pbmtext(1)pbmtext(1)NAMEpbmtext - render text into a bitmap
SYNOPSISpbmtext [-font fontfile] [-builtin fontname] [-space pix_
els] [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 pnm
cut 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.
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 contain
ing 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 ppmchange 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 ALSOpnmcut(1), pnmcrop(1), pnmcomp(1), ppmchange(1), pnmro
tate(1), ppmlabel(1), pbm(5)AUTHOR
Copyright (C) 1993 by Jef Poskanzer and George Phillips
28 January 2001 pbmtext(1)
