[Plplot-devel] 3D bug with device pstex + comments on the status of the plfreetype alternative to pstex

[Alan W. I. <ir...@be...>]

I just tried the following experiment:

./x08c -dev pstex -o test.pstex -fam -fsiz 2k
pstex2eps test.pstex.1
gv test.pstex.1.eps

and all the axes have bad-looking labels because of 3D rotation problems
with the pstex device.

I am not sure whether it is worth fixing this device since few are using it
(or if anybody is using it, they haven't complained about the above
bad-looking results).

For those who just want good-looking font results, another option is using
the devices (png, jpeg, gif) associated with the gd device driver and the
-drvopt text or -drvopt text,smooth command-line options to use plfreetype
(as a front-end to libfreetype2) to specify the fonts.  plfreetype gives
good-looking png results for my research plots. However, specification of
mathematical symbols and non-English language symbols within PLplot is
difficult for general true-type fonts until we can introduce unicode support
into PLplot.  As I understand it, Andrew (Roach) was close to getting that
done this summer, but then other PLplot interests (such as the new gif
device) distracted him.

Also, I would like to encourage those who are familiar with writing PLplot
device drivers to extend our ps device driver to use plfreetype since that
is one of our most heavily used device drivers.  Andrew, how difficult would
this be?  Is the documentation at
http://plplot.sourceforge.net/docbook-manual/plplot-html-5.3.1/freetype-notes.html
reasonably up to date for the steps you would have to take?

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin
email: ir...@be...
phone: 250-727-2902

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org), the Yorick front-end to PLplot (yplot.sf.net), the
Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net), and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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Linux-powered Science
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