text.rst

.. index:: ! text

text

|text_purpose|

Synopsis

gmt text [ textfiles ] |-J|parameters |SYN_OPT-Rz| [ |-A| ] [ |SYN_OPT-B| ] [ |-C|[dx[/dy]][+to|O|c|C] ] [ |-D|[j|J]dx[/dy][+v[pen]] ] [ |-F|[+a[angle]][+c[justify]][+f[font]][+j[justify]][+h|l|r[first] |ttext|z[format]] ] [ |-G|[fill][+n] ] [ |-L| ] [ |-M| ] [ |-N| ] [ |-Q|l|u ] [ |-S|[dx/dy/][shade] ] [ |SYN_OPT-U| ] [ |SYN_OPT-V| ] [ |-W|pen ] [ |SYN_OPT-X| ] [ |SYN_OPT-Y| ] [ |-Z| ] [ -acol=name[...] ] [ |SYN_OPT-e| ] [ |SYN_OPT-f| ] [ |SYN_OPT-h| ] [ -itword ] [ |SYN_OPT-p| ] [ |SYN_OPT-qi| ] [ |SYN_OPT-tv| ] [ |SYN_OPT-w| ] [ |SYN_OPT-:| ] [ |SYN_OPT--| ]

Description

text plots text strings of variable size, font type, and orientation. Various map projections are provided, with the option to draw and annotate the map boundaries.

Greek characters, subscript, superscript, and small caps are supported as follows:

Symbol	Behavior
@~	Toggles between the selected font and Greek (Symbol)
@%font%	Switches to font where font can either be a font number or name (see |-L|) (@%% resets it)
@-	Toggles subscripts on/off
@+	Toggles superscript on/off
@#	Toggles small caps on/off
@;color;	Changes the font color (@;; resets it)
@:size:	Changes the font size (@:: resets it)
@_	Toggles underline on/off
@@	Prints the @ sign
@.	Prints the degree symbol

@a, @c, @e, @i, @n, @o, @s, @u, @A, @C, @E, @N, @O, and @U give various accented European characters, as indicated in Table :ref:`escape <tbl-shorthand>`. Composite characters (overstrike) may be indicated with the @!<char1><char2> sequence, which will print the two characters on top of each other.

To learn the octal codes for symbols not available on the keyboard and some accented European characters, see Section :ref:`Char-esc-seq` and Appendix :ref:`Chart-Octal-Codes-for-Chars` in the GMT Technical Reference. Note that :term:`PS_CHAR_ENCODING` must be set to an extended character set in your :doc:`gmt.conf` file in order to use the accented characters.

Using the |-G| or |-W| options, a rectangle underlying the text may be plotted (does not work for strings with sub/super scripts, symbols, or composite characters, except in paragraph mode (|-M|)).

Finally, you may typeset LaTeX expressions provided they are enclosed in @[ ... @[ or <math> ... </math>; see Chapter :doc:`/reference/gmt-latex` for more details.

Required Arguments

textfiles

This is one or more files containing 1 or more records with (x y [font angle justify] text). The presence or absence of items in the brackets are determined by |-F|. If no files are given, text will read standard input. font is a font specification with format [size,][font,][color] where size is text size in points, font is the font to use, and color sets the font color. To draw outline fonts you append =pen to the font specification. The angle is measured in degrees counter-clockwise from horizontal, and justify sets the alignment. If font is not an integer, then it is taken to be a text string with the desired font name (see |-L| for available fonts). The alignment refers to the part of the text string that will be mapped onto the (x,y) point. Choose a 2 character combination of L, C, R (for left, center, or right) and T, M, B for top, middle, or bottom. e.g., BL for bottom left.

Optional Arguments

-A

Angles are given as azimuths; convert them to directions using the current projection.

-C[dx[/dy]][+to|O|c|C]

Adjust the clearance between the text and the surrounding box [15%]. Only used if |-W| or |-G| are specified. Append the unit you want (cm, inch, or point; if not given we consult :term:`PROJ_LENGTH_UNIT`) or % for a percentage of the font size. If dy is not specified then it is set equal to dx. Optionally, use modifier +t to append the shape of the textbox when using |-G| and/or |-W|:

• o - Straight rectangle [Default].
• O - Set a rounded rectangle.
• c - (Paragraph mode (|-M| only) selects a concave rectangle.
• C - (Paragraph mode (|-M| only) selects a convex rectangle.

-D[j|J]dx[/dy][+v[pen]]

Offsets the text from the projected (x,y) point by dx,dy [0/0]. If dy is not specified then it is set equal to dx. Prepend an optional directive:

• j - Offset the text away from the point instead (i.e., the text justification will determine the direction of the shift).
• J - Shorten diagonal offsets at corners by \sqrt{2}.

Optionally, append the modifier:

• +v - Draw a line from the original point to the shifted point; append a pen to change the attributes for this line. Note: The -Dj|J selection cannot be used with paragraph mode (|-M|).

-F[+a[angle]][+c[justify]][+f[font]][+j[justify]][+h|l|r[first]|ttext|z[format]]

By default, text will be placed horizontally, using the primary annotation font attributes [:term:`FONT_ANNOT_PRIMARY`], and centered on the data point. Use |-F| to override these defaults by specifying up to three text attributes (font, angle, and justification) directly on the command line via these modifiers:

• +a - Set the text angle; if no angle is given then the input file must have this angle as a column.
• +A - Force text-baselines to convert into the -90/+90 range.
• +c - Append justification to set the x, y coordinates extracted from the |-R| string instead of providing them in the input file. For example -F+cTL gets the x_min, y_max from the |-R| string and plots the text at the Upper Left corner of the map.
• +f - Set the font ([size][,fontname][,color]); if no font info is given then the input file must have this information in one of its columns.
• +j - Set the text justification; if no justification is given then the input file must have this item as a column.

Normally, the text is read from the data records. Alternative ways to provide text:

• +h - Use the most recent segment header as the text to be plotted.
• +l - Use the most recent segment label as the text to be plotted.
• +r - Use the record number (counting up from first [0]) as the text to be plotted.
• +t - Use the appended text to set a fixed text string (if text contains plus characters then the +t modifier must be the last modifier in |-F|).
• +z - Format incoming z values to a string using the supplied format [if not appended we use :term:`FORMAT_FLOAT_MAP`].

Notes: |-F|+h|l|r|t| z can't be used with |-M|.

Notes: (1) If |-Z| is in effect then the z value used for formatting is in the 4th, not 3rd column. If you only want a specific word from the trailing text and not the whole line, use -itword to indicate which word (0 is the first word) you want. (2) Items read from the data file should be in the same order as the modifiers are specified with the |-F| option. Example: -F+f12p,Helvetica-Bold,red+j+a selects a 12p red Helvetica-Bold font and expects to read the justification and angle from the file, in that order, after x y and before text.

-G[fill][+n]

Sets the shade or color used for filling the text box [Default is no fill]. Alternatively, give no fill to plot text and then use the text dimensions (and |-C|) to build clip paths and turn clipping on. This clipping can then be turned off later with :doc:`clip` |-C|. To not plot the text but activate clipping, use -G+n instead. Note: cannot be used with LaTeX expressions.

-L

Lists the font-numbers and font-names available, then exits.

-M

Paragraph mode. Files must be multiple segment files. Segments are separated by a special record whose first character must be flag [Default is >]. Starting in the 3rd field, we expect to find information pertaining to the typesetting of a text paragraph (the remaining lines until next segment header). The information expected is (x y [font angle justify] linespace parwidth parjust), where x y font angle justify are defined above (the presence or absence of font, angle, and justify are determined by |-F|), while linespace and parwidth are the linespacing and paragraph width, respectively. The justification of the text paragraph is governed by parjust which may be l(eft), c(enter), r(ight), or j(ustified). The segment header is followed by one or more lines with paragraph text. Text may contain the escape sequences discussed above, although composite characters are not supported. Separate paragraphs with a blank line. Note that here, the justification set via -F+j applies to the box alignment since the text justification is set by parjust. Note: cannot be used with LaTeX expressions.

-N

Do not clip text at map boundaries [Default will clip].

-Ql|u

Change all text to either lower or upper case [Default leaves all text as is].

-S[dx/dy/][shade]

Plot an offset background shaded region beneath the text box. Here, dx/dy indicates the shift relative to the text box [4p/-4p] and shade sets the fill color to use for shading [gray50].

-Wpen

Sets the pen used to draw a rectangle around the text string (see |-C|) [Default is width = 0.25p, color = black, style = solid]. Note: cannot be used with LaTeX expressions.

-Z

For 3-D projections: expect each item to have its own level given in the 3rd column, and |-N| is implicitly set. (Not implemented for paragraph mode). Note: If -F+z is used then the text level is based on the 4th data column instead.

-itword

In this module, -it can be used to select a specific word from the trailing text [Default is the entire trailing text]. The word indicates the word order, with the first word being 0. No numerical columns can be specified.

Examples

To plot just the red outlines of the (lon lat text strings) stored in the file text.txt on a Mercator plot with the given specifications, use:

gmt text text.txt -R-30/30/-10/20 -Jm0.1i -F+f18p,Helvetica,-=0.5p,red -B5 -pdf plot

To plot a text at the upper left corner of a 10 cm map:

echo TopLeft | gmt text -R1/10/1/10 -JX10 -B -F+cTL -pdf plot

To add a typeset figure caption for a 3-inch wide illustration, use:

gmt text -R0/3/0/5 -JX3i -h1 -M -N -F+f12,Times-Roman+jLT -pdf figure << EOF
This is an unmarked header record not starting with #
> 0 -0.5 13p 3i j
@%5%Figure 1.@%% This illustration shows nothing useful, but it still needs
a figure caption. Highlighted in @;255/0/0;red@;; you can see the locations
of cities where it is @\_impossible@\_ to get any good Thai food; these are to be avoided.
EOF

To place a line containing a Latex equation, try:

echo 3 3 'Use @[\Delta g = 2\pi\rho Gh@[' | gmt text -R0/6/0/6 -JX15c -B -F+f32p+a30 -pdf map

To place text with a surrounding box and an underlying, shifted shade, both using a rounded rectangle, try:

gmt text -R0/10/0/5 -Jx1c -F+f32p+cCM+tWELCOME -B -Gyellow -Wfaint -S -C+tO -pdf map

See Also

:doc:`gmt`, :doc:`gmt.conf`, :doc:`clip`, :doc:`gmtcolors`, :doc:`psconvert`, :doc:`basemap`, :doc:`legend`, :doc:`plot`