[ferret_users] [Ferret_users] : improving the plot quality

[Jaison Kurian <jaison@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
    I am using Ferret for last few years and occationally runs
into problems as the ones listed below, while making plots.
During this period Ferret got many updates and i think in
the plot making/quality side there wasn't much improvement.
I am sure that Ferret is a powerfull and easy to use tool
for data analysis but the plot quality (see No.10 below) as
well as the ease to make plots are of important concern.

  This is a request to the developer team. Please have a look at
the problems listed below (please correct me if i am wrong
anywhere). Hope that these problems can be fixed in coming
version/s of Ferret.

Thanks & Regards

Jaison

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 1. ppl pen,0,7 ; shade/i=1:10/j=1:8 i+j  ---------- (1)
    ppl pen,0,7 ; fill/i=1:10/j=1:8 i+j   ---------- (2)

       (1) gives bold lines/markings for main plot and the color
       key. But (2) gives the normal color key (the lines and
       labels are in the default thickness) ...why ??

 2. PPL PEN, 0, 7 --> given bold line for the plot axes and thick
       thick axes labels. But how to control them independently ?

 3. When the contours for very fine resolution datasets (for example
       TMI SST) are plotted in small viewports, it will not have
       proper labels anywhere if the field is not smooth (i mean when
       the contours are like saw-tooth instead of a smooth line)..
       there is no point in tuning the parameters like /SPACING. The
       "CONSET" command is also useless during these situations.
       /SIGDIG also not effective !!

       THERE SHOULD BE SOME BETTER WAY TO CONTROL THE CONTOUR
       LABELLING !!!

 4. Increasing the font thickness for contour labels using /SIZE
       qualifier leads to disappearance of labels !!! There should be
       some efficient way to control this.

 5. The default 'greyscale' paletts have the white end as "95 95 95".
       For a case in which only lower/higher few values are shaded
       (eg. SSTs > 28^oC), then the white edge is too difficult to
       distinguish. A better choice will be "85 85 85"

 6. "fill/line" will not work if this command have a /set qualifier
      (and is followed by ppl fill).

 7. For labelling the plots (inside) as "(a)", "(b)", "(c)"...etc,
       we can use label command. What will do to change the
       background color of this label (only), if it is not clearly
       visible ? (please dont tell me to define another viewport
       and write inside that !!!)

 8. Sometimes (especially with large datasets) Ferret issues wrong
       warning message

       *ERROR: insufficient memory: 247831716 words were requested.
       *** NOTE: You can use SET MEMORY/SIZE=xxx to increase memory.
       *** NOTE: The "Memory use" section of the FERRET Users Guide
            has further tips.

       instead of

       **ERROR: dimensions improperly specified: must be a 2D region

       if dimentions are not specified properly. This should be
       corrected.

 9. Sometimes "go land" will lead to an extraline outside the plot
       area and we need to adjust the /hlimits slighly to get rid
       of this extra line (http://ferret.pmel.noaa.gov/Ferret/
       Mail_Archives/fu_2005/msg01071.html)

 10. Does it is possible to improve the line quality of Ferret plots?
       In most situations the small dashes with makes up the contour
       line or tail of the arrow is clearly distinguishable and kills
       the neatness of the plot:

           define axis/z=0:100:5/depth zax
           let var = randu(z[gz=zax])
           plot var

 11. The same font size will give bigger letters in big viewport and
       smaller letters in small viewport. I think this scaling
       demands additional effort to get the correct visible/readable
       font size whenever the viewport size is changed.

 12. I think the most painfull task with ferret is to label a plot
       with time axis. I prefer to use label/nouser in this kind of
       situations but the coordinates to label/nouser also depends
       on viewport size. Hence a Ferret plot can be finalyzed only
       after quiet a number of trials.

 13. Few of the PPL commands are stand alone but some should be given
       between the main action command with /SET qualifier and
       "PPL FILL" or "PPL PLOT". In user guide, i think it will be
       better to mension clearly wether a particular PPL command
       belongs to stand alone catogory or the other one.
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