| Re: Postscript font usage [message #24731] |
Fri, 13 April 2001 09:52 |
Wayne Landsman
Messages: 117
Registered: January 1997
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Senior Member |
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Paul van Delst wrote:
> Barbara A Cohen wrote:
>>
>> I use PS fonts exclusively too, because of the nice aesthetics.
>> It is a big pain to find some of the special symbols but it's
>> worth it (btw how DO you get the sun symbol?)
>
> Wow - I wanted that symbol in a plot recently (got sick of having to use "solar" as a
> subscript for everything). Does it exist in a form IDLers can use? I couldn't find it.
>
The procedure sunsymbol.pro in http://idlastro.gsfc.nasa.gov/ftp/pro/plot/sunsymbol.pro
creates a postscript subscript Sun symbol. (Try saying "postscript subscript Sun
symbol " 10 times fast ;-) ) However, it is something of a kluge (it draws a circle and
then a dot) and the quality may depend on your particular character thickness and size
settings.
--Wayne Landsman
landsman@mpb.gsfc.nasa.gov
P.S. To answer an earlier question, the procedure ploterror.pro in the same directory can
be used to plot X error bars only, by setting the Y errors to zero, e.g.
iDL> ploterror, x, y, xerr, y*0
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| Re: Postscript font usage [message #24734 is a reply to message #24731] |
Fri, 13 April 2001 07:42  |
Paul van Delst
Messages: 364
Registered: March 1997
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Senior Member |
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Barbara A Cohen wrote:
>
> I use PS fonts exclusively too, because of the nice aesthetics.
> It is a big pain to find some of the special symbols but it's
> worth it (btw how DO you get the sun symbol?)
Wow - I wanted that symbol in a plot recently (got sick of having to use "solar" as a
subscript for everything). Does it exist in a form IDLers can use? I couldn't find it.
paulv
--
Paul van Delst A little learning is a dangerous thing;
CIMSS @ NOAA/NCEP Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
Ph: (301)763-8000 x7274 There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
Fax:(301)763-8545 And drinking largely sobers us again.
paul.vandelst@noaa.gov Alexander Pope.
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| Re: Postscript font usage [message #24735 is a reply to message #24734] |
Fri, 13 April 2001 07:05 |
Liam E. Gumley
Messages: 378
Registered: January 2000
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Senior Member |
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Barbara A Cohen wrote:
> I use PS fonts exclusively too, because of the nice aesthetics.
> It is a big pain to find some of the special symbols but it's
> worth it (btw how DO you get the sun symbol?). As for crossing
> platforms, how's this: I can switch into math mode to get a
> character like del or the plus/minus on my Mac G3 laptop, but
> NOT on my iMac. Nobody (including multiple tries with RSI)
> has been able to help me on this one.
I highly recommend TeXtoIDL for formatting Greek and math symbols in
PostScript and vector fonts:
http://physweb.mnstate.edu/mcraig/TeXtoIDL/
Cheers,
Liam.
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| Re: Postscript font usage [message #24736 is a reply to message #24735] |
Fri, 13 April 2001 06:19 |
bcohen
Messages: 15
Registered: January 1996
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Junior Member |
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I use PS fonts exclusively too, because of the nice aesthetics.
It is a big pain to find some of the special symbols but it's
worth it (btw how DO you get the sun symbol?). As for crossing
platforms, how's this: I can switch into math mode to get a
character like del or the plus/minus on my Mac G3 laptop, but
NOT on my iMac. Nobody (including multiple tries with RSI)
has been able to help me on this one.
Barbara
--
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| Re: Postscript font usage [message #24748 is a reply to message #24736] |
Thu, 12 April 2001 10:59 |
Todd Clements
Messages: 23
Registered: January 2001
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Junior Member |
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> I have a somewhat open-ended question. I'm wondering: how many of you
> use Postscript fonts in your direct graphics work? What are your
> experiences with it?
Yes, I use them exclusively for printing purposes, and my experience
with them is yuck.
However, things aren't all that bad. We only have about 5 different
"major" plot types in the lab that we use. Of course, each of these
plots can have different annotations and lables, and titles and such,
but five isn't too large of a number.
After hours of tinkering, I managed to put together programs that use
IDLs silly built in fonts on screen and postscript fonts in the output,
and for the most part things show up where they are supposed to, but it
took tinkering. Putting in magic numbers for relative sizes,
thicknesses, offsets and all those kinds of things.
I think postscript fonts could be made to be easier to use, but I have
to say I understand some of the limitations that RSI/Kodak is working
under having to support fonts on multiple platforms while still allowing
code to be platform-'independent'. If I had to do the same thing, at
some point I'd probably throw up my hands and just create my own fonts
as well.
> legibility. In so many talks, the speaker rambles on about a plot for
> five minutes in front of a bemused squinting audience, until someone
> finally gets the courage to ask, "excuse me, what are the axes?"
> That tends not to happen with postscript fonts.
Postscript fonts have nothing to do with this one! Don't get me started
on people who don't care enough about their data to make it look good!
Sometimes post-processing is needed to make plots look good, and people
should do that, darnit!
Todd
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