phpman > man > pbmtext(1)

pbmtext(1)                             General Commands Manual                            pbmtext(1)



NAME
       pbmtext - render text into a bitmap

SYNOPSIS
       pbmtext [-font fontfile] [-builtin fontname] [-space pixels] [-lspace pixels] [text]


DESCRIPTION
       Takes  the  specified text, either a single line from the command line or multiple lines from
       standard input, and renders it into a bitmap.

       In the bitmap, each line of input is a line of output.  Formatting characters such as newline
       have no effect on the formatting; like any unprintable character, they turn into spaces.

       The  bitmap  is  just  wide  enough for the longest line of text, plus margins, and just high
       enough to contain the lines of text, plus margins.  The left and right margins are twice  the
       width  of  the widest character in the font; the top and bottom margins are the height of the
       tallest character in the font.  But if the text is only one line, all the margins are half of
       this.


OPTIONS
       -font,-builtin
              By  default,  pbmtext  uses  a  built-in font called bdf (about a 10 point Times-Roman
              font).  You can use a fixed width font by specifying -builtin fixed.

              You can also specify your own font with the -font flag.  The fontfile is either a  BDF
              file from the X window system or a PBM file.

              If  the  fontfile is a PBM file, it is created in a very specific way.  In your window
              system of choice, display the following text in the desired (fixed-width) font:

                  M ",/^_[`jpqy| M

                  /  !"#$%&'()*+ /
                  < ,-./01234567 <
                  > 89:;<=>?@ABC >
                  @ DEFGHIJKLMNO @
                  _ PQRSTUVWXYZ[ _
                  { \]^_`abcdefg {
                  } hijklmnopqrs }
                  ~ tuvwxyz{|}~  ~

                  M ",/^_[`jpqy| M

              Do a screen grab or window dump of that text, using  for  instance  xwd,  xgrabsc,  or
              screendump.   Convert  the result into a pbm file.  If necessary, use pnmcut to remove
              everything except the text.  Finally, run it through pnmcrop to make  sure  the  edges
              are  right  up  against  the text.  pbmtext can figure out the sizes and spacings from
              that.


       -space pixels
              Add pixels pixels of space between characters.  This is in addition to whatever  space
              surrounding  characters  is  built into the font, which is usually enough to produce a
              reasonable string of text.

              pixels may be negative to crowd text together, but the author has not put much thought
              or  testing  into  how this works in every possible case, so it might cause disastrous
              results.


       -B -lspace pixels
              Add pixels pixels of space between lines. This is in addition to whatever space  above
              and below characters is built into the font, which is usually enough to produce a rea‐
              sonable line spacing.

              pixels must be a whole number.

              pixels may be negative to crowd lines together,  but  the  author  has  not  put  much
              thought  or testing into how this works in every possible case, so it might cause dis‐
              astrous results.



USAGE
       Often, you want to place text over another image.  One way to do this is with ppmlabel.  ppm‐‐
       label does not give you the font options that pbmtext does, though.

       Another  way  is  to  use pbmtext to create an image containing the text, then use pnmcomp to
       overlay the text image onto your base image.  To make only the text (and not the entire  rec‐
       tangle  containing  it)  cover  the base image, you will need to give pnmcomp a mask, via its
       -alpha option.  You can just use the text image itself as the mask, as long as you also spec‐
       ify the -invert option to pnmcomp.

       If  you want to overlay colored text instead of black, just use ppmchange to change all black
       pixels to the color of your choice before overlaying the text image.  But still use the orig‐
       inal black and white image for the alpha mask.

       If  you  want  the  text at an angle, use pnmrotate on the text image (and alpha mask) before
       overlaying.


SEE ALSO
       pnmcut(1), pnmcrop(1), pnmcomp(1),  ppmchange(1),  pnmrotate(1),  pbmtextps(1),  ppmlabel(1),
       pbm(5)


AUTHOR
       Copyright (C) 1993 by Jef Poskanzer and George Phillips



                                           28 January 2001                                pbmtext(1)