Re: axis line thickness

[kessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Billy Kessler)]

Although the line thicknesses 7 and 13 appear very thick
and clunky on the screen, in fact they are still quite thin
in postscript printouts (made with Fprint). 

In case you want to make a line thicker, it is possible 
to edit the postscript from Fprint. Here is a discussion
of this and related techniques for editing this postscript,
which I sent to this group a year ago:

> From ferret_users-owner@ferret.wrc.noaa.gov Wed Mar  7 18:30:44 2001
> Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2001 18:30:22 -0800 (PST)
> From: kessler@pmel.noaa.gov (Billy Kessler)
> Subject: Re: white vectors and contours
> 
> > Is there any way to overlay white vectors, contours, and labels on color
> > shaded plots? 
> > 
> > No other color is more distinguished than white on a strong color
> > background. 
> 
> Here is one way I have done, but it is certainly not the easiest!
> 
> 1) Make the plot you want with the to-be-white lines in some line
> color/thickness that is not otherwise used. I usually use /COL=18
> (thick magenta).
> 
> 2) Make postscript:
> 
> Fprint -l cps -o filename.ps metafile.plt
> 
> --> it is essential to use "-l cps" to get the lines to translate
> as colors.
> 
> 3) Edit the postscript filename.ps in a text editor.
> 
> a) You will find one or two tables near the top of the file that look like:
> 
> ct 1 [0.000000 0.000000 0.000000] put
> ct 2 [1.000000 0.000000 0.000000] put
> ct 3 [0.000000 1.000000 0.000000] put
> ct 4 [0.000000 0.000000 1.000000] put
> ct 5 [0.000000 1.000000 1.000000] put
> ct 6 [1.000000 0.000000 1.000000] put
> 
> These define the RGB values for the 6 color lines possible in ferret. 
> If there are 2 such tables, the first refers to font colors, the second 
> to line colors.
> 
> Change line definition 6 from magenta (RGB = 1,0,1) to be white:
> 
> ct 6 [1.000000 1.000000 1.000000] put
> 
> That will result in white lines where the screen plot had magenta lines.
> 
> b) Optionally, you may want to make the white lines thicker.
> Down in the postscript draw commands, find the occurrence(s) of
> 
> 3.000000 lw
> 
> This command tells the printer to make the subsequent vector draw
> commands thickness 3. I find thickness 3 to be too thin to show white
> lines very well. Fix this by changing this command to:
> 
> 8.000000 lw
> 
> or some other value. You can make very thick lines this way!
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Note that either steps 3a or 3b can be used to make other such changes
> in postscript generated by Fprint. For example, you might not like the
> bright green of /COL=3. In that case you can edit the "ct" table as in
> step (a) above to change 
> 
> ct 3 [0.000000 1.000000 0.000000] put
> 
> to
> 
> ct 3 [0.200000 1.000000 0.200000] put
> 
> which is a darker green.
> 
> Similarly, I find that even the thickest ferret lines (/COL=13 to 18)
> are not thick enough when printed. In that case edit the "3.000000 lw"
> occurrences as in step (b) above to make them any thickness you want.
> You can even make lines thinner. e.g. by setting this to "0.500000 lw",
> to make thin overlines for some purposes.
> 
> -->> A requirement to be able to do these edits relatively simply is to
> have the lines in question be readily distinguishable, that is, to set
> the lines you will later want to edit to be a unique color/thickness.
> That's why I use /COL=18, which is so ugly I cannot imagine using it 
> for real.
> 
> Billy K
> 
> 
> 
> 
>