pbmtext

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 mar-
       gins, 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 mar-
       gins 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 addi-
              tion 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 reasonable line spac-
              ing.

              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 disastrous results.

USAGE
       Often,  you  want to place text over another image.  One way to do this
       is with ppmlabel.  ppmlabel 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 rectangle 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 specify the -invert option to pnmcomp.

       If you want to overlay colored text instead of  black,  just  use  ppm-
       change  to  change  all black pixels to the color of your choice before
       overlaying the text image.  But still use the original 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),  pbm-
       textps(1), ppmlabel(1), pbm(5)

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

                                28 January 2001                     pbmtext(1)