[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attributes as labels, but this can't be output to a postscript file; and ps.map has to rely on the - I assume, somewhat outdated - method of using a separate label file?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

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@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:15:03 +0200
To: GRASSLIST international <GRASSLIST@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and ps.map has to rely on the - I assume, somewhat outdated - method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

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@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:15:03 +0200
To: GRASSLIST international <GRASSLIST@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

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@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:34:35 +0200
To: Multiple recipients of list <GRASSLIST@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@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:15:03 +0200
To: GRASSLIST international <GRASSLIST@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

(attachments)

labeltest_eps.pdf (5.9 KB)
labeltest_gs.pdf (9.97 KB)
labeltest_png.png

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@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:34:35 +0200
To: Multiple recipients of list <GRASSLIST@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@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:15:03 +0200
To: GRASSLIST international <GRASSLIST@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>

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@facstaff.wisc.edu>
>> Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:34:35 +0200
>> To: Multiple recipients of list <GRASSLIST@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@facstaff.wisc.edu>
>>>> Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:15:03 +0200
>>>> To: GRASSLIST international <GRASSLIST@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

The text layer in the new GIS Manager (start with gis.m&) is drawn by the
TclTk canvas so that it is postscript text in eps output. So it might be
what you are looking for. However, it is only for single labels, manually
placed.

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@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 15:15:37 +0200
To: Multiple recipients of list <GRASSLIST@baylor.edu>
Subject: [GRASSLIST:10550] Re: Labels and ps.map

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@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 07:34:35 +0200
To: Multiple recipients of list <GRASSLIST@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@facstaff.wisc.edu>
Date: Tue, 21 Feb 2006 20:15:03 +0200
To: GRASSLIST international <GRASSLIST@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>