Provided by: gmt-manpages_3.4.4-1_all 
NAME
gmtdefaults - To list current GMT defaults
SYNOPSIS
gmtdefaults -D[u|s] | -L
DESCRIPTION
gmtdefaults lists the GMT parameter defaults if the option -D is used. To change some of the settings,
use any texteditor to edit the file .gmtdefaults in your home or current directory. If you do not have
this file in your home or current directory, run gmtdefaults -D > ~/.gmtdefaults to get the system
settings. GMT can provide default values in US or SI units. This choice is determined by the contents of
the gmt.conf file in GMT's share directory.'
-D Print the system GMT defaults to standard output. Append u for US defaults or s for SI defaults.
[-D alone gives current choice in gmt.conf].
-L Print the user's currently active defaults to standard output.'
GMT PARAMETERS
The following is a list of the 58 parameters that are user-definable in GMT. The parameter names are
always given in UPPER CASE. The parameter values are case-insensitive unless otherwise noted. The system
defaults are given in brackets [ ]. Those marked * can be set on the command line as well (the
corresponding option is given in parentheses). Note that default distances and lengths below are given in
both cm or inch; the chosen default depends on your choice of default unit (see MEASURE_UNIT). You can
explicitly specify the unit used for distances and lengths by appending c (cm), i (inch), m (meter), or p
{points). When no unit is indicated the value will be assumed to be in the unit set by MEASURE_UNIT.
Note that the printer resolution DOTS_PR_INCH is always the number of dots or pixels per inch. Several
parameters take only TRUE or FALSE.
ANOT_MIN_ANGLE
If the angle between the map boundary and the annotation baseline is less than this minimum value
(in degrees), the annotation is not plotted (this may occur for certain oblique projections.) Give
a value in the range 0-90. [20]
ANOT_MIN_SPACING
If an annotation would be plotted less than this minimum distance from its closest neighbor, the
annotation is not plotted (this may occur for certain oblique projections.) [0]
ANOT_FONT
Font used for tick mark annotations etc [Helvetica]. Specify either the font number or the font
name (case sensitive!). The 39 available fonts are:
0 Helvetica
1 Helvetica-Bold
2 Helvetica-Oblique
3 Helvetica-BoldOblique
4 Times-Roman
5 Times-Bold
6 Times-Italic
7 Times-BoldItalic
8 Courier
9 Courier-Bold
10 Courier-Oblique
11 Courier-BoldOblique
12 Symbol
13 AvantGarde-Book
14 AvantGarde-BookOblique
15 AvantGarde-Demi
16 AvantGarde-DemiOblique
17 Bookman-Demi
18 Bookman-DemiItalic
19 Bookman-Light
20 Bookman-LightItalic
21 Helvetica-Narrow
22 Helvetica-Narrow-Bold
23 Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique
24 Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique
25 NewCenturySchlbk-Roman
26 NewCenturySchlbk-Italic
27 NewCenturySchlbk-Bold
28 NewCenturySchlbk-BoldItalic
29 Palatino-Roman
30 Palatino-Italic
31 Palatino-Bold
32 Palatino-BoldItalic
33 ZapfChancery-MediumItalic
34 ZapfDingbats
35 Ryumin-Light-EUC-H
36 Ryumin-Light-EUC-V
37 GothicBBB-Medium-EUC-H
38 GothicBBB-Medium-EUC-V
ANOT_FONT_SIZE
Font size (> 0) in points for map annotations. [14]
ANOT_OFFSET
Distance from end of tickmark to start of annotation [0.2c (or 0.075i)]. A negative offset will
place the anotation inside the map border.
BASEMAP_AXES
Sets which axes to draw and annotate. Case sensitive: Upper case means both draw and annotate,
lower case means draw axis only. [WESN].
BASEMAP_FRAME_RGB
Color used to draw map boundaries and annotations. Give a red/green/blue triplet, with each
element in the 0-255 range. [0/0/0] (black).
BASEMAP_TYPE
Choose between plain and fancy (thick boundary, alternating black/white frame) [fancy]. For some
map projections (e.g., Oblique Mercator), plain is the only option even if fancy is set as
default. In general, fancy only applies to situations where the projected x and y directions
parallel the lon and lat directions (e.g., rectangular projections, polar projections).
COLOR_BACKGROUND
Color used for the background of images (i.e., when z < lowest colortable entry). Give a
red/green/blue triplet, with each element in the 0-255 range. [0/0/0] (black)
COLOR_FOREGROUND
Color used for the foreground of images (i.e., when z > highest colortable entry). Give a
red/green/blue triplet, with each element in the 0-255 range. [255/255/255] (white)
COLOR_IMAGE
Selects which operator to use when rendering bit-mapped color images. Due to the lack of the
colorimage operator in some PostScript implementations, GMT offers 2 different options:
adobe (Adobe's colorimage definition) [Default].'
tiles (Plot image as many individual rectangles).
COLOR_MODEL
Selects if color palette files contain rgb values (r,g,b in 0-255 range) or HSV values (h = 0-360,
s,v in 0-1 range) [rgb].
COLOR_NAN
Color used for the non-defined areas of images (i.e., where z == NaN). Give a red/green/blue
triplet, with each element in the 0-255 range. [128/128/128] (gray)
D_FORMAT
Output format (C language syntax) to be used when printing double precision floating point numbers
If it is NOT a 'g'-type format (as the default is), the format is used directly in anotations.
[%lg].
DEGREE_FORMAT
Output format to be used when annotating map boundaries. Choose between 12 formats:
0 Longitudes go from 0 to 360, latitudes from -90 to 90 [Default].
1 Longitudes go from -180 to 180, latitudes from -90 to 90.
2 Longitudes are unsigned 0 to 180, latitudes unsigned 0 to 90.
3 Same as 2, but with letters W, E, S, or N appended as appropriate.
4 Same as 0, with decimal degrees instead of degrees, minutes, and seconds.
5 Same as 1, with decimal degrees instead of degrees, minutes, and seconds.
6 Same as 4, but with letters W, E, S, or N appended as appropriate.
7 Same as 5, but with letters W, E, S, or N appended as appropriate.
8 Same as 0, with degrees and decimal minutes instead of degrees, minutes, and seconds.
9 Same as 1, with degrees and decimal minutes instead of degrees, minutes, and seconds.
10 Same as 2, with degrees and decimal minutes instead of degrees, minutes, and seconds.
11 Same as 3, with degrees and decimal minutes instead of degrees, minutes, and seconds.
Add 100 to these values to use the large degree symbol character (octal 217) [Default is the small
degree symbol (octal 312)].
DOTS_PR_INCH
Resolution of the plotting device (dpi). Note that in order to be as compact as possible, GMT
PostScript output uses integer formats only so the resolution should be set depending on what
output device you are using. E.g, using 300 and sending the output to a Linotype 300
phototypesetter (2470 dpi) will not take advantage of the extra resolution (i.e., positioning on
the page and line thicknesses are still only done in steps of 1/300 inch; of course, text will
look smoother) [300].
ELLIPSOID
The (case sensitive) name of the ellipsoid used for the map projections [WGS-84]. Choose among
WGS-84 1984 World Geodetic System
GRS-80 1980 International Geodetic Reference System
WGS-72 1972 World Geodetic System
WGS-66 1966 World Geodetic System
Australian 1965 Used down under
Krassovsky 1940 Used in the Soviet Union
International 1924 Worldwide use
Hayford-1909 1909 Same as the International 1924
Clarke-1880 1880 Most of Africa, France
Clarke-1866 1866 North America, the Phillipines
Airy 1830 Great Britain
Bessel 1841 Central Europe, Chile, Indonesia
Everest 1830 India, Burma, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Thailand, etc.
Sphere 1980 The mean radius in GRS-80 (for spherical/plate tectonics applications)
Note that for some global projections, GMT may default to GRS-80 Sphere regardless of ellipsoid
actually chosen. A warning will be given when this happens. If a different ellipsoid name than
those mentioned here is given, GMT will attempt to open this name as a file and read the ellipsoid
name, year, major-axis (in m), minor-axis (in m), and flattening from the first record, where the
fields must be separated by white-space (not commas). This way a custom ellipsoid (e.g., those
used for other planets) may be used.
FRAME_PEN
Thickness of pen used to draw plain map frame in dpi units or points (append p) [5].
FRAME_WIDTH
Width (> 0) of map borders for fancy map frame [0.2c (or 0.075i)].
GLOBAL_X_SCALE
Global x-scale (> 0) to apply to plot-coordinates before plotting. Normally used to shrink the
entire output down to fit a specific height/width [1.0].
GLOBAL_Y_SCALE
Same, but for y-coordinates [1.0].
GRID_CROSS_SIZE
Size (>= 0) of grid cross at lon-lat intersections. 0 means draw continuous gridlines instead [0].
GRID_PEN
Pen thickness used to draw grid lines in dpi units or points (append p) [1].
GRIDFILE_SHORTHAND
If TRUE, all gridfile names are examined to see if they use the file extension shorthand discussed
in Section 4.17 of the GMT Technical Reference and Cookbook. If FALSE, no filename expansion is
done [FALSE].
HEADER_FONT
Font to use when plotting headers. See ANOT_FONT for available fonts [Helvetica].
HEADER_FONT_SIZE
Font size (> 0) for header in points [36].
HSV_MIN_SATURATION
Minimum saturation (0-1) assigned for most negative intensity value [1.0].
HSV_MAX_SATURATION
Maximum saturation (0-1) assigned for most positive intensity value [0.1].
HSV_MIN_VALUE
Minimum value (0-1) assigned for most negative intensity value [0.3].
HSV_MAX_VALUE
Maximum value (0-1) assigned for most positive intensity value [1.0].
INTERPOLANT
Determines if linear (linear), Akima's spline (akima), or natural cubic spline (cubic) should' be
used for 1-D interpolations in various programs [akima].
IO_HEADER * (-H)
Specifies whether input/output ASCII files have header record(s) or not [FALSE].
N_HEADER_RECS
Specifies how many header records to expect if -H is turned on [1].
LABEL_FONT
Font to use when plotting labels below axes. See ANOT_FONT for available fonts [Helvetica].
LABEL_FONT_SIZE
Font size (> 0) for labels in points [24].
LINE_STEP
Determines the maximum length (> 0) of individual straight line-segments when drawing arcuate
lines [0.025c (or 0.01i)]
MAP_SCALE_FACTOR
Sets the central scale factor (> 0) used for the Polar Stereographic and Transverse Mercator
projections. Typically, it is set to 0.9996 to minimize areal distortion [0.9996].
MAP_SCALE_HEIGHT
Sets the height (> 0) on the map of the map scalebars drawn by various programs [0.2c (or
0.075i)].
MEASURE_UNIT
Sets the unit length. Choose between cm, inch, m, and point. [cm]. Note that, in GMT, one point is
defined as 1/72 inch (the PostScript definition), while it is often defined as 1/72.27 inch in the
typesetting industry. There is no universal definition.
N_COPIES * (-c)
Number of plot copies to make [1].
OBLIQUE_ANOTATION
This integer is a sum of 5 bit flags (most of which only are relevant for oblique projections): If
bit 1 is set (1), annotations will occur wherever a gridline crosses the map boundaries, else
longitudes will be annotated on the lower and upper boundaries only, and latitudes will be
annotated on the left and right boundaries only. If bit 2 is set (2), then longitude anotations
will be plotted horizontally. If bit 3 is set (4), then latitude anotations will be plotted
horizontally. If bit 4 is set (8), then oblique tickmarks are extended to give a projection equal
to the specified tick_length. If bit 5 is set (16), tickmarks will be drawn normal to the border
regardless of gridline angle. To set a combination of these, add up the values in parentheses.
[1].
PAGE_COLOR
Sets the color of the imaging background, i.e., the paper. Give a red/green/blue triplet, with
each element in the 0-255 range. [255/255/255] (white)
PAGE_ORIENTATION * (-P)
Sets the orientation of the page. Choose portrait or landscape [landscape].
PAPER_MEDIA
Sets the physical format of the current plot paper [A4]. The following formats (and their widths
and heights in points) are recognized (Additional site-specific formats may be specified in the
gmtmedia.d file in $GMTHOME/share; see that file for details):
Media width height
A0 2380 3368
A1 1684 2380
A2 1190 1684
A3 842 1190
A4 595 842
A5 421 595
A6 297 421
A7 210 297
A8 148 210
A9 105 148
A10 74 105
B0 2836 4008
B1 2004 2836
B2 1418 2004
B3 1002 1418
B4 709 1002
B5 501 709
archA 648 864
archB 864 1296
archC 1296 1728
archD 1728 2592
archE 2592 3456
flsa 612 936
halfletter 396 612
note 540 720
letter 612 792
legal 612 1008
11x17 792 1224
ledger 1224 792
To force the printer to request a manual paper feed, append '-' to the media name, e.g., A3- will
require the user to insert a A3 paper into the printer's' manual feed slot. To indicate you are
making an EPS file, append '+' to the media name. Then, GMT will attempt to issue a tight bounding
box [Default is the paper dimension].
PSIMAGE_FORMAT
Determines whether images created in PostScript should use hexadecimal (i.e., ascii) or binary
format. The latter takes up only half as much space and executes faster but may choke some
printers, especially those off serial ports. Select hex or bin [hex].
TICK_LENGTH
The length of a tickmark. Normally, tickmarks are drawn on the outside of the map boundaries. To
select interior tickmarks, use a negative tick_length [0.2c (or 0.075i)].
TICK_PEN
The pen thickness to be used for tickmarks in dpi units or points (append p) [2].
UNIX_TIME * (-U)
Specifies if a UNIX system time stamp should be plotted at the lower left corner of the plot
[FALSE].
UNIX_TIME_POS * (-U)
Sets the position of the UNIX time stamp relative to the current plots lower left corner [-2c/-2c
(or -0.75i/-0.75i)].
VECTOR_SHAPE
Determines the shape of the head of a vector. Normally (i.e., for vector_shape = 0), the head will
be triangular, but can be changed to an arrow (1). Intermediate settings gives something in
between [0].
VERBOSE * (-V)
Determines if GMT programs should display run-time information or run silently [FALSE].
WANT_EURO_FONT
Determines if GMT PostScript output should include font re-encoding for accented European
characters. See Cookbook section 4.16 and Appendix H for details [TRUE].
X_AXIS_LENGTH
Sets the default length (> 0) of the x-axis [25c (or 9i)].
Y_AXIS_LENGTH
Sets the default length (> 0) of the y-axis [15c (or 6i)].
X_ORIGIN * (-X)
Sets the x-coordinate of the origin on the paper for a new plot [2.5c (or 1i)]. For an overlay,
the default offset is 0.
Y_ORIGIN * (-Y)
Sets the y-coordinate of the origin on the paper for a new plot [2.5c (or 1i)]. For an overlay,
the default offset is 0.
XY_TOGGLE * (-:)
Set if the first two columns of input files contain (latitude,longitude) or (y,x) rather than the
expected (longitude,latitude) or (x,y) [FALSE].
Y_AXIS_TYPE
Determines if the annotations for a y-axis (for linear projections) should be plotted horizontally
(hor_text) or vertically (ver_text) [hor_text].
EXAMPLES
To get a copy of the GMT parameter defaults in your home directory, run
gmtdefaults -D > ~/.gmtdefaults
You may now change the settings by editing this file using a text editor of your choice, or use gmtset to
change specified parameters on the command line.
BUGS
If you have typographical errors in your .gmtdefaults file(s), a warning message will be issued, and the
GMT defaults for the affected parameters will be used.
SEE ALSO
gmt(1gmt), gmtset(1gmt)
1 Jan 2004 GMTDEFAULTS(l)