The C record specifies the color with which the remaining
text is to be printed. textcolor can be in the form
r/g/b, c/m/y/k, or a named color.
D offset pen
The D record results in a horizontal line with specified
pen across the legend with one quarter of the line spac‐
ing left blank above and below the line. Two gaps of
offset units are left blank between the horizontal line
and the left and right frame sides. (See SPECIFYING PENS
below).
G gap The G record specifies a vertical gap of the given
length. In addition to the standard units (i, c, p) you
may use l for lines.
H fontsize|- font|- header
The H record plots a centered text string using the spec‐
ified font parameters. Use - to default to
HEADER_FONT_SIZE and HEADER_FONT.
I imagefile width justification
Place an EPS or Sun raster image in the legend justified
relative to the current point. The image width deter‐
mines the size of the image on the page.
L fontsize|- font|- justification label
The L record plots a (L)eft, (C)entered, or (R)ight-jus‐
tified text string within a column using the specified
font parameters. Use - to default to LABEL_FONT_SIZE and
LABEL_FONT.
M slon|- slat length f|p [ -Rw/e/s/n -Jparam ]
Place a map scale in the legend. Specify slon slat, the
point on the map where the scale applies (slon is only
meaningful for certain oblique projections. If not
needed, you must specify - instead), length, the length
of the scale in km (append m or n for miles or nautical
miles), and f or p for fancy or plain scale. If the -R
-J supplied to pslegend is different than the projection
needed for the scale, supply the optional -R -J settings
as well. Append +l to the length to select the default
label which equals the distance unit (km, miles, nautical
miles) and is justified on top of the scale [t]. Change
this by giving your own label (append +llabel). Change
label justification with +jjustification (choose among
l(eft), r(ight), t(op), and b(ottom)). Apply +u to
append the unit to all distance annotations along the
scale. If you want to place a rectangle behind the
scale, specify suitable +ppen and/or +ffill parameters.
All these +modifiers are appended to length to make a
single string. (See SPECIFYING PENS and SPECIFYING FILL
below).
N ncolumns
Change the number of columns in the legend [1]. This only
affects the printing of symbols (S) and labels (L).
S dx1 symbol size fill pen [ dx2 text ]
Plots the selected symbol with specified size, fill, and
outline (see psxy). The symbol is centered at dx1 from
the left margin of the column, with the optional explana‐
tory text starting dx2 from the margin, printed with
fontsize ANNOT_FONT_SIZE_PRIMARY and font ANNOT_FONT_PRI‐
MARY. Use - if no fill or outline (pen) is required.
When plotting just a symbol, without text, dx2 and text
can be omitted. Two psxy symbols require special atten‐
tion: front (f) and vector (v). You must prepend the
length of the desired item to the rest of the symbol
argument; this will be used internally to set the correct
fault or vector length and will be stripped before pass‐
ing the arguments to psxy.
T paragraph-text
One or more of these T records with paragraph-text
printed with fontsize ANNOT_FONT_SIZE_PRIMARY and font
ANNOT_FONT_PRIMARY (aligned and wrapped). To specify
special positioning and typesetting arrangements, or to
enter a paragraph break, use the optional > record.
V offset pen
The V record draws a vertical line between columns (if
more than one) using the selected pen (See SPECIFYING
PENS below). offset is analogous to the offset for the D
records but in the vertical direction.
> paragraph-mode-header-for-pstext
Start a new text paragraph by specifying all the parame‐
ters needed (see pstext -m description). Note that psle‐
gend knows what all those values should be, so normally
you can leave the entire record (after >) blank or leave
it out all together. If you need to set at least one of
the parameters directly, you must specify all and set the
ones you want to leave at their default value to -.
-D Positions the legend and specifies its size. The just is a
2-char justification string (see pstext) that relates the given
position to a point on the rectangular legend box. If you want
to specify the position in map plot units (i.e., inches or cm),
use -Dx.
-J Selects the map projection. Scale is UNIT/degree, 1:xxxxx, or
width in UNIT (upper case modifier). UNIT is cm, inch, or m,
depending on the MEASURE_UNIT setting in .gmtdefaults4, but this
can be overridden on the command line by appending c, i, or m to
the scale/width value. When central meridian is optional,
default is center of longitude range on -R option. Default
standard parallel is the equator. For map height, max dimen‐
sion, or min dimension, append h, +, or - to the width, respec‐
tively.
More details can be found in the psbasemap man pages.
CYLINDRICAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jclon0/lat0/scale (Cassini)
-Jcyl_stere/[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Cylindrical Stereographic)
-Jj[lon0/]scale (Miller)
-Jm[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Mercator)
-Jmlon0/lat0/scale (Mercator - Give meridian and standard paral‐
lel)
-Jo[a]lon0/lat0/azimuth/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and
azimuth)
-Jo[b]lon0/lat0/lon1/lat1/scale (Oblique Mercator - two points)
-Joclon0/lat0/lonp/latp/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and
pole)
-Jq[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Cylindrical Equidistant)
-Jtlon0/[lat0/]scale (TM - Transverse Mercator)
-Juzone/scale (UTM - Universal Transverse Mercator)
-Jy[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Cylindrical Equal-Area)
CONIC PROJECTIONS:
-Jblon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Albers)
-Jdlon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Conic Equidistant)
-Jllon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Lambert Conic Conformal)
-Jpoly/[lon0/[lat0/]]scale ((American) Polyconic)
AZIMUTHAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jalon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area)
-Jelon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Azimuthal Equidistant)
-Jflon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Gnomonic)
-Jglon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Orthographic)
-Jglon0/lat0/altitude/azimuth/tilt/twist/Width/Height/scale
(General Perspective).
-Jslon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (General Stereographic)
MISCELLANEOUS PROJECTIONS:
-Jh[lon0/]scale (Hammer)
-Ji[lon0/]scale (Sinusoidal)
-Jkf[lon0/]scale (Eckert IV)
-Jk[s][lon0/]scale (Eckert VI)
-Jn[lon0/]scale (Robinson)
-Jr[lon0/]scale (Winkel Tripel)
-Jv[lon0/]scale (Van der Grinten)
-Jw[lon0/]scale (Mollweide)
NON-GEOGRAPHICAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jp[a]scale[/origin][r|z] (Polar coordinates (theta,r))
-Jxx-scale[d|l|ppow|t|T][/y-scale[d|l|ppow|t|T]] (Linear, log,
and power scaling)
-R xmin, xmax, ymin, and ymax specify the Region of interest. For
geographic regions, these limits correspond to west, east,
south, and north and you may specify them in decimal degrees or
in [+-]dd:mm[:ss.xxx][W|E|S|N] format. Append r if lower left
and upper right map coordinates are given instead of w/e/s/n.
The two shorthands -Rg and -Rd stand for global domain (0/360
and -180/+180 in longitude respectively, with -90/+90 in lati‐
tude). Alternatively, specify the name of an existing grid file
and the -R settings (and grid spacing, if applicable) are copied
from the grid. For calendar time coordinates you may either
give (a) relative time (relative to the selected TIME_EPOCH and
in the selected TIME_UNIT; append t to -JX|x), or (b) absolute
time of the form [date]T[clock] (append T to -JX|x). At least
one of date and clock must be present; the T is always required.
The date string must be of the form [-]yyyy[-mm[-dd]] (Gregorian
calendar) or yyyy[-Www[-d]] (ISO week calendar), while the clock
string must be of the form hh:mm:ss[.xxx]. The use of delim‐
iters and their type and positions must be exactly as indicated
(however, input, output and plot formats are customizable; see
gmtdefaults).
OPTIONS
No space between the option flag and the associated arguments.
-B Sets map boundary annotation and tickmark intervals; see the
psbasemap man page for all the details.
-C Sets the clearance between the legend frame and the internal
items [0.15c/0.15c (or 0.05i/0.05i)].
-F Draws a border around the legend using FRAME_PEN.
-G Select fill shade, color or pattern of the legend box [Default
is no fill]. (See SPECIFYING FILL below).
-K More PostScript code will be appended later [Default terminates
the plot system].
-L Sets the linespacing factor in units of the current annotation
font size [1.1].
-O Selects Overlay plot mode [Default initializes a new plot sys‐
tem].
-P Selects Portrait plotting mode [Default is Landscape, see gmtde‐
faults to change this].
-S Instead of writing the PostScript plot [Default], output the GMT
script used to make the legend to standard output, or optionally
to the file script.
-U Draw Unix System time stamp on plot. By adding just/dx/dy/, the
user may specify the justification of the stamp and where the
stamp should fall on the page relative to lower left corner of
the plot. For example, BL/0/0 will align the lower left corner
of the time stamp with the lower left corner of the plot.
Optionally, append a label, or c (which will plot the command
string.). The GMT parameters UNIX_TIME, UNIX_TIME_POS, and
UNIX_TIME_FORMAT can affect the appearance; see the gmtdefaults
man page for details. The time string will be in the locale set
by the environment variable TZ (generally local time).
-V Selects verbose mode, which will send progress reports to stderr
[Default runs "silently"].
-X -Y Shift plot origin relative to the current origin by (x-shift,y-
shift) and optionally append the length unit (c, i, m, p). You
can prepend a to shift the origin back to the original position
after plotting, or prepend r [Default] to reset the current
origin to the new location. If -O is used then the default (x-
shift,y-shift) is (0,0), otherwise it is (r1i, r1i) or (r2.5c,
r2.5c). Alternatively, give c to align the center coordinate (x
or y) of the plot with the center of the page based on current
page size.
-c Specifies the number of plot copies. [Default is 1].
SPECIFYING PENS
pen The attributes of lines and symbol outlines as defined by pen is
a comma delimetered list of width, color and texture, each of
which is optional. width can be indicated as a measure (points,
centimeters, inches) or as faint, thin[ner|nest], thick[er|est],
fat[ter|test], or obese. color specifies a gray shade or color
(see SPECIFYING COLOR below). texture is a combination of
dashes `-' and dots `.'.
SPECIFYING FILL
fill The attribute fill specifies the solid shade or solid color (see
SPECIFYING COLOR below) or the pattern used for filling poly‐
gons. Patterns are specified as pdpi/pattern, where pattern
gives the number of the built-in pattern (1-90) or the name of a
Sun 1-, 8-, or 24-bit raster file. The dpi sets the resolution
of the image. For 1-bit rasters: use Pdpi/pattern for inverse
video, or append :Fcolor[B[color]] to specify fore- and back‐
ground colors (use color = - for transparency). See GMT Cook‐
book & Technical Reference Appendix E for information on indi‐
vidual patterns.
SPECIFYING COLOR
color The color of lines, areas and patterns can be specified by a
valid color name; by a gray shade (in the range 0-255); by a
decimal color code (r/g/b, each in range 0-255; h-s-v, ranges
0-360, 0-1, 0-1; or c/m/y/k, each in range 0-1); or by a hexa‐
decimal color code (#rrggbb, as used in HTML). See the gmtcol‐
ors manpage for more information and a full list of color names.
EXAMPLES
To add an example of a legend to a Mercator plot (map.ps) with the
given specifications, use
pslegend -R-10/10/-10/10 -JM 6i -G azure1 -Dx 0.5i/0.5i/5i/3.3i/BL -C
0.1i/0.1i -L 1.2 -F -B 5f1 << EOF >> map.ps
G -0.1i
H 24 Times-Roman My Map Legend
D 0.2i 1p
N 2
V 0 1p
S 0.1i c 0.15i p300/12 0.25p 0.3i This circle is hachured
S 0.1i e 0.15i 255/255/0 0.25p 0.3i This ellipse is yellow
S 0.1i w 0.15i 0/255/0 0.25p 0.3i This wedge is green
S 0.1i f 0.25i/-1/0.075ilb 0/0/255 0.25p 0.3i This is a fault
S 0.1i - 0.15i - 0.25tap 0.3i A contour
S 0.1i v 0.25i/0.02i/0.06i/0.05i 255/0/255 0.25p 0.3i This is a vector
S 0.1i i 0.15i 0/255/255 0.25p 0.3i This triangle is boring
V 0 1p
D 0.2i 1p
N 1
M 5 5 600+u f
G 0.05i
I SOEST_logo.ras 3i CT
G 0.05i
B colors.cpt 0.2i 0.2i
G 0.05i L 9 4 R Smith et al., @%5%J. Geophys. Res., 99@%%, 2000
G 0.1i
T Let us just try some simple text that can go on a few lines.
T There is no easy way to predetermine how many lines will be required,
T so we may have to adjust the box height to get the right size box.
EOF
WINDOWS REMARKS
Note that under Windows, the percent sign (%) is a variable indicator
(like $ under Unix). To indicate a plain percentage sign in a batch
script you need to repeat it (%%); hence the font switching mechanism
(@%font% and @%%) may require twice the number of percent signs. This
only applies to text inside a script or that otherwise is processed by
DOS. Data files that are opened and read by pslegend do not need such
duplication.
SEE ALSOGMT(1), gmtcolors(5), gmtdefaults(1), psbasemap(1), pstext(1), psxy(1)GMT 4.5.14 1 Nov 2015 PSLEGEND(1)
