Provided by: gmt-manpages_3.4.4-1_all 
NAME
psxy - Plot lines, polygons, and symbols on maps
SYNOPSIS
psxy files -Jparameters -Rwest/east/south/north[r] [ -A ] [ -Btickinfo ] [ -Ccptfile ] [
-E[x|y|X|Y][cap][/pen] ] [ -Gfill ] [ -H[nrec] ] [ -K ] [ -L ] [ -N ] [ -M[flag] ] [ -O ] [ -P ] [
-S[symbol][size] ] [ -U[/dx/dy/][label] ] [ -V ] [ -W[pen] ] [ -Xx-shift ] [ -Yy-shift ] [ -: ] [
-ccopies ] [ -bi[s][n] ]
DESCRIPTION
psxy reads (x,y) pairs from files [or standard input] and generates PostScript code that will plot lines,
polygons, or symbols at those locations on a map. If a symbol is selected and no symbol size given, then
psxy will interpret the third column of the input data as symbol size. Symbols whose size is <= 0 are
skipped. If no symbols are specified then the symbol code (see -S below) must be present as last column
in the input. Multiple segment files may be plotted using the -M option. If -S is not selected, a line
connecting the data points will be drawn instead. To explicitly close polygons, use -L. Select a shade
with -G. If -G is set, -W will control whether the polygon outline is drawn or not. If a symbol is
selected, -G and -W determines the fill color and outline/no outline, respectively. The PostScript code
is written to standard output.
files List one or more file-names. If no files are given, psxy will read standard input.
-J Selects the map projection. Scale is UNIT/degree, 1:xxxxx, or width in UNIT (upper case modifier).
UNIT is cm, inch, or m, depending on the MEASURE_UNIT setting in .gmtdefaults, but this can be
overridden on the command line by appending the c, i, or m to the scale/width value.
CYLINDRICAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jclon0/lat0/scale (Cassini)
-Jjlon0/scale (Miller)
-Jmscale (Mercator - Greenwich and Equator as origin)
-Jmlon0/lat0/scale (Mercator - Give meridian and standard parallel)
-Joalon0/lat0/azimuth/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and azimuth)
-Joblon0/lat0/lon1/lat1/scale (Oblique Mercator - two points)
-Joclon0/lat0/lonp/latp/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and pole)
-Jqlon0/scale (Equidistant Cylindrical Projection (Plate Carree))
-Jtlon0/scale (TM - Transverse Mercator, with Equator as y = 0)
-Jtlon0/lat0/scale (TM - Transverse Mercator, set origin)
-Juzone/scale (UTM - Universal Transverse Mercator)
-Jylon0/lats/scale (Basic Cylindrical Projection)
AZIMUTHAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jalon0/lat0/scale (Lambert).
-Jelon0/lat0/scale (Equidistant).
-Jflon0/lat0/horizon/scale (Gnomonic).
-Jglon0/lat0/scale (Orthographic).
-Jslon0/lat0/[slat/]scale (General Stereographic)
CONIC PROJECTIONS:
-Jblon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Albers)
-Jdlon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Equidistant)
-Jllon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Lambert)
MISCELLANEOUS PROJECTIONS:
-Jhlon0/scale (Hammer)
-Jilon0/scale (Sinusoidal)
-Jk[f|s]lon0/scale (Eckert IV (f) and VI (s))
-Jnlon0/scale (Robinson)
-Jrlon0/scale (Winkel Tripel)
-Jvlon0/scale (Van der Grinten)
-Jwlon0/scale (Mollweide)
NON-GEOGRAPHICAL PROJECTIONS:
-Jp[a]scale[/origin] (polar (theta,r) coordinates, optional a for azimuths and offset theta [0])
-Jxx-scale[l|ppow][/y-scale[l|ppow]] (Linear, log, and power scaling)
More details can be found in the psbasemap manpages.
-R west, east, south, and north specify the Region of interest. To specify boundaries in degrees and
minutes [and seconds], use the dd:mm[:ss] format. Append r if lower left and upper right map
coordinates are given instead of wesn.
OPTIONS
No space between the option flag and the associated arguments.
-A Suppress drawing line segments as great circle Arcs. [Default draws great circle arcs.]
-B Sets map boundary tickmark intervals. See psbasemap for details.
-C Give a color palette file. When used with -S, lets symbol color be determined by the z-value in
the third column. Additional fields are shifted over by one column (optional size would be 4th
rather than 3rd field, etc.). If -S is not set, psxy expects the user to supply a multisegment
polygon file (requires -M) and will look for -Zval strings in each multisegment header. The val
will control the color via the cpt file.
-E Draw error bars. Append x and/or y to indicate which bars you want to draw (Default is both x and
y). The x and/or y errors must be stored in the columns after the (x,y) pair [or (x,y,size)
triplet]. The cap parameter indicates the length of the end-cap on the error bars [0.25c (or
0.1i)]. Pen attributes for error bars may also be set. [Defaults: width = 1, color = 0/0/0,
texture = solid]. If upper case X and/or Y is used we will instead draw "box-and-whisker" (or
"stem-and-leaf") symbols. The x (or y) coordinate is then taken as the median value, and 4 more
columns are expected to contain the minimum (0% quartile), the 25% quartile, the 75% quartile, and
the maximum (100% quartile) values. The 25-75% box may be filled by using -G.
-G Select filling of polygons and symbols. Append the shade (0-255), color (r/g/b), or
P|pdpi/pattern (polygons only) [Default is no fill]. Note when -M is chosen, psxy will search for
-G and -W strings in all the subheaders and let any found values over-ride the command line
settings.
-H Input file(s) has Header record(s). Number of header records can be changed by editing your
.gmtdefaults file. If used, GMT default is 1 header record.
-K More PostScript code will be appended later [Default terminates the plot system].
-L Force closed polygons: connect the endpoints of the line-segment(s) and draw polygons.
-M Multiple segment file. Segments are separated by a record whose first character is flag. [Default
is '>'].
-N Do NOT skip symbols that fall outside map border [Default plots points inside border only]. The
option does not apply to lines and polygons which are always clipped to the map region.
-bo Selects binary output. Append s for single precision [Default is double].
-P Selects Portrait plotting mode [GMT Default is Landscape, see gmtdefaults to change this].
-S Plot symbols. If present, size is symbol size in the unit set in .gmtdefaults (unless c, i, m, or
p is appended). The uppercase symbols A, C, D, H, I, S, T are normalized to have the same area as
the circle, while the corresponding lowercase symbols all are circumscribed by the circle. Choose
between these symbol codes:
-S Read symbol code (see below) from last column in the input data. Cannot be used in conjunction
with -b. Optionally, append c, i, m, p to indicate that the size information in the input data is
in units of cm, inch, meter, or point, respectively. [Default is MEASURE_UNIT].
-Sa star. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Sb bar extending from base to y. size is bar width. Append u if size is in x-units [Default is plot-
distance units]. By default, base = 0. Append bbase to change this value.
-Sc circle. size is diameter of circle.
-Sd diamond. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Se ellipse. Direction (in degrees counter-clockwise from horizontal), major_axis, and minor_axis must
be found in columns 3, 4, and 5.
-SE Same as -Se, except azimuth (in degrees east of north) should be given instead of direction. The
azimuth will be mapped into an angle based on the chosen map projection (-Se leaves the directions
unchanged.) Furthermore, the axes lengths must be given in km instead of plot-distance units.
-Sf front. -Sfgap/size[dir][type][:offset]. Supply distance gap between symbols and symbol size. If
gap is negative, it is interpreted to mean the number of symbols along the front instead. Append
dir to plot symbols on the left or right side of the front [Default is centered]. Append type to
specify which symbol to plot: box, circle, fault, slip, or triangle. [Default is fault]. Slip
means left-lateral or right-lateral strike-slip arrows (centered is not an option). Append :offset
to offset the first symbol from the beginning of the front by that amount [Default is 0].
-Sh hexagon. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Si inverted triangle. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Sl letter or text string (less than 64 characters). Give size, and append /string after the size.
Note that the size is only approximate; no individual scaling is done for different characters.
Remember to escape special characters like *. Optionally, you may append %font to select a
particular font [Default is ANOT_FONT].
-Sp point. No size needs to be specified (1 pixel is used).
-Ss square. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-St triangle. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-Sv vector. Direction (in degrees counter-clockwise from horizontal) and length must be found in
columns 3 and 4. size, if present, will be interpreted as arrowwidth/headlength/headwidth [Default
is 0.075c/0.3c/0.25c (or 0.03i/0.12i/0.1i)]. By default arrow attributes remains invariant to the
length of the arrow. To have the size of the vector scale down with decreasing size, append nnorm,
where vectors shorter than norm will have their attributes scaled by length/norm.
-SV Same as -Sv, except azimuth (in degrees east of north) should be given instead of direction. The
azimuth will be mapped into an angle based on the chosen map projection (-Sv leaves the directions
unchanged.)
-Sw pie wedge. Start and stop directions (in degrees counter-clockwise from horizontal) for pie slice
must be found in columns 3 and 4.
-Sx cross. size is diameter of circumscribing circle.
-U Draw Unix System time stamp on plot. User may specify where the lower left corner of the stamp
should fall on the page relative to lower left corner of plot. Optionally, append a label, or c
(which will plot the command string.). The GMT parameters UNIX_TIME and UNIX_TIME_POS can affect
the appearance; see the gmtdefaults man page for details.
-V Selects verbose mode, which will send progress reports to stderr [Default runs "silently"].
-W Set pen attributes. [Defaults: width = 1, color = 0/0/0, texture = solid]. Implicitly draws the
outline of symbols with selected pen.
-X -Y Shift origin of plot by (x-shift,y-shift). Prepend a for absolute coordinates; the default (r)
will reset plot origin.
-: Toggles between (longitude,latitude) and (latitude,longitude) input/output. [Default is
(longitude,latitude)]. Applies to geographic coordinates only.
-c Specifies the number of plot copies. [Default is 1]
-bi Selects binary input. Append s for single precision [Default is double]. Append n for the number
of columns in the binary file(s). [Default is the required number of columns given the chosen
settings].
EXAMPLES
To plot solid red circles (diameter = 0.25 cm) at the positions listed in the file DSDP.xy on a Mercator
map at 5 cm/degree of the area 150E to 154E, 18N to 23N, with tickmarks every 1 degree and gridlines
every 15 minutes, try:
psxy DSDP.xy -R150/154/18/23 -Jm5c -Sc0.25c -G255/0/0 -B1g15m | lpr
To plot the xyz values in the file quakes.xyzm as circles with size given by the magnitude in the 4th
column and color based on the depth in the third using the color palette cpt on a linear map, try
psxy quakes.xyzm -R0/1000/0/1000 -JX6i -Sc -Ccpt -B200 > map.ps
To plot the file trench.xy on a Mercator map, with white triangles with sides 0.25 inch on the left side
of the line, spaced every 0.8 inch, use
psxy trench.xy -R150/200/20/50 -Jm0.15i -Sf0.8i/0.1ilt -G255 -W -B10 | lpr br
To plot the data in the file misc.d as symbols determined by the code in the last column, and with size
given by the magnitude in the 4th column, and color based on the third column via the color palette cpt
on a linear map, try
psxy misc.d -R0/100/-50/100 -JX6i -S -Ccpt -B20 > t.ps
BUGS
The -N option does not adjust the BoundingBox information so you may have to post-process the PostScript
outout with epstool or ps2epsi to obtain a correct BoundingBox.
psxy cannot handle filling of polygons that contain the south or north pole. For such a polygon, make a
copy and split it into two and make each explicitly contain the polar point. The two polygons will
combine to give the desired effect when filled; to draw outline use the original polygon.
SEE ALSO
gmt(1gmt), psbasemap(1gmt), psxyz(1gmt)
1 Jan 2004 PSXY(l)