------------------------------------------------------------ README file: resource fonts ps ------------------------------------------------------------ This subdirectory contains files with support the IDL PostScript graphics driver: ehandler.ps - PostScript Downloaded Error Break-page handler from Adobe Systems Incorporated. Normally, any errors in a PostScript file cause the printer to silently kill the job. Sending this file to your PostScript printer causes it to print any subsequent errors it encounters on a sheet of paper and eject it. The effect of this file lasts until the printer is reset. Clearly, a workstation with a PostScript previewer is a better way to debug PostScript, but if you only have a printer, this is the way to go. prolog.ps - The PostScript prolog file. This file contains standard PostScript definitions used by all IDL generated PostScript files. IDL includes a copy of this file at the top of every generated output file. Adobe Font Metric (.afm) files - These files supply font metric information which is used by IDL to properly position text output. font.map - A text file which maps PostScript font names to the name of their corresponding afm file. This approach avoids file name length problems that occur on some operating systems. ---------------------------------------- To add an Adobe font metric file to IDL: ---------------------------------------- 1) IDL doesn't use standard Adobe AFM files directly. Rather, it uses the output of a user library procedure named PSAFM. PSAFM takes a standard AFM file as input and creates as output an AFM file more to IDLs liking. Use PSAFM to convert the Adobe AFM file and place the result in this directory. Choose a name of 8 or fewer characters with a ".afm" extension. Make sure this name doesn't already appear in font.map. Usually the name of the original AFM file is fine: Example: IDL> PSAFM, '/home/user/newafm.afm', $ '/usr/local/rsi/idl/resource/fonts/ps/newafm.afm' 2) Use a standard text editor to add an entry in font.map for the new AFM file. The field labeled "ISO encoding?" should be answered by looking in your new AFM file for the string "ISOLatin1Encoding. If this is found, enter a "1", otherwise enter a "0". -------- Example: -------- My development system (Solaris 2.5) comes with a PostScript previewer named pageview(1) that can be used to examine PostScript output from programs like IDL. The AFM files for the fonts it understands can be found in /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/F3/afm. This example will show how to produce IDL PostScript output that uses the GillSans-BoldItalic font, and then display the results using pageview. As shipped by RSI, GillSans-BoldItalic is not one of the fonts that IDL understands by default: 1) Run IDL and use PSAFM to generate the IDL afm file. On most systems, you will need root access to create the file in the IDL distribution tree: IDL>PSAFM,'/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/F3/afm/GillSans-BoldItalic.afm',$ '/usr/local/rsi/idl/resource/fonts/ps/GlS-BoI.afm' 2) Edit the IDL font.map file in the resource/fonts/ps subdirectory of the IDL distribution and add the following line at the end: GillSans-BoldItalic GlS-BoI 1 3) Run IDL and create a plot: IDL> set_plot,'ps' IDL> device,user_font='GillSans-BoldItalic' IDL> plot,[0,1],title='Nonsense Plot',xtit='X',ytitle='Y', FONT=0 IDL> exit 4) View the results: % pageview idl.ps