General Plotting

The position of the "pen" can be set using the commands

qcl>POS GRP_XPOS,GRP_YPOS
qcl>POS GRP_NPOS

The position GRP_XPOS, GRP_YPOS must be in user coordinates and can be outside the current zone or indeed beyond the physical limits of the plotter. The form of POS using a single parameter GRP_NPOS makes use of a facility to save positions in QCL parameter arrays GRP_XPSAV() and GRP_YPSAV(). GRP_NPOS is the array subscript to be used.

A line can be drawn from the current "pen" position to a new position using

qcl>JOIN GRP_XPOS,GRP_YPOS,GRP_IDASH

The third parameter GRP_IDASH specifies the 16 bit dashed pattern to be used. GRP_IDASH=0 will give a solid line, GRP_IDASH=4369 will give a fine dashed line. Any other 16 bit integer will give a dashed pattern set by the bit pattern in that integer.

A string of text can be drawn starting at GRP_XPOS, GRP_YPOS using the command

qcl>TEXT GRP_TEXT,GRP_XPOS,GRP_YPOS,GRP_TANGLE

GRP_TANGLE degrees specifies the direction of the text with GRP_TANGLE=0 horizontal and positive values rotating the text anti-clockwise. Escape characters can be included in GRP_TEXT to control the character font used and the position and size of characters within the string. The escape character used is backslash and the following are available:

Note all movements are relative to string plotting direction. Superscripts or subscripts are best achieved using \u<superscript>\d and \d<subscript>\u respectively.

The font active at end of string will remain active after the TEXT command so that this command can be used to just set the font:

qcl>TEXT '\fn',0.0,0.0,0.0

This will set the current font to normal.

The command

qcl>FONT GRP_FONT

can also be used to set the font. The parameter GRP_FONT must be the font integer

qcl>FONT 2

This will set the font to roman which is probably the best for smart output.

The size of characters is set by the command

qcl>CSIZE GRP_CSIZE

GRP_CSIZE uses the PGPLOT convention; it defines the character size as a multiple of the default size. The default is set to 1.0 which gives bold readable text on all devices when using a large zone.

A marker can be plotted at position GRP_XPOS, GRP_YPOS using

qcl>MARK GRP_MINDEX,GRP_MSIZE,GRP_XPOS,GRP_YPOS

GRP_MINDEX specifies the marker index (see the PGPLOT manual for available markers) and GRP_MSIZE specifies the relative size of the index. The default size is 1.0

If the thickness of lines can be changed on the current device then the command

qcl>LINEWIDTH GRP_LWIDTH

will set the line width. The default value is set to 2 so that lines are bold on postscript output.