Changing the font size of the graphics window or irafterm

Kathleen Labrie wrote on Apr 01, 2009

Hi,

It seems that no matter how big the xgterm font size is, the graphics window font size remains the same, which unfortunately is for some of our local users too small. Is there a way to control the font size used by the graphics window?

Thanks
Kathleen

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Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on Apr 01, 2009

If you're talking about the XGterm status line font, these are set by the 'dialogFont1' thru 'dialogFont8' resources. The default is dialogFont3 (i.e. '6x10') but the Gterm widget will search the list and pick the most appropriate font for the window size.

If you're talking about the graphics font on the plot, these sizes are controlled by the iraf graphics system. You can use ":.txset size=2.0" in cursor mode to double the size of the characters, but you'll also need to reset the text quality to 'hi' with ":.txqual hi" and redraw the plot to see the effects (a hardcopy would show the result right away). You can set the 'cminit' environment variable to make these take effect for each cursor mode, see 'help cursors' for details.

Cheers,
-Mike

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Kathleen Labrie wrote on Apr 01, 2009

Thanks Mike. I am glad to hear that there is a way.

I was talking about both but mostly the status line.

Can the default for the status line be changed? Where do I put those configurations (for the status line)?

When you say " 'cminit' environment variable " do you mean a shell variable or an IRAF variable?

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Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on Apr 01, 2009

The 'dialogFont<N>' are X11 resources, you can set these in e.g. a .Xdefaults file of in the XGterm app-defaults file for the system. Font names are normally found with the defaut setup, i.e. '6x10' *should* be found, but you may need to tweak an XFILESEARCHPATH unix environment setting to pick up locally installed fonts.

The 'cminit' is an iraf environment variable, you can set it in a loginuser.cl file. Again, see 'help cursors'.

-Mike

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Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on Apr 01, 2009

BTW, This is all for IRAF graphics, I have no idea if/how things might be changed in a PyRAF plot.

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Kathleen Labrie wrote on Apr 01, 2009

Sorry for my ignorance Mike, but what is the line I am supposed to add to the XGterm app-default file? There are no 'dialogFont<n>' defined anywhere in there.

And where are those 'dialogFont<n>' defined. That's another thing I can't find.

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Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on Apr 01, 2009

You could add something like

*Gterm*dialogFont1:                  9x15
*Gterm*dialogFont2:                  9x15    
*Gterm*dialogFont3:                  9x15    
*Gterm*dialogFont4:                  9x15    
*Gterm*dialogFont5:                  9x15    
*Gterm*dialogFont6:                  9x15    
*Gterm*dialogFont7:                  9x15    
*Gterm*dialogFont8:                  9x15

If you have a personal .Xdefaults file you could add it there and load the resources with

xrdb -load ~/.Xdefaults

Or, put these in the 'XGterm' app-defaults file. If you used the X11IRAF install script this file should have been installed, if you just copied the binaries you won't see it (e.g. the mouse menus will have strange names and not sensible labels). Normally this would go someplace like /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/app-defaults but depends on the system.

The resources are defined in the Gterm widget source code.

-Mike

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Kathleen Labrie wrote on Apr 01, 2009

Thanks Mike, that works.

(Just for the record, it does not work with the PyRAF graphics window, but it is not unexpected.)

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Last post on Apr 01, 2009