[GRASS-user] new symbol, support for RGB color labels and text rotation

[Michael Barton]

Thanks Hamish. Also thanks for the new screenshot page. We're getting closer
to being able to make a map like that, but still a ways off. I think
Martin's got some good ideas for GRASS 7 cartography.

Michael


On 9/26/07 2:03 AM, "Hamish" <hamish_nospam at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I just added a few bits and pieces to ps.map and the labeling system.
> 
> - added a new symbol: extra/n_arrow1, based on the 'd.barscale -n'
>   north arrow head by Huidae Cho. (see attached ps.map screenshot)
>   more symbol info at  http://grass.gdf-hannover.de/wiki/IconSymbols
> 
> - ps.map's text instruction can now rotate the text
> 
> - ps.map's text instruction now supports full RGB color triplets
> 
> - v.label, d.labels, and ps.map labels now support full RGB color
>   triplets for labels, and allow wider borders
> 
> - v.label will now use the vector map's name if not specified
> 
> - d.labels now supports border widths.
>   !! the default width is 1.0, which can lead to ugly rotated boxes.
>   Use a width of 0 if you want nice clean boxes with d.labels on xmons.
>   Sorry, it's due to the way R_line_width() goes, not much I can
>   do about it without removing the functionality in d.labels.
> 
> - [dev] I added some helper functions in d.paint.labels/color.c for
>   working with RGBA_Color structs. Maybe these should be made into
>   lib/ fns? If so, some peer review & better fn names would be nice.
>   http://freegis.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/grass6/display/d.paint.labels/color.c
> 
> 
> FWIW, here are the ps.map instructions used in the screenshot. The ring
> is just the circle symbol placed concentrically with the north arrow.
> The map info box is constructed using the rectangle, scalebar, and text
> instructions.
> 
> ps.map -r out=test.ps << EOF
> scale 1:100000
> geogrid 2 m
>   color grey
>   numbers 2
>   end
> #...
> scalebar s
>   where 2.4 5.8
>   length 4000
>   segment 4
>   end
> text 13.5% 16.5% meters
>   background white
>   end
> text 13.5% 27% SCALE: 1:100,000
>   background white
>   end
> rectangle 3.4% 14% 24% 31%
>   fcolor white
>   width 0.5
>   end
> #...
> point 11.9% 48%
>   symbol extra/n_arrow1
>   rotate 4.4
>   fcolor black
>   size 15
>   end
> text 11.5% 53.5% N
>   rotate 4.4
>   end
> point 11.9% 48%
>   symbol basic/circle
>   fcolor none
>   size 35
>   end
> end
> EOF
> 
> 
> If we add x% y% placement to the scalebar instruction those can be
> scripted into little helper tools for auto-generation.
> 
> 
> FWIW2, I still support the writing of a wxPython GUI frontend to write &
> run ps.map scripts. I think the task isn't hard, just tedious. (PDF as a
> save option would be nice too, could convert behind the scenes if the
> right tools are present)  The PS driver is nice and all, but the d.*
> modules just aren't as pretty as ps.map, and the PS driver still has some
> rendering issues. With GRASS 7 maybe the PS driver gets much nicer, I'd
> put off discussing the dropping of ps.map until then. The two only
> conflict for mindshare so little reason to drop it early IMO.
> 
> e.g. when d.* can recreate something as nice as this new cartography
> screenshot by Willem van Mierlo, we'll talk :)
>   http://grass.itc.it/screenshots/cartography.php
>   (the page will show up on the server in the next hour or two)
> 
> (disclosure: ps.map couldn't make that either; two ps.map outputs were
> merged with transparency in the GIMP. This was because PostScript doesn't
> support vector area transparency. Apparently PDF 1.4+ does ....)
> 
> 
> Hamish

__________________________________________
Michael Barton, Professor of Anthropology
Director of Graduate Studies
School of Human Evolution & Social Change
Center for Social Dynamics & Complexity
Arizona State University

phone: 480-965-6213
fax: 480-965-7671
www: http://www.public.asu.edu/~cmbarton