[GRASSLIST:10559] Re: Labels and ps.map

[Dylan Beaudette]

GMT can do things like this... although it requires a bit of pre-processing of 
the data.

Dylan


On Friday 24 February 2006 05:15 am, Nick Cahill wrote:
> Dear Michael,
>
> Yes, I'm talking about the quick-and-dirty display labels from
> d.vect. These are incredibly useful, as you point out, and again,
> very intuitive; they are an attribute of the vector file rather than
> some separate file which you have to remember about. Thank you for
> the test images. However, as you point out, they are bitmaps; and I'm
> looking for postscript output which will allow me to move and edit
> the labels for a published map. Ps.map does that just fine. I would
> still wish that ps.map could draw directly on the vector attributes
> for drawing labels, like gis.m and g.m do, rather than going through
> an external label file.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Nick
>
> On Feb 24, 2006, at 9:18 AM, Michael Barton wrote:
> > Nick,
> >
> > I see that you are talking about the display labels created by
> > d.vect--rather than those created by d.labels.
> >
> > The d.vect labels are a 'quick and dirty' vector labeler, but that is
> > exactly what is needed at times.
> >
> > I just did a test with the new gis.m and attach 3 small files here.
> > In two
> > cases (making the eps and pdf), I used the print function dialog.
> > In the
> > third case (making a png), I used the save output function.
> >
> > As you can see, there are labels in all 3 images.
> >
> > Michael
> > __________________________________________
> > Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
> > School of Human Evolution and Social Change
> > Arizona State University
> > Tempe, AZ 85287-2402
> >
> > phone: 480-965-6213
> > fax: 480-965-7671
> > www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
> >
> >> From: Nick Cahill <ndcahill at facstaff.wisc.edu>
> >> Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:34:35 +0200
> >> To: Multiple recipients of list <GRASSLIST at baylor.edu>
> >> Subject: [GRASSLIST:10541] Re: Labels and ps.map
> >>
> >> Dear Michael,
> >>
> >> In d.m and gis.m, there is a radio button for showing labels, you
> >> choose what column to display and its parameters, left, right, size,
> >> etc. Does this make a temorary label file for display? I was guessing
> >> that it was somehow able to draw directly from the database, since
> >> there is no place to specify a label file. This all seems very
> >> intuitive; but when printed to postscript, those labels do not appear
> >> (for me at least; because I don't have ghostscript, perhaps?). So
> >> I've been working through ps.map; which works fine, but involves the
> >> extra step of creating a label file. The postscript from ps.map comes
> >> out as proper editable text, not as a raster, which is important to
> >> me as I'll need to move the labels around later. Creating the label
> >> file is not much of a hassle, except that it requires knowing in
> >> advance how large the labels should be; you can't resize them on the
> >> fly and immediately see what the results are. I just wondered whether
> >> a more direct method was in store for the future.
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Nick
> >>
> >> On Feb 24, 2006, at 6:39 AM, Michael Barton wrote:
> >>> Nick,
> >>>
> >>> Point vector attribute display in d.m and gis.m is done by
> >>> d.labels--with
> >>> original labels file prepared by v.label (or by hand).
> >>>
> >>> There is a fair amount of control over the display possible.
> >>> However, the
> >>> labels ultimately are rendered to the screen as rasters. Gis.m can
> >>> output
> >>> the screen to EPS or a postscript device now (if you have
> >>> ghostscript
> >>> installed). However, it is output as a postscript bitmap/raster
> >>> image. If
> >>> you make your map display larger, it might give you higher
> >>> resolution in the
> >>> final EPS.
> >>>
> >>> Michael
> >>> __________________________________________
> >>> Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
> >>> School of Human Evolution and Social Change
> >>> Arizona State University
> >>> Tempe, AZ 85287-2402
> >>>
> >>> phone: 480-965-6213
> >>> fax: 480-965-7671
> >>> www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton
> >>>
> >>>> From: Nick Cahill <ndcahill at facstaff.wisc.edu>
> >>>> Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:15:03 +0200
> >>>> To: GRASSLIST international <GRASSLIST at baylor.edu>
> >>>> Subject: [GRASSLIST:10492] Labels and ps.map
> >>>>
> >>>> Dear Grass Gurus,
> >>>>
> >>>> Is there a reason why d.m and gis.m can display point vector
> >>>> attributes as labels, but this can't be output to a postscript
> >>>> file;
> >>>> and ps.map has to rely on the - I assume, somewhat outdated -
> >>>> method
> >>>> of using a separate label file? Currently, to get labels to come
> >>>> out
> >>>> correctly in ps.map, I have to run ps.map, look at the postscript
> >>>> output, find that the labels are a bit too big or something, make a
> >>>> whole new label file with different parameters, and start again;
> >>>> and
> >>>> this usually takes a number of iterations. It would be much more
> >>>> convenient (for me at least, as a user) to have site labels be part
> >>>> of vector display within ps.map, so you could have e.g.
> >>>>
> >>>> vpoints vector
> >>>> type point or/and centroid
> >>>> layer # (layer number used with cats/where/sizecol options)
> >>>> cats list of categories (e.g. 1,3,5-7)
> >>>> where SQL where statement like: vlastnik = 'Cimrman'
> >>>> masked [y|n]
> >>>> color color
> >>>> fcolor color
> >>>> **attlabel (attribute column)
> >>>> **attlabelsize (in points or whatever)
> >>>> **font, color, etc.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Or am I missing something obvious?
> >>>>
> >>>> Thank you,
> >>>>
> >>>> Nick Cahill
> >
> > <labeltest_eps.pdf>
> > <labeltest_gs.pdf>
> > <labeltest_png.png>

-- 
Dylan Beaudette
Soils and Biogeochemistry Graduate Group
University of California at Davis
530.754.7341