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PGPLOT Symbols

Character Encoding

The PGPLOT routines that display text, e.g., PGTEXT, PGMTXT, and PGPTXT, generate a visible representation of the characters supplied in a Fortran character variable or constant, or a C string (array of char). On most computer systems, a Fortran character or C char can take any of 256 values, numbered 0-255 (decimal), although on some systems the range is limited to 0-127. PGPLOT interprets the values as follows:
0
In the C-binding for PGPLOT, this is the null character that marks the end of a character string. It is not plotted. In the Fortran version, PGPLOT will usually interpret it as the end of the character string, but this is system-dependent.
1-31
These are used for the standard graph markers. On most computer systems, they are non-printable control characters. It is better to use the \mn escape sequence to include one of the markers in a text string, rather than to embed the control-character code in the text.
32-127
PGPLOT interprets these according to the US-ASCII character set, a subset of the ISO-Latin character sets, with one exception: character number 94, which should be a circumflex (^), is displayed as a degree symbol (°). The degree symbol is also available as character 176, which should be used in preference; eventually the display of character 94 will be corrected.
128-159
These are unassigned; in the ISO-Latin character sets, they are reserved for non-printable control characters.
160-255
As far as possible, PGPLOT interprets these according to the ISO-Latin-1 character set. In some cases, required accents are omitted. I hope to rectify the omissions in a later version of PGPLOT. Note that if your computer system does not use the ISO-Latin-1 character set, the output of a PGPLOT program will not correspond to the characters in the source code.
The complete character encoding is displayed in Figure B.0. This is for the standard PGPLOT roman font (font number 2); some of the symbols will differ from font to font.

Additional Symbols

An escape code allows a large number of additional symbols to be displayed by PGPLOT. Each symbol is composed of a set of vectors, based on digitized type fonts devised by A. V. Hershey of the US Naval Postgraduate School, and is assigned a number in the range 0-4000.

Figures B.1 to B.7 show the graphical representation of all the available symbols arranged according to Hershey's numerical sequence; the blank spaces in this table represent ``space'' characters of various widths. Note that not every number has an associated character. Any character can be inserted in a text string using an escape sequence of the form \(nnnn), where nnnn is the 4-digit Hershey number.

PGPLOT Character Encoding

Figure B.0: PGPLOT Character Encoding (in font number 2)

PGPLOT Symbols 1-527

Figure B.1: PGPLOT Symbols 1-527

PGPLOT Symbols 529-713

Figure B.2: PGPLOT Symbols 529-713

PGPLOT Symbols 714-2017

Figure B.3: PGPLOT Symbols 714-2017

PGPLOT Symbols 2018-2192

Figure B.4: PGPLOT Symbols 2018-2192

PGPLOT Symbols 2193-2400

Figure B.5: PGPLOT Symbols 2193-2400

PGPLOT Symbols 2401-2747

Figure B.6: PGPLOT Symbols 2401-2747

PGPLOT Symbols 2748-2932

Figure B.7: PGPLOT Symbols 2748-2932


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Tim Pearson, California Institute of Technology, tjp·astro.caltech.edu
Copyright © 1995-2005 California Institute of Technology