.TL
Pbmtext User Manual
.SH 1
pbmtext
.LP
Updated: 14 April 2005
.br
Table Of Contents
.SH 2
NAME
.LP
pbmtext - render text into a PBM image
.SH 2
SYNOPSIS
.LP
\fBpbmtext\fR
[\fB-font\fR \fIfontfile\fR]
[\fB-builtin\fR \fIfontname\fR]
[\fB-space\fR \fIpixels\fR]
[\fB-lspace\fR \fIpixels\fR]
[\fB-nomargins\fR]
[\fB-width\fR \fIpixels\fR]
[\fItext\fR]
.LP
Minimum unique abbreviation of option is acceptable.  You may use double
hyphens instead of single hyphen to denote options.  You may use white
space in place of the equals sign to separate an option name from its value.
.SH 2
DESCRIPTION
.LP
.LP
This program is part of Netpbm.
.LP
\fBpbmtext\fR takes the specified text, either a single line from
the command line or multiple lines from standard input, and renders it
into a PBM graphical image.
.LP
In the image, 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.
.LP
The image is just wide enough for the longest line of text, plus
margins, and just high enough to contain the lines of text, plus
margins.
.LP
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.  You can use the \fB-nomargins\fR option
to eliminate the margins.
.LP
\fBpbmtextps\fR does the same thing as \fBpbmtext\fR, but uses
Ghostscript to generate the characters, which means it's a lot more
sophisticated and you can use Postscript fonts.  But it also means you
have to have Ghostscript installed and it isn't as fast.
.SH 2
OPTIONS
.LP
.RS
.IP "\fB-font\fR"
.IP "\fB-builtin\fR"
\fB-builtin\fR selects a font among those built into Netpbm.
\fB-font\fR selects a font that you supply yourself either as an X
Window System BDF (Bitmap Distribution Format) file or as a PBM file
in a special form.
.LP
The default is the built in font "bdf."
.LP
"bdf" is Times-Roman 15 pixels high.  (That's about 14
point type printed at 75 dpi).
.LP
"fixed" is a built in fixed with font.
.LP
To create a font as a PBM file (to use with the \fB-font\fR
option), do this: In your window system of choice, display the
following text in the desired (fixed-width) font:
.DS L
    M ",/^_[`jpqy| M
    /  !"#$%&'()*+ /
    < ,-./01234567 <
    > 89:;<=>?@ABC >
    @ DEFGHIJKLMNO @
    _ PQRSTUVWXYZ[ _
    { \]^_`abcdefg {
    } hijklmnopqrs }
    ~ tuvwxyz{|}~  ~
    M ",/^_[`jpqy| M
.DE
Do a screen grab or window dump of that text, using for instance
\fBxwd\fR, \fBxgrabsc\fR, or \fBscreendump\fR.  Convert the result
into a pbm file.  If necessary, use \fBpamcut\fR to remove everything
except the text.  Finally, run it through \fBpnmcrop\fR.  to make
sure the edges are right up against the text.  \fBpbmtext\fR
can figure out the sizes and spacings from that.
.IP "\fB-space\fR \fIpixels\fR"
 Add \fIpixels\fR 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.
.LP
\fIpixels\fR may be fractional, in which case the number of
pixels added varies so as to achieve the specified average.  For
example \fB-space=1.5\fR causes half the spaces to be 1 pixel and
half to be 2 pixels.
.LP
\fIpixels\fR 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.
.IP "\fB-lspace\fR \fIpixels\fR"
 Add \fIpixels\fR 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
spacing.
.LP
\fIpixels\fR must be a whole number.
.LP
\fIpixels\fR 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.
.IP "\fB-nomargins\fR"
By default, \fBpbmtext\fR adds margins all around the image as
described above.  This option causes \fBpbmtext\fR not to add any
margins.
.LP
Note that there may still be space beyond the edges of the type
because a character itself may include space at its edges.  To eliminate
all surrounding background, so the type touches all four edges of the
image, use \fBpnmcrop\fR.
.IP "\fB-width\fR \fIpixels\fR"
This specifies how much horizontal space the text is supposed to fit
into.  
.LP
If the input is one line, \fBpbmtext\fR breaks it into multiple
lines as needed to fit the specified width.  It breaks it between
characters, but does not pay attention to white space; it may break in
the middle of a word and a line may begin or end with white space.
.LP
If the input is multiple lines, \fBpbmtext\fR assumes you already
have line breaks where they make sense, and \fBpbmtext\fR simply
truncates each line as needed to fit the specified width.
.RE
.SH 2
USAGE
.LP
.LP
Often, you want to place text over another image.  One way to do
this is with \fBppmlabel\fR.  \fBppmlabel\fR does not give you the
font options that \fBpbmtext\fR does, though.
.LP
Another way is to use \fBpbmtext\fR to create an image containing
the text, then use \fBpamcomp\fR 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
\fBpamcomp\fR a mask, via its \fB-alpha\fR option.  You can just use
the text image itself as the mask, as long as you also specify the
\fB-invert\fR option to \fBpamcomp\fR.
.LP
If you want to overlay colored text instead of black, just use
\fBppmchange\fR 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.
.LP
If you want the text at an angle, use \fBpnmrotate\fR on the text
image (and alpha mask) before overlaying.
.SH 2
SEE ALSO
.LP
\fBpbmtextps\fR,
\fBpamcut\fR,
\fBpnmcrop\fR,
\fBpamcomp\fR,
\fBppmchange\fR,
\fBpnmrotate\fR,
\fBppmlabel\fR,
\fBpstopnm\fR,
\fBpbm\fR
.SH 2
AUTHOR
.LP
Copyright (C) 1993 by Jef Poskanzer and George Phillips
.br
\l'5i'
.SH 2
Table Of Contents
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.IP \(bu
NAME
.IP \(bu
SYNOPSIS
.IP \(bu
DESCRIPTION
.IP \(bu
OPTIONS
.IP \(bu
USAGE
.IP \(bu
SEE ALSO
.IP \(bu
AUTHOR
.LP