Ubuntu Manpage: tek2plot - translate Tektronix files to other graphics formats

NAME

       tek2plot - translate Tektronix files to other graphics formats

SYNOPSIS

       tek2plot [ options ] [ files ]

DESCRIPTION

       tek2plot  translates  Tektronix  graphics files to other formats, or displays them on an X
       Window System display.  The output format is specified 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,
portable 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 normally 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 produced 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 display, 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 relevant 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 anisotropically,
i.e., by different factors in the horizontal and vertical directions. For plot -T
X, this requires an X11R6 display. 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 appropriate 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 EMULATE_COLOR to "yes".

--max-line-length max_line_length
Set the maximum number of points that a polygonal line may contain, 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 display devices (e.g.,
old Postscript printers and HP-GL pen plotters) 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 specified. For example, the page size could be specified
as "letter,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 "letter,xorigin=2in,yorigin=3in", or
"a4,xorigin=0.5cm,yorigin=0.5cm". It is also possible to specify an offset vector.
For example, the page size could be specified as "letter,xoffset=1in", or
"letter,xoffset=1in,yoffset=1.2in", or "a4,yoffset=-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 especially if it is not a fixed-width font,
this option is recommended. 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 ROTATION 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
"tekfont0"..."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 format 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
standard 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, EMULATE_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
environment 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 environment variable. If its value is
"yes", the output will be interlaced. 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 version of CGM version 3 format. For backward compatibility,
the version number may be reduced by setting CGM_MAX_VERSION to "2" or "1". Irrespective
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 printers and plotters, is
affected by the environment variable PCL_ASSIGN_COLORS. It should be set to "yes" when
producing PCL 5 output for a color printer or other color device. This will ensure
accurate 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 output, 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 environment 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.

AUTHORS

       tek2plot 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.