d.barscale(1)

📦
version 8.4.2 · 8 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 d.barscale — the GRASS GIS User's Manual glow-up 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're talking about d.barscale from the GRASS GIS User's Manual and she is serving cartography realness ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

d.barscale — she displays a barscale on the graphics monitor. that's it. that's the job. and she does it gorgeously 💅

🎀 KEYWORDS 🎀

display, cartography

iykyk 🗺️

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

d.barscale
d.barscale --help
d.barscale [-ftn]  [style=string]   [at=x,y]   [length=integer]
[units=string]   [label=string]   [segment=integer]   [color=name]
[bgcolor=name]   [text_position=string]   [width_scale=float]
[font=string]   [fontsize=float]   [path=name]   [charset=string]
[--help]  [--verbose]  [--quiet]  [--ui]

literally just type it and go, no cap 🌈

🚩 Flags 🚩

  • -f — use feet/miles instead of meters 🦶 (imperial girlies rise)
  • -t — draw the scale bar without text. silent. mysterious. 🤫
  • -n — display north-arrow symbol. compass moment 🧭
  • --help — print usage summary 🫶
  • --verbose — verbose module output (she tells you everything) 💬
  • --quiet — quiet module output (she says nothing, iconic) 🤐
  • --ui — force launching GUI dialog 🖥️✨

🎛️ Parameters 🎛️

  • style=string — type of barscale to draw
    • Options: classic, line, solid, hollow, full_checker, part_checker, mixed_checker, tail_checker, up_ticks, down_ticks, both_ticks, arrow_ends
    • Default: classic
      • classic: Classic style 👑
      • line: Line style
      • solid: Solid style
      • hollow: Hollow style
      • full_checker: Full checker style 🏁
      • part_checker: Part checker style
      • mixed_checker: Mixed checker style
      • tail_checker: Tail checker style
      • up_ticks: Up ticks style ⬆️
      • down_ticks: Down ticks style ⬇️
      • both_ticks: Both ticks style ↕️
      • arrow_ends: Arrow ends style ➡️
  • at=x,y — screen coordinates of the rectangle's top-left corner. reminder that (0,0) is the lower-left of the display frame, okay? don't get it twisted 📍
    • Options: 0-100
    • Default: 0.0,10.0
  • length=integer — length of barscale in map units 📏
    • Options: 0-
    • Default: 0
  • units=string — barscale units to display
    • Options: meters, kilometers, feet, miles
  • label=string — custom label of unit. make it your moment 🏷️
  • segment=integer — number of segments
    • Options: 1-100
    • Default: 10
  • color=name — bar scale and text color
    • Either a standard color name or R:G:B triplet
    • Default: black 🖤
  • bgcolor=name — background color (drawn behind the bar)
    • Either a standard color name, R:G:B triplet, or "none"
    • Default: white 🤍
  • text_position=string — text position
    • Options: under, over, left, right
    • Default: right
  • width_scale=float — scale factor to change bar width
    • Options: 0.5-100
    • Default: 1
  • font=string — font name 🔤
  • fontsize=float — font size
    • Options: 1-360
    • Default: 12
  • path=name — path to font file 📁
  • charset=string — text encoding (only applicable to TrueType fonts)

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so d.barscale displays a barscale on the graphics monitor at the given screen coordinates. and if you give her no coordinates? she just draws the barscale in the bottom left of the display like the self-sufficient queen she is 💅

the barscale can be drawn in a number of styles — peek the style parameter for their previews 👀✨

⚠️ NOTE ⚠️

bestie. listen. d.barscale will not work with Lat/Lon coordinate reference system because the horizontal scale distance changes with latitude 😭 the math simply does not math there. try d.grid instead 🫶

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

d.graph, d.grid, d.legend, d.northarrow, g.region

the whole friend group fr fr 🫂

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Unknown, from USACE/CERL. Major rewrite for GRASS 7 by Hamish Bowman

(we don't know who the first one was but they ate. and Hamish did the GRASS 7 glow-up ✨)

💻 SOURCE CODE 💻

Available at: d.barscale source code (history)

Accessed: Saturday Jan 17 05:40:35 2026

Main index | Display index | Topics index | Keywords index | Graphical index | Full index

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 this was pulled from the GRASS GIS 8.4.2 Reference Manual, © 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, and you were reading d.barscale(1) from GRASS 8.4.2 🌈 periodt, go draw a scale bar, ily 🫶💅🎀

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