TEK2PLOT(1) GNU Plotting Utilities TEK2PLOT(1)NAMEtek2plot - translate Tektronix files to other graphics formats
SYNOPSIStek2plot [ options ] [ files ]
DESCRIPTIONtek2plot translates Tektronix graphics files to other formats, or dis‐
plays them on an X Window System display. The output format is speci‐
fied 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, porta‐
ble 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 nor‐
mally 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 pro‐
duced 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 dis‐
play, 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 rele‐
vant 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 aniso‐
tropically, i.e., by different factors in the horizontal and
vertical directions. For plot -T X, this requires an X11R6 dis‐
play. 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 appro‐
priate 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 EMU‐
LATE_COLOR to "yes".
--max-line-length max_line_length
Set the maximum number of points that a polygonal line may con‐
tain, 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 dis‐
play devices (e.g., old Postscript printers and HP-GL pen plot‐
ters) 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 spec‐
ified. For example, the page size could be specified as "let‐
ter,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 "let‐
ter,xorigin=2in,yorigin=3in", or "a4,xorigin=0.5cm,yori‐
gin=0.5cm". It is also possible to specify an offset vector.
For example, the page size could be specified as "letter,xoff‐
set=1in", or "letter,xoffset=1in,yoffset=1.2in", or "a4,yoff‐
set=-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 espe‐
cially if it is not a fixed-width font, this option is recom‐
mended. 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 ROTA‐
TION 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 "tek‐
font0"..."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 for‐
mat 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 stan‐
dard 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, EMU‐
LATE_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 envi‐
ronment 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 envi‐
ronment variable. If its value is "yes", the output will be inter‐
laced. 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 ver‐
sion of CGM version 3 format. For backward compatibility, the version
number may be reduced by setting CGM_MAX_VERSION to "2" or "1". Irre‐
spective 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 print‐
ers and plotters, is affected by the environment variable
PCL_ASSIGN_COLORS. It should be set to "yes" when producing PCL 5 out‐
put for a color printer or other color device. This will ensure accu‐
rate 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 out‐
put, 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 envi‐
ronment 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 ALSOplot(1), plotfont(1), and "The GNU Plotting Utilities Manual".
AUTHORStek2plot 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)
