Ubuntu Manpage: pbmtext - render text into a bitmap

NAME

       pbmtext - render text into a bitmap

SYNOPSIS

       pbmtext [-font fontfile] [-builtin fontname] [-space pixels] [-lspace pixels] [text]

DESCRIPTION

       Takes  the  specified  text,  either a single line from the command line or multiple lines
       from standard input, and renders it into a bitmap.

       In the bitmap, each line of input is a line of  output.   Formatting  characters  such  as
       newline  have  no effect on the formatting; like any unprintable character, they turn into
       spaces.

       The bitmap is just wide enough for the longest line of text, plus margins, and  just  high
       enough  to  contain the lines of text, plus margins.  The left and right margins are twice
       the width of the widest character in the font; the top and bottom margins are  the  height
       of  the  tallest character in the font.  But if the text is only one line, all the margins
       are half of this.

OPTIONS

-font,-builtin
By default, pbmtext uses a built-in font called bdf (about a 10 point Times-Roman
font). You can use a fixed width font by specifying -builtin fixed.

You can also specify your own font with the -font flag. The fontfile is either a
BDF file from the X window system or a PBM file.

If the fontfile is a PBM file, it is created in a very specific way. In your
window system of choice, display the following text in the desired (fixed-width)
font:

M ",/^_[`jpqy| M

/ !"#$%&'()*+ /
< ,-./01234567 <
> 89:;<=>?@ABC >
@ DEFGHIJKLMNO @
_ PQRSTUVWXYZ[ _
{ \]^_`abcdefg {
} hijklmnopqrs }
~ tuvwxyz{|}~ ~

M ",/^_[`jpqy| M

Do a screen grab or window dump of that text, using for instance xwd, xgrabsc, or
screendump. Convert the result into a pbm file. If necessary, use pnmcut to
remove everything except the text. Finally, run it through pnmcrop to make sure
the edges are right up against the text. pbmtext can figure out the sizes and
spacings from that.

-space pixels
Add pixels pixels of space between characters. This is in addition to whatever
space surrounding characters is built into the font, which is usually enough to
produce a reasonable string of text.

pixels may be negative to crowd text together, but the author has not put much
thought or testing into how this works in every possible case, so it might cause
disastrous results.

-B -lspace pixels
Add pixels pixels of space between lines. This is in addition to whatever space
above and below characters is built into the font, which is usually enough to
produce a reasonable line spacing.

pixels must be a whole number.

pixels may be negative to crowd lines together, but the author has not put much
thought or testing into how this works in every possible case, so it might cause
disastrous results.

USAGE

       Often, you want to place text over another image.  One way to do this  is  with  ppmlabel.
       ppmlabel does not give you the font options that pbmtext does, though.

       Another  way is to use pbmtext to create an image containing the text, then use pnmcomp to
       overlay the text image onto your base image.  To make only the text (and  not  the  entire
       rectangle  containing  it) cover the base image, you will need to give pnmcomp a mask, via
       its -alpha option.  You can just use the text image itself as the mask,  as  long  as  you
       also specify the -invert option to pnmcomp.

       If  you  want  to  overlay colored text instead of black, just use ppmchange to change all
       black pixels to the color of your choice before overlaying the text image.  But still  use
       the original black and white image for the alpha mask.

       If  you want the text at an angle, use pnmrotate on the text image (and alpha mask) before
       overlaying.

AUTHOR