PSXY(1) Generic Mapping Tools PSXY(1)NAMEpsxy - Plot lines, polygons, and symbols on maps
SYNOPSISpsxy files -Jparameters -Rwest/east/south/north[r] [ -A[m|p] ] [
-B[p|s]parameters ] [ -Ccptfile ] [ -Ddx/dy ] [
-E[x|y|X|Y][n][cap][/[-|+]pen] ] [ -Gfill ] [ -H[i][nrec] ] [ -Iintens
] [ -K ] [ -L ] [ -N ] [ -O ] [ -P ] [ -S[symbol][size] ] [
-U[just/dx/dy/][c|label] ] [ -V ] [ -W[-|+][pen] ] [ -X[a|c|r][x-
shift[u]] ] [ -Y[a|c|r][y-shift[u]] ] [ -:[i|o] ] [
-bi[s|S|d|D[ncol]|c[var1/...]] ] [ -ccopies ] [ -fcolinfo ] [
-g[a]x|y|d|X|Y|D|[col]z[+|-]gap[u] ] [ -m[flag] ]
DESCRIPTIONpsxy reads (x,y) pairs from files [or standard input] and generates
PostScript code that will plot lines, polygons, or symbols at those
locations on a map. If a symbol is selected and no symbol size given,
then psxy will interpret the third column of the input data as symbol
size. Symbols whose size is <= 0 are skipped. If no symbols are spec‐
ified then the symbol code (see -S below) must be present as last col‐
umn in the input. Multiple segment files may be plotted using the -m
option. If -S is not used, a line connecting the data points will be
drawn instead. To explicitly close polygons, use -L. Select a fill
with -G. If -G is set, -W will control whether the polygon outline is
drawn or not. If a symbol is selected, -G and -W determines the fill
and outline/no outline, respectively. The PostScript code is written
to standard output.
files List one or more file-names. If no files are given, psxy will
read standard input. Use -T to ignore all input files, includ‐
ing standard input (see below).
-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.
-A By default line segments are drawn as great circle arcs. To draw
them as straight lines, use the -A flag. Alternatively, add m to
draw the line by first following a meridian, then a parallel. Or
append p to start following a parallel, then a meridian. (This
can be practical to draw a lines along parallels, for example).
-B Sets map boundary annotation and tickmark intervals; see the
psbasemap man page for all the details.
-C Give a color palette file. If -S is set, let symbol fill color
be determined by the z-value in the third column. Additional
fields are shifted over by one column (optional size would be
4th rather than 3rd field, etc.). If -S is not set, then psxy
expects the user to supply a multisegment line or polygon file
(requires -m) where each segment header contains a -Zval string.
The val will control the color of the line or polygon (if -L is
set) via the cpt file.
-D Offset the plot symbol or line locations by the given amounts
dx/dy [Default is no offset]. If dy is not given it is set
equal to dx.
-E Draw error bars. Append x and/or y to indicate which bars you
want to draw (Default is both x and y). The x and/or y errors
must be stored in the columns after the (x,y) pair [or
(x,y,size) triplet]. The cap parameter indicates the length of
the end-cap on the error bars [0.25c (or 0.1i)]. Pen attributes
for error bars may also be set (see SPECIFYING PENS below)
[Defaults: width = 0.25p, color = black, texture = solid]. A
leading + will use the lookup color (via -C) for both symbol
fill and error pen color, while a leading - will set error pen
color and turn off symbol fill. If upper case X and/or Y is
used we will instead draw "box-and-whisker" (or "stem-and-leaf")
symbols. The x (or y) coordinate is then taken as the median
value, and 4 more columns are expected to contain the minimum
(0% quantile), the 25% quantile, the 75% quantile, and the maxi‐
mum (100% quantile) values. The 25-75% box may be filled by
using -G. If n is appended to X (or Y) we draw a notched "box-
and-whisker" symbol where the notch width reflects the uncer‐
tainty in the median. Then a 5th extra data column is expected
to contain the number of points in the distribution.
-G Select color or pattern for filling of symbols or polygons
[Default is no fill]. (See SPECIFYING FILL below).
Note when -m is chosen, psxy will search for -G and -W strings
in all the subheaders and let any values thus found over-ride
the command line settings (see -m below).
-H Input file(s) has header record(s). If used, the default number
of header records is N_HEADER_RECS. Use -Hi if only input data
should have header records [Default will write out header
records if the input data have them]. Blank lines and lines
starting with # are always skipped.
-I Use the supplied intens value (nominally in the -1 to + 1 range)
to modulate the fill color by simulating illumination [none].
-K More PostScript code will be appended later [Default terminates
the plot system].
-L Force closed polygons: connect the endpoints of the line-seg‐
ment(s) and draw polygons. Also, in concert with -C, -m, and -Z
settings in the headers will use the implied color for polygon
fill [Default is polygon pen color].
-N Do NOT skip symbols that fall outside map border [Default plots
points inside border only]. The option does not apply to lines
and polygons which are always clipped to the map region.
-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 Plot symbols. If present, size is symbol size in the unit set
in .gmtdefaults4 (unless c, i, m, or p is appended). If size is
not given it is expected in the third (or 4th if -C is used)
column. Any additional fields are shifted over by one column.
If the symbol code (see below) is not given it will be read from
the last column in the input data; this cannot be used in con‐
junction with -b. Optionally, append c, i, m, p to indicate
that the size information in the input data is in units of cm,
inch, meter, or point, respectively [Default is MEASURE_UNIT].
Note: if you give both size and symbol via the input file you
must use MEASURE_UNIT to indicate the units used for the symbol
size.
The uppercase symbols A, C, D, G, H, I, N, S, T are normalized
to have the same area as a circle with diameter size, while the
size of the corresponding lowercase symbols refers to the diame‐
ter of a circumscribed circle. Choose between these symbol
codes:
-S- x-dash (-). size is the length of a short horizontal line seg‐
ment.
-S+ plus (+). size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Sa star. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Sb Vertical bar extending from base to y. size is bar width.
Append u if size is in x-units [Default is plot-distance units].
By default, base = ymin. Append bbase to change this value.
-SB Horizontal bar extending from base to x. size is bar width.
Append u if size is in y-units [Default is plot-distance units].
By default, base = xmin. Append bbase to change this value.
-Sc circle. size is diameter of circle.
-Sd diamond. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Se ellipse. Direction (in degrees counter-clockwise from horizon‐
tal), major_axis, and minor_axis must be found in columns 3, 4,
and 5.
-SE Same as -Se, except azimuth (in degrees east of north) should be
given instead of direction. The azimuth will be mapped into an
angle based on the chosen map projection (-Se leaves the direc‐
tions unchanged.) Furthermore, the axes lengths must be given
in km instead of plot-distance units. An exception occurs for a
linear projection in which we assume the ellipse axes are given
in the same units as -R.
-Sf front. -Sfgap/size[dir][type][:offset]. Supply distance gap
between symbols and symbol size. If gap is negative, it is
interpreted to mean the number of symbols along the front
instead. Append dir to plot symbols on the left or right side
of the front [Default is centered]. Append type to specify
which symbol to plot: box, circle, fault, slip, or triangle.
[Default is fault]. Slip means left-lateral or right-lateral
strike-slip arrows (centered is not an option). Append :offset
to offset the first symbol from the beginning of the front by
that amount [Default is 0].
-Sg octagon. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Sh hexagon. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Si inverted triangle. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Sj Rotated rectangle. Direction (in degrees counter-clockwise from
horizontal), x-dimension, and y-dimension must be found in col‐
umns 3, 4, and 5.
-SJ Same as -Sj, except azimuth (in degrees east of north) should be
given instead of direction. The azimuth will be mapped into an
angle based on the chosen map projection (-Sj leaves the direc‐
tions unchanged.) Furthermore, the dimensions must be given in
km instead of plot-distance units. An exception occurs for a
linear projection in which we assume the dimensions are given in
the same units as -R.
-Sk kustom symbol. Append <name>/size, and we will look for a defi‐
nition file called <name>.def in (1) the current directory or
(2) in ~/.gmt or (3) in $GMT_SHAREDIR/custom. The symbol as
defined in that file is of size 1.0 by default; the appended
size will scale symbol accordingly. Users may add their own
custom *.def files; see CUSTOM SYMBOLS below.
-Sl letter or text string (less than 64 characters). Give size, and
append /string after the size. Note that the size is only
approximate; no individual scaling is done for different charac‐
ters. Remember to escape special characters like *. Option‐
ally, you may append %font to select a particular font [Default
is ANNOT_FONT_PRIMARY].
-Sm math angle arc, optionally with one or two arrow heads. The
size is the radius of the arc. Start and stop directions (in
degrees counter-clockwise from horizontal) for arc must be found
in columns 3 and 4. Use -Smf to add arrow head at first angle,
-Sml for arrow head at last angle, and -Smb for both [Default is
no arrow heads].
-Sn pentagon. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Sp point. No size needs to be specified (1 pixel is used).
-Sq quoted line, i.e., lines with annotations such as contours.
Append [d|D|f|l|L|n|x|X]info[:labelinfo]. The required argument
controls the placement of labels along the quoted lines. Choose
among five controlling algorithms:
ddist[c|i|m|p] or Ddist[d|e|k|m|n]
For lower case d, give distances between labels on the
plot in your preferred measurement unit c (cm), i (inch),
m (meter), or p (points), while for upper case D, specify
distances in map units and append the unit; choose among
e (m), k (km), m (mile), n (nautical mile), or d (spheri‐
cal degree). [Default is 10c or 4i].
fffile.d
Reads the ascii file ffile.d and places labels at loca‐
tions in the file that matches locations along the quoted
lines. Inexact matches and points outside the region are
skipped.
l|Lline1[,line2,...]
Give the coordinates of the end points for one or more
comma-separated straight line segments. Labels will be
placed where these lines intersect the quoted lines. The
format of each line specification is
start_lon/start_lat/stop_lon/stop_lat. Both
start_lon/start_lat and stop_lon/stop_lat can be replaced
by a 2-character key that uses the justification format
employed in pstext to indicate a point on the map, given
as [LCR][BMT].
L will interpret the point pairs as defining great
circles [Default is straight line].
n|Nn_label
Specifies the number of equidistant labels for quoted
lines line [1]. Upper case N starts labeling exactly at
the start of the line [Default centers them along the
line]. N-1 places one justified label at start, while
N+1 places one justified label at the end of quoted
lines. Optionally, append /min_dist[c|i|m|p] to enforce
that a minimum distance separation between successive
labels is enforced.
x|Xxfile.d
Reads the multi-segment file xfile.d and places labels at
the intersections between the quoted lines and the lines
inxfile.d. X will resample the lines first along great-
circle arcs.
In addition, you may optionally append +rradius[c|i|m|p] to set
a minimum label separation in the x-y plane [no limitation].
The optional labelinfo controls the specifics of the label for‐
matting and consists of a concatenated string made up of any of
the following control arguments:
+aangle
For annotations at a fixed angle, +an for line-normal, or
+ap for line-parallel [Default].
+cdx[/dy]
Sets the clearance between label and optional text box.
Append c|i|m|p to specify the unit or % to indicate a
percentage of the label font size [15%].
+d Turns on debug which will draw helper points and lines to
illustrate the workings of the quoted line setup.
+ffont Sets the desired font [Default ANNOT_FONT_PRIMARY].
+g[color]
Selects opaque text boxes [Default is transparent];
optionally specify the color [Default is PAGE_COLOR].
(See SPECIFYING COLOR below).
+jjust Sets label justification [Default is MC]. Ignored when
-SqN|n+|-1 is used.
+kcolor
Sets color of text labels [Default is COLOR_BACKGROUND].
(See SPECIFYING COLOR below).
+llabel
Sets the constant label text.
+Lflag Sets the label text according to the specified flag:
+Lh Take the label from the current multisegment
header (first scan for an embedded -Llabel option,
if not use the first word following the segment
flag). For multiple-word labels, enclose entire
label in double quotes.
+Ld Take the Cartesian plot distances along the line
as the label; append c|i|m|p as the unit [Default
is MEASURE_UNIT].
+LD Calculate actual map distances; append d|e|k|m|n
as the unit [Default is d(egrees), unless label
placement was based on map distances along the
lines in which case we use the same unit specified
for that algorithm]. Requires a map projection to
be used.
+Lf Use text after the 2nd column in the fixed label
location file as the label. Requires the fixed
label location setting.
+Lx As +Lh but use the headers in the xfile.d instead.
Requires the crossing file option.
+ndx[/dy]
Nudges the placement of labels by the specified amount
(append c|i|m|p to specify the units). Increments are
considered in the coordinate system defined by the orien‐
tation of the line; use +N to force increments in the
plot x/y coordinates system [no nudging].
+o Selects rounded rectangular text box [Default is rectan‐
gular]. Not applicable for curved text (+v) and only
makes sense for opaque text boxes.
+p[pen]
Draws the outline of text boxsets [Default is no out‐
line]; optionally specify pen for outline [Default is
width = 0.25p, color = black, texture = solid]. (See
SPECIFYING PENS below).
+rmin_rad
Will not place labels where the line's radius of curva‐
ture is less than min_rad [Default is 0].
+ssize Sets the desired font size in points [Default is 9].
+uunit Appends unit to all line labels. If unit starts with a
leading hyphen (-) then there will be no space between
label value and the unit. [Default is no unit].
+v Specifies curved labels following the path [Default is
straight labels].
+w Specifies how many (x, y) points will be used to estimate
label angles [Default is 10].
+=prefix
Prepends prefix to all line labels. If prefix starts
with a leading hyphen (-) then there will be no space
between label value and the prefix. [Default is no pre‐
fix].
-Sr rectangle. No size needs to be specified, but the x- and y-
dimensions must be found in columns 3 and 4.
-Ss square. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-St triangle. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Sv vector. Direction (in degrees counter-clockwise from horizon‐
tal) and length must be found in columns 3 and 4. size, if
present, will be interpreted as arrowwidth/headlength/headwidth
[Default unit is 0.075c/0.3c/0.25c (or 0.03i/0.12i/0.1i)]. By
default arrow attributes remains invariant to the length of the
arrow. To have the size of the vector scale down with decreas‐
ing size, append nnorm, where vectors shorter than norm will
have their attributes scaled by length/norm. To center vector
on balance point, use -Svb; to align point with the vector head,
use -Svh; to align point with the vector tail, use -Svt
[Default]. To give the head point's coordinates instead of
direction and length, use -Svs. Upper case B, H, T, S will draw
a double-headed vector [Default is single head].
-SV Same as -Sv, except azimuth (in degrees east of north) should be
given instead of direction. The azimuth will be mapped into an
angle based on the chosen map projection (-Sv leaves the direc‐
tions unchanged.)
-Sw pie wedge. Start and stop directions (in degrees counter-clock‐
wise from horizontal) for pie slice must be found in columns 3
and 4.
-SW Same as -Sw, except azimuths (in degrees east of north) should
be given instead of the two directions. The azimuths will be
mapped into angles based on the chosen map projection (-Sw
leaves the directions unchanged.)
-Sx cross (x). size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Sy y-dash (|). size is the length of a short vertical line seg‐
ment.
-T Ignore all input files, including standard input. This is the
same as specifying /dev/null (or NUL for Windows users) as input
file. Use this to activate only the options that are not related
to plotting of lines or symbols, such as psxy-R -J -O -T to
terminate a sequence of GMT plotting commands without producing
any plotting output.
-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"].
-W Set pen attributes for lines or the outline of symbols
[Defaults: width = 0.25p, color = black, texture = solid]. A
leading + will use the lookup color (via -C) for both symbol
fill and outline pen color, while a leading - will set outline
pen color and turn off symbol fill. (See SPECIFYING PENS
below).
-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.
-: Toggles between (longitude,latitude) and (latitude,longitude)
input and/or output. [Default is (longitude,latitude)]. Append
i to select input only or o to select output only. [Default
affects both].
-bi Selects binary input. Append s for single precision [Default is
d (double)]. Uppercase S or D will force byte-swapping.
Optionally, append ncol, the number of columns in your binary
input file if it exceeds the columns needed by the program. Or
append c if the input file is netCDF. Optionally, append
var1/var2/... to specify the variables to be read. [Default is
the required number of columns given the chosen settings].
-c Specifies the number of plot copies. [Default is 1].
-f Special formatting of input and/or output columns (time or geo‐
graphical data). Specify i or o to make this apply only to
input or output [Default applies to both]. Give one or more
columns (or column ranges) separated by commas. Append T (abso‐
lute calendar time), t (relative time in chosen TIME_UNIT since
TIME_EPOCH), x (longitude), y (latitude), or f (floating point)
to each column or column range item. Shorthand -f[i|o]g means
-f[i|o]0x,1y (geographic coordinates).
-g Examine the spacing between consecutive data points in order to
impose breaks in the line. Append x|X or y|Y to define a gap
when there is a large enough change in the x or y coordinates,
respectively, or d|D for distance gaps; use upper case to calcu‐
late gaps from projected coordinates. For gap-testing on other
columns use [col]z; if col is not prepended the it defaults to 2
(i.e., 3rd column). Append [+|-]gap and optionally a unit u.
Regarding optional signs: -ve means previous minus current col‐
umn value must exceed |gap to be a gap, +ve means current minus
previous column value must exceed gap, and no sign means the
absolute value of the difference must exceed gap. For geo‐
graphic data (x|y|d), the unit u may be meter [Default], kilome‐
ter, miles, or nautical miles. For projected data (X|Y|D),
choose from inch, centimeter, meter, or points [Default unit set
by MEASURE_UNIT]. Note: For x|y|z with time data the unit is
instead controlled by TIME_UNIT. Repeat the option to specify
multiple criteria, of which any can be met to produce a line
break. Issue an additional -ga to indicate that all criteria
must be met instead. The -g option is ignored if -S is set.
-m Multiple segment file. Segments are separated by a record whose
first character is flag [Default is '>']. On these segment
header records one or more of the following options can be
added:
-Gfill Use the new fill and turn filling on
-G- Turn filling off
-G+ Revert to default fill (none if not set on command line)
-Wpen Use the new pen and turn outline on
-W- Turn outline off
-W+ Revert to default pen (none if not set on command line)
-Zzval Obtain fill via cpt lookup using z-value zval
-ZNaN Get the NaN color from the cpt file
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 plot solid red circles (diameter = 0.25 cm) at the positions listed
in the file DSDP.xy on a Mercator map at 5 cm/degree of the area 150E
to 154E, 18N to 23N, with tickmarks every 1 degree and gridlines every
15 minutes, use
psxy DSDP.xy -R 150/154/18/23 -Jm 5c -Sc0.25c -G red -B 1g15m | lpr
To plot the xyz values in the file quakes.xyzm as circles with size
given by the magnitude in the 4th column and color based on the depth
in the third using the color palette cpt on a linear map, use
psxy quakes.xyzm -R 0/1000/0/1000 -JX 6i -Sc -C cpt -B 200 > map.ps
To plot the file trench.xy on a Mercator map, with white triangles with
sides 0.25 inch on the left side of the line, spaced every 0.8 inch,
use
psxy trench.xy -R 150/200/20/50 -Jm 0.15i -Sf0.8i/0.1ilt -G white -W -B
10 | lpr br
To plot the data in the file misc.d as symbols determined by the code
in the last column, and with size given by the magnitude in the 4th
column, and color based on the third column via the color palette cpt
on a linear map, use
psxy misc.d -R 0/100/-50/100 -JX 6i -S -C cpt -B 20 > t.ps
CUSTOM SYMBOLSpsxy and psxyz allows users to define and plot their own custom sym‐
bols. This is done by encoding the symbol using a simple plotting code
described below. Put all the plotting codes for your new symbol in a
file whose extension must be .def; you may then address the symbol
without giving the extension (e.g., the symbol file tsunami.def is used
by specifying -Sktsunami/size. The definition file can contain any
number of plot code records, as well as blank lines and comment lines
(starting with #). psxy and psxyz will look for the definition files
in (1) the current directory, (2) the ~/.gmt directory, and (3) the
$GMT_SHAREDIR/custom directory, in that order. Freeform polygons (made
up of straight line segments and arcs of circles) can be designed -
these polygons can be painted and filled with a pattern. Other stan‐
dard geometric symbols can also be used. Generate freeform polygons by
starting with an anchor point (append [ -Wpen ] and [ -Gfill ] to indi‐
cate pen and fill attributes):
x0 y0 M
and draw a straight line from the current point to the next point with
x y D
or add an arc by using
xc yc r dir1 dir2 A
When a record other than the D or A is encountered, the polygon is
closed and considered complete. The optional pen and fill setting
hardwires particular values for this feature. If not present the poly‐
gon's characteristics are determined by the command line settings for
pen and fill. To deactivate fill or outline for any given polygon,
give -G- or -W-. To add other geometric shapes to your custom symbol,
add any number of the following plot code records (each accepts the
optional [ -Wpen ] and [ -Gfill ] at the end):
circle: x y size c
cross: x y size x
diamond: x y size d
ellipse: x y dir major minor e
hexagon: x y size h
invtriangle: x y size i
letter: x y size string l
octagon: x y size g
pentagon: x y size n
plus: x y size +
rect: x y xwidth ywidth r
square: x y size s
star: x y size a
triangle: x y size t
wedge: x y radius dir1 dir2 w
x-dash: x y size -
y-dash: x y size y
When designing your symbol, the x, y and other dimensions are relative
to a symbol of size 1, and all the dimensions will be scaled by the
actual symbol size chosen at run-time. To design a symbol, make a grid
paper with psbasemap -R-0.5/0.5/-0.5/0.5 -JX 4i -Ba 0.1g0.05 -P >
grid.ps and draw your symbol, centering it on (0,0). For examples of
symbols, see the set supplied with GMT in $GMT_SHAREDIR/custom.
BUGS
The -N option does not adjust the BoundingBox information so you may
have to post-process the PostScript output with ps2raster -A to obtain
the correct BoundingBox.
psxy cannot handle filling of polygons that contain the south or north
pole. For such a polygon, make a copy and split it into two and make
each explicitly contain the polar point. The two polygons will combine
to give the desired effect when filled; to draw outline use the origi‐
nal polygon.
SEE ALSOGMT(1), gmtcolors(5), psbasemap(1), psxyz(1)GMT 4.5.14 1 Nov 2015 PSXY(1)
