Ubuntu Manpage: ppmlabel - add text to a portable pixmap

NAME

       ppmlabel - add text to a portable pixmap

SYNOPSIS

       ppmlabel [-angle angle] [-background transparent | colour] [-colour colour] [-file
                filename] [-size textsize] [-text 'text string'] [-x column] [-y row] ...
                [ppmfile]

DESCRIPTION

       ppmlabel  uses  the  text  drawing facilities of ppmdraw to add text to a portable pixmap.
       The location, size, baseline angle, colour of the text and background colour (if any)  are
       controlled  by  command  line arguments.  The text can be specified on the command line or
       read from files.  Any number of separate text strings can be added by  one  invocation  of
       ppmlabel, limited only by the maximum length of the command line.

       If no ppmfile is specified, ppmdraw reads its input pixmap from standard input.

OPTIONS

The arguments on the ppmlabel command line are not options in the strict sense; they are
commands which control the placement and appearance of the text being added to the input
pixmap. They are executed left to right, and any number of arguments may appear.

All flags can be abbreviated to their shortest unique prefix.

-angle angle
Sets the angle of the baseline of subsequent text. angle is specified as an
integral number of degrees, measured counterclockwise from the row axis of the
pixmap.

-background transparent | colour
If the argument is ``transparent'', text is drawn over the existing pixels in
the pixmap. If a colour is given (see the -colour switch below for information
on how to specify colours), rectangles enclosing subsequent text are filled with
that colour.

-colour colour
Sets the colour for subsequent text. The colour can be specified in five ways:

• A name, assuming that a pointer to an X11-style colour names file was
compiled in.

• An X11-style hexadecimal specifier: rgb:r/g/b, where r g and b are each
1- to 4-digit hexadecimal numbers.

• An X11-style decimal specifier: rgbi:r/g/b, where r g and b are floating
point numbers between 0 and 1.

• For backwards compatibility, an old-X11-style hexadecimal number: #rgb,
#rrggbb, #rrrgggbbb, or #rrrrggggbbbb.

• For backwards compatibility, a triplet of numbers separated by commas:
r,g,b, where r g and b are floating point numbers between 0 and 1. (This
style was added before MIT came up with the similar rgbi style.)

-file filename
Reads text from the file filename and draws it on successive lines.

-size textsize
Sets the height of the tallest characters above the baseline to textsize pixels.

-text 'text string'
Draws the given text string (which must be quoted if it contains spaces). The
location for subsequent text is advanced by 1.75 times the current textsize,
which allows drawing multiple lines of text in a reasonable manner without
specifying the position of each line.

-x column Sets the column at which subsequent text will be left justified. Depending on
the shape of the first character, the actual text may begin a few pixels to the
right of this point.

-y row Sets the row which will form the baseline of subsequent text. Characters with
descenders, such as ``y'', will extend below this line.

BUGS

       Text strings are restricted to 7 bit ASCII.  The text font used by ppmdraw doesn't include
       definitions for 8 bit ISO 8859/1 characters.

       When  drawing multiple lines of text with a non-transparent background, it should probably
       fill the space between the lines with the background colour.  This is tricky to get  right
       when the text is rotated to a non-orthogonal angle.

       The  -size,  -x,  and  -y options MUST precede the -text option specifying the string they
       apply to, or they will be silently ignored in favor of the defaults.

AUTHOR