plotutils-graph-patches-lloda/doc

This directory contains supplementary documentation on GNU libplot, the
drawing library on which several of the executables in the GNU plotting
utilities ("plotutils") package, such as graph, plot, tek2plot, plotfont,
and hersheydemo, are based.

./colors.txt: A listing of the color names recognized by libplot,
and hence by each of the above plotting utilities.
A 24-bit RGB representation for each color is given.

For example, you may pop up a simple graph,
drawn in a chocolate color, by typing the command

echo 0 0 1 1 2 0 | graph -T X --frame-color chocolate

This is because "chocolate" is one of the listed color
names. In the 24-bit RGB scheme, "chocolate" means
(210,105,30). The strength of each of R (red), G
(green), and B (blue) is represented as an 8-bit
quantity, i.e., an integer in the range 0..255.


./h-fonts.txt: A listing of the 22 Hershey fonts supported by GNU
libplot and executables based on it.


Hershey fonts are vector ("stroked") fonts, in which each character is made
up of thickened line segments. They can look good on high-resolution
output devices (on which they have a hand-lettered appearance) and on
medium-resolution output devices (where they may be competitive with other
types of font). This is especially the case if anti-aliasing is used.

To see a demo page illustrating the Hershey fonts, do

hersheydemo -Tps > page.ps

to produce the page in PS (Postscript format), or

hersheydemo -Tsvg --pen-color blue > page.svg

in SVG (scaled vector graphics) format. You can send the former to a
printer, and display the latter from the command line by invoking on it,
e.g., a Web browser such as firefox, or the `svgdisplay' or `display'
executables. (They come respectively from KDE and the ImageMagick
package.) The result should look good. If you do

hersheydemo -TX --rotation 45 --bitmap-size 800x800 --bg-color brown

to see the demo page (rotated) in a popped-up 800pixel-by-800pixel
X window, the result may look less good, as your X display may not use
anti-aliasing. That means that every pixel in the window will be either
black or white, with no gradations that make characters more legible.

The 22 Hershey fonts built into GNU libplot were assembled from glyphs in
the large family of vector glyphs designed by Dr. Allen V. Hershey in the
early days of computer graphics, beginning in the 1960s. His glyphs
predate modern outline fonts, but are not just of historical interest. The
demo page is taken from his 1972 article in Computer Graphics and Image
Processing (vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 373-385).

Plotting utilities such as `graph' can use Hershey fonts, as well as,
e.g., such Postscript fonts as Times-Roman. By doing

echo 0 0 1 1 2 0 | graph -T ps -F Times-Roman -L 'A Graph' > graph.ps
echo 0 0 1 1 2 0 | graph -T ps -F HersheySerif -L 'A Graph' > graph.ps
echo 0 0 1 1 2 0 | graph -T ps -F HersheyGothic-English -L 'A Graph' > graph.ps

etc., you can generate graphs with labels and titles in various fonts. Use
the --help-fonts option to get a list of fonts, which is
output-format-specific (though Hershey fonts are supported in all output
formats).

The Hershey glyph repertory, built into GNU libplot, includes various
symbols in addition to occidental and Japanese characters. Some symbol
glyphs do not belong to any font. If the current font is a Hershey font,
you may access any glyph by its number, even if it is not a character in
the font, in the conventional sense. For instance,

echo 0 0 1 1 2 0 | graph -T ps --font-name HersheyGothic-English -L '\#H0745\#H0745' > graph.ps

would label the graph being drawn with a title line consisting of
two fleurs-de-lys. That is because the fleur-de-lys is Hershey glyph #745.

The following files are relevant to the Hershey glyph repertory built
into GNU libplot. The

./h-glyphs.txt: A high-level survey of the `occidental' Hershey glyphs,
in great detail. Includes an extensive comparison with earlier
(pre-GNU) distributions of the Hershey glyphs, and an explanation
of how the glyph array was assembled.

./hershey.bib: A bibliography, in BibTeX format, of publications
dealing with the Hershey glyphs and with Allen Hershey's system for
scientific typography, which was designed to use them. Most of the
cited items are technical reports that are available from the
U.S. National Technical Information Service (+1 703 487 4650).
Stock numbers are given.

./kana.txt: The encodings used for the Hershey Hiragana and Katakana
(syllabic Japanese characters). These are part of the HersheyEUC
font, but may also be accessed by number.

./kanji.txt: The encoding of the 603 available Japanese Kanji
(ideographic characters), and their meaning. These are part of the
HersheyEUC font, but may also be accessed by number.