Technical writer/editor: Brian Bevirt
Metafiles have two primary values in a complex computing environment: 1.) simplification, and 2.) archivability and transportability.
When a computing environment contains a variety of computers and graphics peripherals, it is faced with the problem of providing a uniform graphics package running on m different hosts and driving n different output devices. The basic desire is to create graphics on any of the hosts, and plot the results on any of the output devices. One way to proceed would be to provide a plotting application for each host/device pair. Another way to proceed is to create a generic metafile on the host (the same application run on different hosts will produce identical metafiles), and then invoke a metafile translator to drive a given output device (at most one translator for each device). Thus, the metafile step reduces the complexity from producing m x n separate packages to producing one portable application running on all hosts and a metafile translator for each output device.
In the current NCAR software, simplification has been taken one step further with the advent of a table-driven translator. For any output device which has user access to its native command set, it is necessary only to complete filling in a device description table (called a "graphcap" file); the master translator will configure itself appropriately for a given output device, given the graphcap file for that device. Providing a graphcap for a particular device may not be trivial in general, but it is much easier than writing a special translator for a given device.
Another value of metafiles is for archivability and transportability. If one has a set of plots that one wants to store for later examination, the plots can be captured in a metafile. Also, if one wants to create plots at one site, and then view them somewhere else, the plots can be transported via a metafile. Many NCAR scientists and visitors use this feature, which is of course dependent on their having access to a translator at their remote site. A variant on the transportability of metafiles is their use as a picture storage medium in a batch environment where the host has no direct link to drive the output device.
There are two primary drawbacks with having a metafile step between the picture generation and viewing. One drawback is overhead---given a host/plotting device pair, it would be more efficient if the host generated the device instructions for the given device directly and displayed the result. In exchange for simplicity and flexibility, we have compromised efficiency. Also, metafiles are limited in interactive work---for example, there is no support for graphical input. If you don't need to create a metafile to permanently store your graphical output, then you may want to use the X11 workstation of NCAR Graphics. Please refer to the NCAR Graphics Fundamentals for more information.
As the concept of metafile gained importance in the international graphics community, it became clear that national and international standards were desirable. One of the main uses of metafiles is to transport picture encodings from one site to another, and if everybody has their own definition for a metafile, going from one site to another requires transformation from one metafile format to another. Complete transformation from one metafile format to another can be difficult or impossible, since the functionality of one format may be considerably different from that of another. Certainly, the inconvenience and possible introduction of errors make non-standard metafile formats undesirable.
In 1986, ANSI (the American National Standards Institute) accepted the CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile) as a national standard. The ANSI committee that produced the CGM contained representatives from several dozen organizations, including almost all of the major computing vendors and government labs. The CGM has also been accepted as an ISO (International Standards Organization) standard.
The CGM is a standard that defines a set of basic elements for a computer graphics interface. The CGM is what is known as a "picture capture" metafile. The conceptual structure of the metafile is one of a sequence of distinct self-contained pictures. This is to be contrasted with an "audit trail" metafile (such as the one described in Annex E of the GKS standard), which is a transcription of a graphics session. Pictures can be extracted at random from a CGM and plotted, whereas to plot a picture from a GKS metafile, one has to sequentially process all instructions in the metafile prior to the desired picture before plotting the desired picture. NCAR has decided to adopt the CGM as its standard metafile. This will replace the earlier pre-CGM NCAR metafile definition which dates to the early 1970s. The CGM specifies three alternative encoding schemes for the defined elements. The encoding scheme that has been adopted at NCAR is the binary encoding. Of the three possible encoding schemes, the binary encoding is the most machine efficient. The physical record structure for a CGM file is not specified in the CGM standard. NCAR has specified a record structure for the NCAR CGM that is similar to the record structure of the pre-CGM NCAR metafiles; it is the record structure only that makes NCAR's CGM definition specific to NCAR.
It should be emphasized that the CGM is a distinct and separate standard from the GKS standard, which is an ANSI and ISO standard specifying a set of basic functions for computer graphics programming. The CGM standard is not totally unrelated to the GKS standard, however. The CGM elements capture much of the functionality of the GKS functions, but far from all of them---for example, the picture segmentation of GKS is absent from the current set of CGM elements. Additionally, the CGM contains many elements that are not a part of the GKS standard---for example, the CIRCULAR ARC elements.
The CGM offers two significant advantages over the old NCAR metafile; it standardizes the instruction set, and it supports several dozen commands instead of just a few. The CGM supports raster interfaces, polylines, bundled attributes, and filled areas.
There are over 90 elements in the CGM standard; the NCAR CGM does not support all of these elements. For a detailed description of the NCAR CGM, see the NCAR Computer Graphics Metafile section of this document.
The CGM standard itself is contained in the document:
Subsequent to NCAR's implementing the CGM Standard, significant additions have been made to the Standard. These were officially added in 1992.
The 1992 version of CGM (referred to as CGM:1992) is ISO Standard 8632 and has four parts (the prices may be out of date):
There is a book: The CGM Handbook by L.R. Henderson and A.M. Mumford, published by Academic Press in 1993.
This book is very complete and thorough and is highly recommended. The book covers the most recent version of the CGM (ISO/IEC 8632) published in 1992.
This "Graphcap files" section is oriented toward the user who is familiar with the operation and instruction set of the target computer graphics display device. Casual users will find that generating a graphcap from scratch is not an easy task. However, it is relatively easy to modify an existing graphcap to produce a different color table, change the frame finished prompt, modify the picture orientation, or select a different line type. This allows users to customize the translator to their own requirements without modifying program code.
Graphcaps are used to define device-specific commands. If the interface to a graphics output device is via subroutine calls, then one cannot utilize the graphcap concept. Instructions for implementing the C translator for devices with a software interface are not included in this document, but may appear in future editions. The ambitious installer may want to make the necessary changes to the translator code itself in order to implement the C translator on a device with a software interface.
In its original form, the graphcap consists of a set of keywords followed by the definition of that operation for a selected graphics device. Only those keywords needed for a given graphcap need appear in that graphcap. Usually, if the device does not support the option, the keyword is left out of the graphcap. If a keyword is present but not defined, it is equivalent to the keyword's not being present. In both of these cases, the default definition (if any) will be used. A keyword must be contained on one line; typically a keyword will appear on one line, and the definitions for that keyword will appear on subsequent lines. Complete descriptions of all graphcap keywords appear later in this section.
To create or modify a graphcap, use any text editor that does not insert any of its own control characters into the file.
If you are creating a graphcap from scratch, you first need to find out from your site installer (or the "NCAR Graphics UNIX Installer's Guide") where you can get the NCAR Graphics source. Then you can use the master form of a graphcap which is in a file called form.gc in the directory $NCARG/common/src/graphcap. This master file contains keywords for all currently supported graphcap functions.
There are four types of keyword definitions:
All keyword definitions may range from null to a maximum count specified by that keyword. Keyword definitions are allowed a maximum of 80 columns per line, but they may cross line boundaries. For separating keyword definition entries, a new line is equivalent to a space.
To understand and change the bundle class, refer to the GKS standard, in particular the description there of the workstation state list. The bundle class must be included and defined in every graphcap used. The blank graphcap form defines the bundle entries as required by GKS. A user may make nonstandard definitions by changing these entries. Comment any changes made to bundle entries, this will alert others to non-standard features in the graphcap.
When defining a new device, it may be easiest to start with an existing graphcap that is similar, and work from there. For example, many of the Tektronix emulators only require changes to the DEVICE_GRAPHIC_INIT and DEVICE_TEXT_INIT keyword definitions to operate properly.
As mentioned earlier, a blank form is included with the graphcap files; use this as a starting point for generating a new device table.
Keywords may be in any order, the groupings in subsequent sections are for description only.
When reading the next section, it is best to get a copy of a graphcap for a device you are familiar with and use it as an example of the keyword definitions.
Please see Appendix A for a list of all the available graphcaps in Version 4.x of NCAR Graphics.
Once the data are successfully packed, many devices require a second massaging prior to sending the packed data to the output device. Encodings take the bit stream created by the formatting process and convert to another bit stream, which is sent to the device. For example, the Tektronix 41xx terminal series requires that the bit stream from the formatting process be converted into a set of printable characters.
Many devices require that parameters be converted in these two steps. The present discussion explains the conversion process used for all keywords that contain "FORMAT" or "ENCODING" as a substring in the keyword.
The words in the input array are addressed as in Fortran---that is, the first element of the array is at position 1. The bits of the input words are addressed from right to left. The first bit of each element is at position 0 (this is the rightmost bit, values increase to the left).
The output stream is a string of bits; there is no regard for word boundaries. The stream is addressed from left to right. The first bit is at address 0.
Data are extracted from input words and inserted into the output stream according to the information given in a formatting table as described below. The table contains four entries per row. Each row defines a separate operation for extracting from an input word and inserting into the output stream. Each row contains a start_bit, bit_count, data_type, and data_value. All four entries must be defined for each row. All four entries in the row are integer values. Since several graphcaps depend on the word size of the host machine, it is legal to use one of two special symbols to denote integers in the format tables. These symbols are "W" to denote "the word size, in bits, of the host machine" and "W1" to denote W-1 (the word size minus 1).
The following example for the Tektronix 4010 coordinate formatting demonstrates how to construct a graphcap format table. Also, in the following sections of this document, all keywords related to formatting contain examples specific to their subject. In the following chart, each line describes an 8-bit byte, which is to be sent to the device. The letter P stands for parity, and the letters X and Y stand for the X and Y coordinates. The digit following X or Y is the bit being referred to in the coordinate as described for the input data indexing above. The 0s and 1s are required by those bit positions. This description is taken from a Tektronix Terminal Programmer's Manual.
--------------------------- P 0 1 Y9 Y8 Y7 Y6 Y5 P 1 1 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0 P 0 1 X9 X8 X7 X6 X5 P 1 0 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0 ---------------------------The graphcap table to describe this encoding is:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
DEVICE_COORD_FORMAT
/* bit_start bit_count data_type data_value
1 2 0 1
3 5 2 9
9 2 0 3
11 5 2 4
17 2 0 1
19 5 1 9
25 2 0 2
27 5 1 4
---------------------------------------------------------------------
More examples are provided in each FORMAT type keyword.
DEVICE_GRAPHIC_INIT
Description: Enter graphics mode. Sent at invocation of the translator, and at the beginning of each new frame when the DEVICE_BATCH keyword (see below) is set to FALSE.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 300 characters
DEVICE_TEXT_INIT
Description: Enter text (non-graphics) mode. Sent at termination of the translator.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 100 characters
DEVICE_BATCH
Description: Logical value indicating whether the translator sends the USER_PROMPT and waits for keyboard carriage return. This operation happens at completion of a picture. Batch devices may include laser printers and film devices. Non-batch devices may be graphics display terminals. Batch devices do not prompt for user intervention, they automatically proceed to the next frame.
Type: Logical
Default: FALSE, user intervention is required to advance pictures
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_ERASE
Description: String sent to the device when the display surface is to be cleared.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 150 characters
DEVICE_CURSOR_HOME
Description: String sent to the device when the cursor is to be positioned at the home position. The translator considers home as the upper left corner of the picture-drawing surface.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 50 characters
USER_PROMPT
Description: The string sent to the device indicating to the user that the picture on the display surface is finished. At this point, some device dependent action (usually a carriage return) is required to continue. This string is used only if DEVICE_BATCH is set FALSE. The prompt is typically displayed in graphics mode. On small single-page plotters you may want to terminate graphics mode in this string and then send the prompt. This has the effect of sending the prompt to the CRT connected to the plotter but not displaying it on the plotter.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 80 characters
For example, if your device has lower left X, Y at (0, 0) and upper right at (1000, 1000), you could draw the picture upside down by setting the lower left coordinates to (0, 1000) and the upper right coordinates to (1000, 0). The GKS standard (section 4.6.3) requires that the aspect ratio of the workstation viewport be the same as that of the workstation window. To implement this, the translator examines the device coordinate ranges as specified in the following keywords and chooses the largest square that can be displayed; it then centers this square on the output device and uses it as the workstation viewport (unless coordinate offsets are defined using the appropriate keywords below).
DEVICE_COORD_LOWER_LEFT_X
Description: The device X coordinate of the lower left corner of the drawing surface.
Type: Decimal
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_COORD_LOWER_LEFT_Y
Description: The device Y coordinate of the lower left corner of the drawing surface.
Type: Decimal
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_COORD_UPPER_RIGHT_X
Description: The device X coordinate of the upper right corner of the drawing surface.
Type: Decimal
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_COORD_UPPER_RIGHT_Y
Description: The device Y coordinate of the upper right corner of the drawing surface.
Type: Decimal
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_COORD_XOFFSET
Description: A device coordinate value added to X addresses before they are sent to the device. The translator attempts to center the plot based on the lower left, upper right values. When the coordinate space is asymmetric (X coordinate interval is not the same as the Y coordinate interval), offset values will help properly place the frame. Another use is to offset the frame to a specific side of the display.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_COORD_YOFFSET
Description: A device coordinate value added to Y addresses before they are sent to the device. See DEVICE_COORD_XOFFSET description.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_COORD_XSCALE
Description: In some cases, an X unit does not equal a Y unit. This keyword allows a scale factor to be introduced into the device coordinate computation stream. It will scale the X coordinates up or down by the specified amount.
Type: Floating point
Default: 1.0
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_COORD_YSCALE
Description: See the DEVICE_COORD_XSCALE description.
Type: Floating point
Default: 1.0
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_COORD_FORMAT
Description: The format used to convert device coordinates in the metafile to the format required by the output device. The input array to this format is a set of coordinate pairs. See the discussion of formatting in the Formatting and encoding coordinates section of this document. Two examples follow. They describe the required bit positions as P for parity, Xn for an X bit and Yn for a Y bit. The parity bit is not relevant to the encoding process, so those bits are skipped over in these examples. We use the AED512 7-bit binary encoding for the first example.
------------------------------- P X9 X8 X7 Y10 Y9 Y8 Y7 P X6 X5 X4 X3 X2 X1 X0 P Y6 Y5 Y4 Y3 Y2 Y1 Y0 -------------------------------The format table will appear as below:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
DEVICE_COORD_FORMAT
/* bit_start bit_count data_type data_value
1 3 1 9
4 4 2 10
9 7 1 6
17 7 2 6
--------------------------------------------------------------------
For the next example, we use the AED512 ASCII decimal encoding. This encoding uses a 16-bit address, and each coordinate is terminated by a blank. The X coordinate is first, followed by the Y coordinate.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
DEVICE_COORD_FORMAT
/* bit_start bit_count data_type data_value
0 16 1 15
0 8 -1 32
0 16 2 15
0 8 -1 32
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Type: Decimal rows with four elements per rowDefault: Null
Maximum number of entries: 120 (30 rows * 4 columns)
DEVICE_COORD_ENCODING
Description: The encoding scheme used for device coordinates. See the Formatting and encoding coordinates section of this document.
Type: Decimal in the range of 0 to 5
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_COORD_FLOATING_INFO
Description: The mapping from fixed point (integer) to output floating point. This option is used when the DEVICE_COORD_ENCODING is set to ascii real (5). The keyword requires four floating point numbers. The first two describe the minimum and maximum data values received by the encoder. The last two describe the minimum and maximum floating point values sent to the device.
Type: Floating point
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 4
DEVICE_VECTOR_COUNT_ENCODING
Description: The encoding scheme used for vector counts. See the section Formatting and encoding coordinates.
Type: Decimal in the range of 0 to 5
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_VECTOR_COUNT_FLOATING_INFO
Description: The mapping from fixed point (integer) to output format floating point. This option is used when the DEVICE_VECTOR_COUNT_ENCODING is set to ascii real (5). The keyword requires four floating point numbers. The first two describe the minimum and maximum data values received by the encoder. The last two describe the minimum and maximum floating point values sent to the device.
Type: Floating point
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 4
DEVICE_VECTOR_COUNT_FORMAT
Description: The format used to convert vector count data from the CGM to the format required by the output device. This formatter will receive only one input data word. See the section Formatting and encoding coordinates.
The following example encodes a 7-bit vector count. The index is right-justified in the vector count parameter passed into the formatter. The P represents parity bit, and V followed by a digit is a bit out of the vector count. Parity is not relevant and is skipped over. We are using the binary encoding scheme.
----------------------------- P V6 V5 V4 V3 V2 V1 V0 -----------------------------This format would be set up as follows:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEVICE_VECTOR_COUNT_FORMAT
/* bit_start bit_count data_type data_value
1 7 1 6
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type: Decimal rows with four elements per rowDefault: Null
Maximum number of entries: 32 (8 rows * 4 columns)
DEVICE_COLOR_AVAILABLE
Description: Flag to indicate the availability of color on a device. If the device color is TRUE then the DEVICE_MAP_INDEX_RANGE_DEFINED keyword must be defined in the graphcap. If the device has multiple monochrome intensities, then this keyword should be defined as TRUE. If DEVICE_MAP_AVAILABLE is TRUE (see below) and DEVICE_MAP_MODEL is 0 (monochrome---see below), then RGB triples are mapped to monochrome intensities by the formula Y = 0.3*R + 0.6*G + 0.1*B as per the CGM Standard (p. 126).
Type: Logical
Default: FALSE, no color on the device
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_COLOR_INDEX_ENCODING
Description: The encoding scheme used for color indices. See the section Formatting and encoding coordinates.
Type: Decimal in the range of 0 to 5
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_COLOR_INDEX_FORMAT
Description: The format used to convert color indices in the CGM to the format required by the output device. The formatter will receive only one input data word. See the section Formatting and encoding coordinates.
The following example uses a 4-bit color index (0 to 15 decimal). The P represents parity bit; 0s (zeros) and 1s represent themselves and c followed by a digit is a bit out of the color index. Parity is not relevant and is skipped over. We are using the binary encoding scheme.
-------------------------- P 0 1 1 c3 c2 c1 c0 --------------------------This format would be set up as follows:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEVICE_COLOR_INDEX_FORMAT
/* bit_start bit_count data_type data_value
1 3 0 3
4 4 1 3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type: Decimal rows with four elements per rowDefault: Null
Maximum number of entries: 60 (15 rows * 4 columns)
DEVICE_COLOR_INDEX_FLOATING_INFO
Description: The mapping from fixed point (integer) to output format floating point. This option is used when the DEVICE_COLOR_INDEX_ENCODING is set to ascii real (5). The keyword requires four floating point numbers. The first two describe the minimum and maximum data values received by the encoder. The last two describe the minimum and maximum floating point values sent to the device.
Type: Floating point
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 4
DEVICE_MAP_AVAILABLE
Description: A flag indicating the availability of a user-settable color/intensity map.
Type: Logical
Default: FALSE, no user-settable map available
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_MAP_INDEX_RANGE_MAX
Description: The size of the user-settable color/intensity map. If the map has 256 entries (0 to 255), then use 256.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_MAP_INDEX_RANGE_DEFINED
Description: The range of colors defined by the default settings. If the device has entries 0 to 7 defined, then use 8. This keyword must be defined if the device has color capability, even if the color map is not settable.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_MAP_INTENSITY_ENCODING
Description: The encoding scheme used for intensity settings. See the section Formatting and encoding coordinates.
Type: Decimal in the range of 0 to 5
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_MAP_INTENSITY_FLOATING_INFO
Description: The mapping from fixed point (integer) to output format floating point. This option is used when the DEVICE_MAP_INTENSITY_ENCODING is set to ascii real (5). The keyword requires four floating point numbers. The first two describe the minimum and maximum data values received by the encoder. The last two describe the minimum and maximum floating point values sent to the device.
Type: Floating point
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 4
DEVICE_MAP_INTENSITY_FORMAT
Description: The format used to convert the color/intensity values in the CGM to the format required by the output device. This formatter expects sets of three input data words if in a full-color mode and single input data words if in a monochrome mode. Observe the setting of the DEVICE_MAP_MODEL keyword for the mode used by this formatter. See the section Formatting and encoding coordinates.
For the following example, assume an RGB color model with 100 map entries. The formatter will have 300 words passed to it (three per entry). The device uses eight bits per intensity. We are using a binary encoding for this example.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEVICE_MAP_INTENSITY_FORMAT
/* bit_start bit_count data_type data_value
0 8 1 7
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
All the intensity settings are treated the same, so we only need one entry in the table to format all 300 settings.The next example also has 100 RGB map entries. The device uses an ASCII decimal encoding. Red and green are separated by a blank. Green and blue are separated by a period. Green and the red of the next entry are separated by a colon.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DEVICE_MAP_INTENSITY_FORMAT
/* bit_start bit_count data_type data_value
0 8 1 7
0 8 -1 32
0 8 2 7
0 8 -1 46
0 8 3 7
0 8 -1 58
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type: Decimal rows with four entries per rowDefault: Null
Maximum number of entries: 200 (50 rows * 4 entries per row)
DEVICE_MAP_INDIVIDUAL
Description: A flag that indicates a DEVICE_MAP_INSTRUCTION_START and a DEVICE_MAP_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR needs to be sent for each entry. If the flag indicates no need, the DEVICE_MAP_INSTRUCTION_START and DEVICE_MAP_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR are sent only once for map intensity streaming.
Type: Logical
Default: FALSE, DEVICE_MAP_INSTRUCTION_START and DEVICE_MAP_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR are sent only once for map intensity streaming
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_MAP_INSTRUCTION_START
Description: The string sent to the device to enable it to receive a new intensity map definition. The MAD string parameter is used in this string if map addresses are required by the device instruction.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 50
DEVICE_MAP_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR
Description: Terminate the color map instruction.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 20 characters
DEVICE_MAP_INIT
Description: The intensity map used for initialization of the device prior to display of each picture. These data are relative to the device model selected via the DEVICE_MAP_MODEL and are given in device-dependent intensity values.
When the encoding is ASCII real (value 5), then the values given here must be integers in the range of the first two values of the DEVICE_MAP_FLOATING_INFO. The map intensities are mapped to the floating values when sent to the encoding process. This is necessary because this keyword allows only decimal input.
Type: Decimal
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 768 (256 * 3)
DEVICE_MAP_MODEL
Description: This keyword defines the type of intensity model used by the device. There are four types included in the translator.
This model is used on monochrome devices (one color) that have variable intensities. A good example is a black and white film device such as the Dicomed COM devices.
Red, green, blue, a popular model on color devices. Intensities are given as triples.
Blue, Green, red. Not common, but used on some Ramtek color devices.
The Hue, Lightness, and Saturation model, which is easier for most users to work with than RGB. This model is used by Tektronix color devices.
Type: Decimal in the range of 0 (zero) to 3
Default: 1 (RGB)
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_WINDOW_LOWER_LEFT_X
Description: The X coordinate of the lower left corner of the window in the range 0 to 32767.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_WINDOW_LOWER_LEFT_Y
Description: The Y coordinate of the lower left corner of the window in the range 0 to 32767.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_WINDOW_UPPER_RIGHT_X
Description: The X coordinate of the upper right corner of the window in the range 0 to 32767.
Type: Decimal
Default: 32767
Maximum number of entries: 1
DEVICE_WINDOW_UPPER_RIGHT_Y
Description: The Y coordinate of the upper right corner of the window in the range 0 to 32767.
Type: Decimal
Default: 32767
Maximum number of entries: 1
LINE_DRAW_POLY_FLAG
Description: Some devices support polylines, which are distinguished by the polyline instruction start, followed by the coordinates for the entire line. Other devices do not support polyline, which requires that each coordinate pair be accompanied by an instruction, whether it is a move or draw.
This flag indicates the availability, or lack of availability, of a polyline instruction on the device.
When a polyline instruction is available, the LINE_DRAW_INSTRUCTION_START initiates the polyline and the LINE_DRAW_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR ends the polyline.
When there is no polyline on the device, the MOVE set is used for moving and the DRAW set is used for drawing.
Type: Logical
Default: FALSE, no polyline available on the device
Maximum number of entries: 1
LINE_DRAW_INSTRUCTION_START
Description: The instruction that produces a line on the display surface. If the device has polylines, then this instruction is sent at the start of a polyline.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 30
LINE_DRAW_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR
Description: Terminate the draw instruction. This is also used to terminate the polyline instruction.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 15
LINE_POINT_START
Description: Specifies the instruction to be issued prior to the encoding of each coordinate pair when LINE_DRAW_POLY_FLAG is TRUE.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 20
LINE_POINT_TERMINATOR
Description: Specifies the instruction to be issued subsequent to the encoding of each coordinate pair when LINE_DRAW_POLY_FLAG is TRUE.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 20
LINE_MOVE_INSTRUCTION_START
Description: Move the device graphics cursor. This string is not used when the device has polylines.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 30
LINE_MOVE_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR
Description: Terminate the move instruction. This string is not used if the device has polylines.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 15
DASH_BIT_LENGTH
Description: The number of VDC (virtual device coordinate) units used for each bit of a software dash line pattern. This dash pattern is defined in the CGM or by the bundle tables. Modifying this allows all devices to generate a similar-sized dash. The default dash patterns are located in the translator source file BLOCKDATA TRNDAT, which is a BLOCKDATA routine. If you select GKS line indices 1-4, you will get one of these dash patterns.
Type: Decimal
Default: 100; there are 100 VDC units per dash-pattern bit
Maximum number of entries: 1
LINE_COLOR_INSTRUCTION_START
Description: The instruction to change the line color. A color index is sent after this string.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 30
LINE_COLOR_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR
Description: Terminate the line color instruction.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 15
LINE_BACKGROUND_COLOR_INSTRUCTION_START
Description: The instruction to change line color when the background color is being used. This is provided for support of those few devices that require special instructions for drawing in the background color.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 30
LINE_BACKGROUND_COLOR_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR
Description: Terminate the line color instruction when using the background color.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 15
DCWDTH = new_scale_value * 8. * LWTSCF
where DCWDTH is type INTEGER and all other values are floating point. In this equation, "new_scale_value" is the floating-point value received from the CGM LINE WIDTH element, and LWTSCF is the value given by the LINE_WIDTH_SCALE graphcap entry (1.0 by default). Now, after computing DCWDTH, the computed value is compared with the values provided by the LINE_WIDTH_RANGE graphcap entry. If the computed value is less than the smaller range value, then DCWDTH is set to the smaller range value; if the computed value is greater than the larger range value, then DCWDTH is set to the larger range value. In the default case, the interpretation of a LINE WIDTH value of 1.0 would yield a computed device-specific line width of 8.LINE_WIDTH_INSTRUCTION_START
Description: Change the line width on the display surface.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 30
LINE_WIDTH_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR
Description: Terminate the line width instruction.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 15
LINE_WIDTH_ENCODING
Description: The encoding scheme used for line width values. See the section Formatting and encoding coordinates.
Type: Decimal in the range of 0 to 5
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
LINE_WIDTH_FLOATING_INFO
Description: The mapping from fixed point (integer) to output format floating point. This option is used when the LINE_WIDTH_ENCODING is set to ascii real (5). The keyword requires four floating point numbers. The first two describe the minimum and maximum data values received by the encoder. The last two describe the minimum and maximum floating point values sent to the device.
Type: Floating point
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 4
LINE_WIDTH_FORMAT
Description: The format used to convert line widths in the CGM to a format recognized by the output device. The formatter will receive one input data word.
In the following example, a 16-bit binary line width is being sent to the device.
------------------------------------------------------------------
LINE_WIDTH_FORMAT
/* bit_start bit_count data_type data_value
0 16 1 15
------------------------------------------------------------------
Type: Decimal rows with four entries per rowDefault: Null
Maximum number of entries: 32 (8 rows * 4 entries per row)
LINE_WIDTH_RANGE
Description: Two values giving the smallest and largest widths available in device units. Required if the LINE_WIDTH_INSTRUCTION_START is defined.
Type: Decimal
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 2 (always required if this keyword is defined)
LINE_WIDTH_SCALE
Description: A scale factor applied to the default line width setting for the device.
Type: Floating point
Default: 1.0
Maximum number of entries: 1
MARKER_DOT_SIZE
Description: This keyword controls the default size of the dot marker (marker number 1) when the markers are stroked in software. This keyword specifies whether "fat" dots should be drawn. A value of 0 means "draw the dot marker at the smallest possible size;" a value of 1 means draw a "fat" dot. Some devices require that a pen move be executed before drawing a line, and on those devices a simple dot will not be produced by doing a pen-up/pen-down sequence to the same coordinate. For such devices it is necessary to draw a small box for a dot (which we call a "fat" dot). Also, many laser printers draw extremely faint dots at the default size, so producing fat dots on such devices is appropriate. Since it takes four line draws to draw a fat dot, drawing time for fat dots is proportionally longer.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0
Maximum number of entries: 1
The graphcap preprocessor also recognizes and parses the four keywords:
MARKER_COLOR_INSTRUCTION_START
Description: Change the marker color.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 30
MARKER_COLOR_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR
Description: Terminate the color instruction.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 15
The translator internally generates stroke sequences for all graphical text based on the supplied fontcap file(s). All text attributes (size, scale factor, path, expansion factor, and so on) are applied before the characters are drawn. The translator uses the line-drawing routines to draw the characters.
The translator does not take advantage of hardware characters.
In its current state, the graphcap preprocessor parses the following keywords and their values are passed to the translator, but the translator does not respond to them:
BUNDLE_LINE_INDEX
Description: Define the indices for the LINE bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 2 3 4 5
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_LINE_TYPE
Description: Define the line types for the LINE bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 2 3 4 5
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_LINE_WIDTH
Description: Define the line width scale factors for the LINE bundle tables.
Type: Floating point
Default: 1. 1. 1. 1. 1.
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_LINE_COLOR
Description: Define the line color indices for the LINE bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 2 3 4 5
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_MARKER_INDEX
Description: Define the indices for the MARKER bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 2 3 4 5
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_MARKER_TYPE
Description: Define the marker types for the MARKER bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 2 3 4 5
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_MARKER_SIZE
Description: Define the marker size scale factors for the MARKER bundle tables.
Type: Floating point
Default: 1. 1. 1. 1. 1.
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_MARKER_COLOR
Description: Define the marker color indices for the MARKER bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 2 3 4 5
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_POLYGON_INDEX
Description: Define the indices for the FILL AREA bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 2 3 4 5
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_POLYGON_INTERIOR
Description: Define the fill area interior styles for the FILL AREA bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0 0 0 0 0 (hollow)
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_POLYGON_STYLE
Description: Define the style indices for the FILL AREA bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0 0 0 0 0
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_POLYGON_COLOR
Description: Define the color indices for the FILL AREA bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 2 3 4 5
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_TEXT_INDEX
Description: Define the indices for the TEXT bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 2 3 4 5
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_TEXT_FONT
Description: Define the text fonts for the TEXT bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 1 1 1 1
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_TEXT_PRECISION
Description: Define the text precisions for the TEXT bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 1 1 1 1 (character precision)
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_TEXT_CEXPN
Description: Define the character expansion factors for the TEXT bundle tables.
Type: Floating point
Default: 1.0 0.6 0.8 1.2 1.4
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_TEXT_CSPACE
Description: Define the character spacings for the TEXT bundle tables.
Type: Floating point
Default: 0. 0. 0. 0. 0.
Maximum number of entries: 5
BUNDLE_TEXT_COLOR
Description: Define the color indices for the TEXT bundle tables.
Type: Decimal
Default: 1 2 3 4 5
Maximum number of entries: 5
POLYGON_INSTRUCTION_START
Description: If the device has a polygon instruction, then this field is defined. If the field is not defined, then line instructions are used to generate the outline of the polygon and fill style is hollow.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 40
POLYGON_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR
Description: Terminator for the hardware polygon instruction.
Type: ASCII characters
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 20
POLYGON_POINT_START
Description: Specifies the instruction to be issued prior to the encoding of each coordinate pair.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 20
POLYGON_POINT_TERMINATOR
Description: Specifies the instruction to be issued subsequent to the encoding of each coordinate pair.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 20
POLYGON_COLOR_INSTRUCTION_START
Description: The instruction to change polygon color.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 20
POLYGON_COLOR_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR
Description: Terminate the polygon color instruction.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 15
POLYGON_BACKGROUND_COLOR_INSTRUCTION_START
Description: The instruction to change the polygon color when using the background color. This is provided for those few devices that require special instructions for filling when using the background color.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 30
POLYGON_BACKGROUND_COLOR_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR
Description: Terminate the polygon color instruction when using the background color.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 15
POLYGON_MAXIMUM_POINTS
Description: Specifies the maximum number of points allowed in a hardware polygon instruction.
Type: Decimal
Default: 32767
Maximum number of entries: 1
POLYGON_SIMULATE
Description: Specifies whether a software polygon fill algorithm should be invoked by the translator. If this keyword is set to TRUE, then the fill algorithm will be invoked whenever the device has no hardware fill instruction, or when the number of vertices in the polygon exceeds POLYGON_MAXIMUM_POINTS.
Type: Logical
Default: TRUE
Maximum number of entries: 1
POLYGON_SIMULATION_SPACING
Description: This keyword specifies the interline spacing between fill lines for the software fill algorithm used in the translator. The number is in the range 0 to 32767. The software fill algorithm is invoked whenever POLYGON_SIMULATION_FLAG is TRUE and either there is no hardware fill instruction, or there is a hardware fill instruction but the number of vertices in the polygon exceeds POLYGON_MAXIMUM_POINTS.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0.9 * (32767. / ABS(DEVICE_COORD_UPPER_RIGHT_Y - DEVICE_COORD_LOWER_LEFT_Y)) [Truncated to decimal type.]
Maximum number of entries: 1
POLYGON_SIMULATION_TRUNCATION
Description: Specifies the length to be clipped off of fill lines in the software fill simulation. The number is in the range 0 to 32767. This keyword is potentially useful for film devices which show bright spots at line overlaps.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0
Maximum number of entries: 1
POLYGON_HATCH_SPACING
Description: This keyword specifies the interline spacing between fill lines for the hatch line patterns in polygon instructions when the interior style is hatch. The number is in the range 0 to 32767.
Type: Decimal
Default: 300
Maximum number of entries: 1
The cell array can be drawn in any orientation or transposition by properly changing the lower left and upper right coordinates and perhaps interchanging the order of coordinate processing as defined in the RASTER_DATA_FORMAT. For example, if your device has lower left at (0, 0), and upper right at (1000, 1000), then you could draw the cell array upside down by setting the lower left coordinates at (0, 1000) and the upper right coordinates at (1000, 0).
Since cell arrays are subject to all of the coordinate transformations of GKS, it is possible that the cell array will not align with the coordinate axes. In this case, the translator will behave as if RASTER_SIMULATE were set to TRUE (that is, polygon fill will be used to create the cell array elements). A full implementation using raster scan lines for transformed cell arrays will appear in a later version of the translator. Also, the current translator is limited to accepting only horizontal scan line instructions. If an output device scans in the vertical direction, it will be necessary to set RASTER_SIMULATE to TRUE in the current version of the translator.
In this section, all coordinate addresses are assumed to be in the device's address space that allows for addressing individual pixels.
RASTER_SIMULATE
Description: If RASTER_SIMULATE is set to FALSE, then the translator will draw a rectangle around the cell array and nothing more. If an output device does not support scan line instructions, it can simulate cell arrays using polygon fill. If RASTER_SIMULATE is set to TRUE, polygon fill is used to draw each element of the cell array; if the device does not support polygon fill, then a rectangle will be drawn around each element of the cell array.
Note in particular that if RASTER_SIMULATE is set to TRUE, then any other RASTER keywords will be ignored, and polygon fill will be used.
Type: Logical
Default: FALSE (do not simulate scan line instructions)
Maximum number of entries: 1
RASTER_COORD_LOWER_LEFT_X
Description: The device X coordinate of the lower left corner of the drawing surface.
Type: Decimal
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 1
RASTER_COORD_LOWER_LEFT_Y
Description: The device Y coordinate of the lower left corner of the drawing surface.
Type: Decimal
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 1
RASTER_COORD_UPPER_RIGHT_X
Description: The device X coordinate of the upper right corner of the drawing surface.
Type: Decimal
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 1
RASTER_COORD_UPPER_RIGHT_Y
Description: The device Y coordinate of the upper right corner of the drawing surface.
Type: Decimal
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 1
RASTER_COORD_XOFFSET
Description: A device coordinate value added to X addresses before they are sent to the device. The translator attempts to center the plot based on the lower left and upper right values. When the coordinate space is asymmetric (X coordinate interval is not the same as the Y coordinate interval), offset values will help to place the frame properly. Another use of offset values is to move the display to a particular part of the display surface.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
RASTER_COORD_YOFFSET
Description: A device coordinate value added to Y addresses before they are sent to the device. See the description of RASTER_COORD_XOFFSET above.
Type: Decimal
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
RASTER_COORD_XSCALE
Description: In some cases an X coordinate unit does not equal a Y coordinate unit. This keyword allows a scale factor to be introduced into the device coordinate computation stream. It will scale the X coordinates by the specified factor.
Type: Floating point
Default: 1.0
Maximum number of entries: 1
RASTER_COORD_YSCALE
Description: In some cases a Y coordinate unit does not equal an X coordinate unit. This keyword allows a scale factor to be introduced into the device coordinate computation stream. It will scale the Y coordinates by the specified factor.
Type: Floating point
Default: 1.0
Maximum number of entries: 1
RASTER_DATA_FORMAT
Description: This specifies the format used to convert the pixel color index values into device-specific pixel instructions. The input array to this format is a string of pixel color index values. Depending on the RASTER_HORIZONTAL_INSTRUCTION_START definition, the input array may contain a color index for every pixel, or it may be run-length encoded (an array containing pairs of values, the first element of the pair specifying a run length that is a count specifying a number of pixels, and the second element specifying a color index). Consult the Formatting and encoding coordinates section of this document.
In the example that follows, we describe the formatting required for the Tektronix 4107 for producing a RUNLENGTH WRITE instruction. The formatter receives an array of run-length encoded pixel values. The first value is the pixel count, and the second is the color index. Each set of run-length values must be formatted such that:
RUNCODE = number_of_pixels * (2 exp(n)) + color_index
where n is the number of bits per pixel used to specify the color index. In the following example, we use n=4, which allows the full 16 colors to be specified. The desired format table is:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
RASTER_DATA_FORMAT
/* bit_start bit_count data_type data_value
1 11 1 10
12 4 2 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Type: Decimal rows with four elements per rowDefault: Null
Maximum number of entries: 40 (10 rows * 4 columns)
RASTER_DATA_ENCODING
Description: The encoding scheme used for the device raster data. See the section Formatting and encoding coordinates.
Type: Decimal in the range 0 to 5
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
RASTER_DATA_FLOATING_INFO
Description: The mapping from fixed point (integer) to output floating point. This keyword is utilized when the RASTER_DATA_ENCODING is set to ASCII real (5). The keyword requires four floating point numbers. The first two describe the minimum and maximum data values received by the encoder. The final two describe the minimum and maximum floating point values sent to the device.
Type: Floating point
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 4
RASTER_VECTOR_COUNT_FORMAT
Description: The format used to create the device-specific raster vector counts. The formatter will receive only one input data word. The following example encodes a 16-bit data count:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
RASTER_VECTOR_COUNT_FORMAT
/* bit_start bit_count data_type data_value
0 16 1 15
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type: Decimal rows with four elements per rowDefault: Null
Maximum number of entries: 40 (ten rows with four elements per row)
RASTER_VECTOR_COUNT_ENCODING
Description: The encoding scheme used for the device raster data. See the section Formatting and encoding coordinates.
Type: Decimal in the range 0 to 5
Default: 0 (zero)
Maximum number of entries: 1
RASTER_VECTOR_COUNT_FLOATING_INFO
Description: The mapping from fixed point (integer) to output floating point. This keyword is utilized when the RASTER_VECTOR_COUNT_ENCODING is set to ascii real (5). The keyword requires four floating point numbers. The first two describe the minimum and maximum data values received by the encoder. The final two describe the minimum and maximum floating point values sent to the device.
Type: Floating point
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 4
RASTER_HORIZONTAL_INSTRUCTION_START
Description: Defined if the output device has scan line commands; RASTER_SIMULATE must be FALSE to invoke the device raster scan commands.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 50 characters
RASTER_HORIZONTAL_INSTRUCTION_TERMINATOR
Description: Defined if the output device has scan line commands; RASTER_SIMULATE must be FALSE to invoke the device raster scan commands.
Type: String
Default: Null
Maximum number of entries: 50 characters
In its ASCII form, the fontcap consists of a set of keywords followed by definitions for those keywords. A keyword must be contained on one line; typically a keyword will appear on one line, and the definitions for that keyword will appear on subsequent lines. Complete descriptions of all fontcap keywords appear later in this section.
To create or modify a fontcap, use any text editor that does not insert any of its own control characters into the file.
Definitions of fontcap keyword values are decimal (integer) values. All value definitions may range from null to the maximum count specified by the associated keyword. Keyword definitions are allowed a maximum of 80 columns per line, but they may cross line boundaries. A new line is equivalent to a space for separating definition entries.
Character digitizations are effected on a digitized grid. The size of this grid will depend on what the implementor of the font wants to use. The FONT CLASS keywords (described below) establish the digitization grid. Units in this grid are referred to as font units.
Important notes: Keywords in the fontcap must appear in the order they are described in this section. There are no default definitions. All keywords must be defined unless explicitly stated otherwise.
CHARACTER_START
Description: The decimal equivalent of the first character in the collating sequence.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
CHARACTER_END
Description: The decimal equivalent of the last character in the collating sequence.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
CHARACTER_WIDTH
Description: For mono-spaced fonts (see the definition of the FONT_TYPE keyword below), this is the width of each character in the font, including white space. For proportionally spaced fonts, this is the width of the widest character, including white space. All widths are measure in font units.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
FONT_RIGHT
Description: The right side of the font coordinate system.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
FONT_TOP
Description: The vertical top of the font coordinate system. In general, this value should be chosen so that abutting two characters vertically will allow appropriate white space between them.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
FONT_CAP
Description: The vertical top of a capital letter given in the font coordinate system.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
FONT_HALF
Description: The center, in the vertical direction, of a capital letter in the font coordinate system.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
FONT_BASE
Description: The vertical base of a capital letter in the font coordinate system.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
FONT_BOTTOM
Description: The vertical bottom of the font coordinate system. Descenders drop down to this level.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
FONT_TYPE
Description: Flags the font type. Currently there are four legal types:
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
COORD_X_START
Description: The starting point for storage of the X coordinate of a stroke.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
COORD_Y_START
Description: The starting point for storage of the Y coordinate of a stroke.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
COORD_PEN_START
Description: The starting point for storage of the pen up/down indicator.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
COORD_X_LEN
Description: The number of bits in the X coordinate.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
COORD_Y_LEN
Description: The number of bits in the Y coordinate.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
COORD_PEN_LEN
Description: The number of bits in the pen indicator.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
PAINT_BEGIN_START
Description: The starting point for storage of the paint begin indicator.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
PAINT_END_START
Description: The starting point for storage of the paint end indicator.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
PAINT_BEGIN_LEN
Description: The number of bits in the paint begin indicator.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
PAINT_END_LEN
Description: The number of bits in the paint end indicator.
Type: Decimal
Maximum number of entries: 1
CHAR
Description: This keyword defines the strokes (for FONT_TYPEs equal to 0 or 1), or polygons (for FONT_TYPEs equal to 2 or 3) for each character in the font. Each character must be in its proper position in the collating sequence and must be preceded by a CHAR keyword. The definition of a character will differ depending on the FONT_TYPE. If the font is proportionally spaced, then the first two entries in the CHAR value define the character left and character right values which define the horizontal limits of the character body. For proportionally spaced fonts, these character left and character right values should be defined so that two horizontally contiguous characters will have the appropriate white space between them. For filled fonts, the "paint start" and "paint end" values have no meaning and consequently should not be specified. Examining some example fonts in the package should help clarify the definition of the CHAR values. The PEN value flags a move or draw for stroked fonts, and flags begin polygon or continue polygon for filled fonts.
A single data item in a CHAR value will have five components (only the first three for filled fonts).
----------------------------------------------------
CHAR
/* #
/* x_coord y_coord pen paint_st paint_ed
7 33 0 0 0
5 18 1 1 1
12 18 0 0 0
14 33 1 1 1
18 29 0 0 0
3 29 1 1 1
1 22 0 0 0
16 22 1 1 1
----------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAR
/* A
/* character left character right
122 132
/* x_coord y_coord pen paint_st paint_ed
127 132 0 0 0
123 123 1 1 1
127 132 0 0 0
131 123 1 1 1
125 126 0 0 0
129 126 1 1 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Type: DecimalMaximum number of entries:
---------------------------------------------------------- GKS font Font name number 1 DEFAULT -2 HERSHEY:CARTOGRAPHIC_ROMAN -3 HERSHEY:CARTOGRAPHIC_GREEK -4 HERSHEY:SIMPLEX_ROMAN -5 HERSHEY:SIMPLEX_GREEK -6 HERSHEY:SIMPLEX_SCRIPT -7 HERSHEY:COMPLEX_ROMAN -8 HERSHEY:COMPLEX_GREEK -9 HERSHEY:COMPLEX_SCRIPT -10 HERSHEY:COMPLEX_ITALIC -11 HERSHEY:COMPLEX_CYRILLIC -12 HERSHEY:DUPLEX_ROMAN -13 HERSHEY:TRIPLEX_ROMAN -14 HERSHEY:TRIPLEX_ITALIC -15 HERSHEY:GOTHIC_GERMAN -16 HERSHEY:GOTHIC_ENGLISH -17 HERSHEY:GOTHIC_ITALIAN -18 HERSHEY:MATH_SYMBOLS -19 HERSHEY:SYMBOL_SET1 -20 HERSHEY:SYMBOL_SET2 -21 NCAR:HELVETICA (filled font for Plotchar) -22 NCAR:HELVETICA-BOLD (filled font for Plotchar) -25 NCAR:TIMES-ROMAN (filled font for Plotchar) -26 NCAR:TIMES-BOLD (filled font for Plotchar) -29 NCAR:COURIER (filled font for Plotchar) -30 NCAR:COURIER-BOLD (filled font for Plotchar) -33 NCAR:GREEK (filled font for Plotchar) -34 NCAR:MATH-SYMBOLS (filled font for Plotchar) -35 NCAR:TEXT-SYMBOLS (filled font for Plotchar) -36 NCAR:WEATHER1 (filled font for Plotchar) -37 NCAR:WEATHER2 (filled font for Plotchar) ----------------------------------------------------------
The elements of the NCAR metafile comprise a proper subset of the elements of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) CGM standard, as described in the document:
Experimentation at NCAR has indicated that fixed-length records have great portability advantages when the files will potentially be used on diverse computer systems. It is advantageous to specify the record length as an integral number that is divisible by the word lengths of as many computers as possible. A value of 11520 bits, or 1440 8-bit bytes, serves as a reasonable compromise between the requirements and capabilities of a range of systems from microcomputers to supercomputers. This value was previously used in the record structure of the old (pre-CGM) NCAR metacode.
The NCAR implementation of the CGM allows non-CGM records to be mixed with CGM records on certain occasions. To flag CGM or non-CGM records, a 4-byte control field is reserved at the beginning of each record. The first 16 bits of this control field is a data count that indicates the number of bytes in the remainder of the record that actually contain useful data (this count does not include the first four bytes, so the largest legal value it can have is 1436 decimal). The next four bits in the control field comprise the datatype identifier field. Currently defined datatypes include header (0100 binary), NCAR-formatted printer (1000 binary), pre-CGM NCAR metacode (0010 binary), and NCAR CGM (0011 binary).
The single bit following the 4-bit datatype identifier is used as a "new-frame bit." When the new-frame bit is set, the data record in which it is contained is the first record of a new picture. This formatting feature does not prompt any graphical action; it is the BEGIN PICTURE and END PICTURE instructions of the CGM standard that identify the boundaries of the graphical contents of a picture. You will find the new-frame bit very useful for non-interpretive processing software such as metafile editors that extract whole frames from metafiles, split metafiles, and concatenate metafiles.
The new-frame bit as defined above was also defined for the pre-CGM NCAR metacode. The two bits following the new-frame bit are now defined for the new NCAR CGM only. The first of the newly defined bits is the "begin metafile" bit, which marks the first record of a metafile and hence the record containing the metafile descriptor. The bit that follows the "begin metafile" bit is the "end metafile" bit, which declares that the record is the last record of a metafile and that it contains an END METAFILE instruction. These two bits allow multiple metafiles to reside on a single physical medium, and to be easily recognized by non-interpretative processors such as editors.
The control bits are summarized in their order as follows:
Although instructions may cross record boundaries, an individual operand component such as a coordinate or a color index may not be split across record boundaries. The 16-bit alignment requirement in the CGM standard makes it impossible to split operand components across record boundaries, since the default precision value of the metafile is 16 bits. This default value applies to coordinate precision, color index precision, and so on. Splitting operand components across record boundaries would be possible if precision were increased beyond 16 bits. All instructions start on 16-bit boundaries.
The CGM defines a metafile descriptor that contains no pictorial information, but includes descriptive information that aids in interpreting the metafile. The NCAR metafile descriptor consists of one or more fixed-length data records that look like any other metafile data records. There is only one metafile descriptor, and it occurs at the beginning of the metafile. The new-frame bit of the 32-bit control field is set to zero in metafile descriptor records. The metafile descriptor in the NCAR CGM is that sequence of contiguous records at the beginning of the metafile up to (but not including) the first record with the new-frame bit set.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class Supported Elements Unsupported Elements
0 no-op
BEGIN METAFILE (1)
END METAFILE
BEGIN PICTURE
BEGIN PICTURE BODY
END PICTURE
1 METAFILE VERSION COLOR VALUE EXTENT
METAFILE DESCRIPTION CHARACTER SET LIST
VDC TYPE (2) CHARACTER CODING
INTEGER PRECISION ANNOUNCER
REAL PRECISION
INDEX PRECISION
COLOR PRECISION (3)
COLOR INDEX PRECISION (3)
MAXIMUM COLOR INDEX
METAFILE ELEMENT LIST
METAFILE DEFAULTS
REPLACEMENT
FONT LIST
2 COLOR SELECTION MODE (4) SCALING MODE
LINE WIDTH SPECIFICATION EDGE WIDTH SPECIFICATION
MODE (5) MODE
MARKER SIZE SPECIFICATION
MODE (5)
VDC EXTENT
BACKGROUND COLOR
3 VDC INTEGER PRECISION AUXILIARY COLOR
VDC REAL PRECISION TRANSPARENCY
CLIP RECTANGLE
CLIP INDICATOR
(1) Only a single metafile may be contained in a single output
medium.
(2) Only the integer type is supported.
(3) Only 8-bit precision is supported
(4) Only indexed mode is supported.
(5) Only scaled mode is supported.
4 POLYLINE RESTRICTED TEXT
DISJOINT POLYLINE APPEND TEXT
POLYMARKER POLYGON SET
POLYGON RECTANGLE
TEXT CIRCLE
CELL ARRAY CIRCULAR ARC 3 POINT
CIRCULAR ARC 3 POINT CLOSE
CIRCULAR ARC CENTER
CIRCULAR ARC CENTER CLOSE
ELLIPSE
ELLIPTICAL ARC
ELLIPTICAL ARC CLOSE
5 LINE TYPE LINE BUNDLE INDEX
LINE WIDTH MARKER BUNDLE INDEX
LINE COLOR TEXT BUNDLE INDEX
MARKER TYPE CHARACTER SET INDEX
MARKER SIZE ALTERNATE CHARACTER SET
MARKER COLOR INDEX
TEXT FONT INDEX FILL BUNDLE INDEX
TEXT PRECISION PATTERN INDEX
CHARACTER EXPANSION EDGE BUNDLE INDEX
FACTOR EDGE TYPE
CHARACTER SPACING EDGE WIDTH
TEXT COLOR EDGE COLOR
CHARACTER HEIGHT EDGE VISIBILITY
CHARACTER ORIENTATION FILL REFERENCE POINT
TEXT PATH PATTERN TABLE
TEXT ALIGNMENT PATTERN SIZE
INTERIOR STYLE ASPECT SOURCE FLAGS
FILL COLOR
HATCH INDEX
COLOR TABLE
6 ESCAPE
7 MESSAGE
APPLICATION DATA
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CTXT Produces a human-readable ASCII dump of the input.
a60 Abekas a60 raster image format.
adm5 ADM5 with the DEC RG1500 graphics board.
aed.a AED512 in ASCII mode.
aed.b AED512 in binary mode.
avs Application Visualization System raster image format.
balsml HI DMP-29 in small chart mode.
ditroff Device-independent troff.
form A blank form for user-defined graphcap definitions.
hdf NCSA's HDF (Hierarchical Data Format) formatted
raster file.
hp2648a HP2648A graphics terminal.
hp150 HP150 personal computer.
hp7475a HP7475A six-pen plotter.
hp7510a HP7510A color film recorder.
hpgl Basic support for the HP-GL language in portrait mode.
hpgl.land Basic support for the HP-GL language in landscape
mode.
hppcl Produces files for the HP LaserJet family of printers
(LaserJet, LaserJet Plus, LaserJet Series II, LaserJet 500
Plus, etc.); the ctrans options -dpi and -landscape can be
used for various resolutions and picture positioning.
imagen Graphcap for the IMAGEN 8/300 laser printer in
graphics landscape mode.
imagen.port Graphcap for the IMAGEN 8/300 laser printer in
graphics portrait mode.
nrif NCAR Raster Interchange Format formatted raster file.
pc.mono Drives PCPLOT on IBM and compatible PCs.
ps.color Color PostScript graphcap (portrait mode).
ps.land.color Color PostScript graphcap (landscape mode).
ps.land.mono Black and white PostScript graphcap (landscape mode).
ps.mono Black and white PostScript graphcap (portrait mode).
qms800 QMS800 laser printer.
r6211 Ramtek 6211 in Tektronix compatible mode.
s100 Selinar HiREZ100 graphics terminal.
sgi Silicon Graphics raster image format.
sun Sun formatted raster file.
t4010 Tektronix 4010 and 4012.
t4025 Tektronix 4025 graphics terminal.
t4105 Tektronix 4105 color graphics terminal.
t4107 Tektronix 4107 color graphics terminal.
t4107.seg Tektronix 4107 color graphics terminal. All graphics
instructions are stored in local memory (a segment) for
manipulation with functions defined in the hardware.
t4115 Tektronix 4115 color graphics terminal.
t4115.seg Tektronix 4115 color graphics terminal. All graphics
instructions are stored in local memory (a segment) for
manipulation with functions defined in the hardware.
tal1590 Talaris 1590 plotter.
tekalike Tekalike program on the Apple Macintosh.
versaterm Versaterm program on the Apple Macintosh.
vt100 VT100 with Digital Engineering VT640 retrofit.
vt125 VT125 graphics terminal.
vt220 VT220 with Selinar SG220 graphics retrofit board.
vt330 VT330 graphics terminal.
vt340 VT340 graphics terminal (returns with white foreground
and black background).
vt340w VT340 graphics terminal (returns with black background
and white foreground).
X11 X Window System interface.
xwd X11 xwd formatted raster file.
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