d.northarrow(1)

📦
version 8.4.2 · 8 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 d.northarrow 💖

okay bestie, listen up — this is the GRASS GIS User's Manual page for d.northarrow, and it's literally the little compass rose of your dreams. it puts a north arrow on the graphics monitor. that's it. that's the whole job. and it ATE. 🧭✨

KEYWORDS: display, cartography, map annotations, arrow 🌸

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

d.northarrow
d.northarrow --help
d.northarrow [-twr]  [style=string]   [at=x,y]   [rotation=float]
[label=string]   [color=name]   [fill_color=name]   [text_color=name]
[width=float]   [font=string]   [fontsize=float]   [path=name]
[charset=string]   [--help]  [--verbose]  [--quiet]  [--ui]

🎀 FLAGS 🎀

  • -t — draws the symbol and NOT the text. bye bye label 👋
  • -w — do not rotate the text along with the symbol. the arrow spins, the letters stay put. lowkey iconic.
  • -r — use radians instead of degrees for the rotation. yes queen, math mode 💅
  • --help — prints the usage summary, for when you're confused (we've all been there)
  • --verbose — verbose module output, aka it tells you EVERYTHING 🗣️
  • --quiet — quiet module output, aka it says nothing at all 🤫
  • --ui — force launches the GUI dialog. point-and-click girlies rise up 🫶

🌈 PARAMETERS 🌈

  • style=string — the north arrow style. so many vibes to choose from.
    • Options: 1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9, fancy_compass, basic_compass, arrow1, arrow2, arrow3, star
    • Default: 1a
    • 1a: two color arrowhead
    • 1b: two color arrowhead with circle
    • 2: narrow with blending N
    • 3: long with small arrowhead
    • 4: inverted narrow inside a circle
    • 5: triangle and N inside a circle
    • 6: arrowhead and N inside a circle
    • 7a: tall half convex arrowhead
    • 7b: tall half concave arrowhead
    • 8a: thin arrow in a circle
    • 8b: fat arrow in a circle
    • 9: one color arrowhead
    • fancy_compass: fancy compass 💅
    • basic_compass: basic compass
    • arrow1: simple arrow
    • arrow2: thin arrow
    • arrow3: fat arrow
    • star: 4-point star ⭐
  • at=x,y — screen coordinates of the rectangle's top-left corner. and psst — (0,0) is the lower-left of the display frame, not the top, don't get got.
    • Options: 0-100
    • Default: 85.0,15.0
  • rotation=float — rotation angle in degrees, counter-clockwise. spin it 🌀
    • Default: 0
  • label=string — the letter displayed on the top of the arrow.
    • Default: N
  • color=name — line color. either a standard color name, an R:G:B triplet, or "none".
    • Default: black
  • fill_color=name — fill color. either a standard color name, an R:G:B triplet, or "none".
    • Default: black
  • text_color=name — text color. either a standard color name or an R:G:B triplet.
  • width=float — line width.
    • Default: 0
  • font=string — font name.
  • fontsize=float — font size.
    • Options: 1-360
    • Default: 14
  • path=name — path to the font file.
  • charset=string — text encoding (only applicable to TrueType fonts, so if that's not your font situation, this does nothing for you)

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so d.northarrow displays a north arrow symbol at the given screen coordinates. if you don't give it coordinates, it'll just draw the north arrow in the bottom right of the display — it knows what it's doing, trust. 🫶

it can draw the north arrow in a number of styles (go check the wiki page for the details, iykyk). with certain styles of north arrow, the label 'N' is displayed by default, and you can change it with option label — for example for different languages. you can also hide the label entirely with the -t flag. multilingual queen 🌍

the north arrow can be rotated, for example to align with true north, not grid north. the angle in degrees counter-clockwise (or radians with the -r flag) gets specified with option rotation. the label rotates together with the arrow, unless the -w flag is specified.

🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

display a north arrow symbol as a basic compas with label NORTH, rotated by 8 degrees with label, with black line and gray fill:

d.mon wx0
d.northarrow style=basic_compas rotation=8 label=NORTH -w color=black fill_color=gray
d.mon -r

(yes, the style in the example is spelled basic_compas — that's exactly how it's written in the manual, bestie, i don't make the rules 💀)

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

  • d.barscale
  • d.graph
  • d.grid
  • d.legend

👑 AUTHORS 👑

  • Hamish Bowman, Department of Geology, University of Otago, New Zealand
  • Improvements as part of GSoC 2016 by Adam Laza, CTU in Prague

💅 SOURCE CODE 💅

Available at: d.northarrow source code (history)

Accessed: Saturday Jan 17 05:40:36 2026

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© 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 8.4.2 Reference Manual

okay that's the whole page bestie, no cap, every flag and every style survived the vibe check ✅

and that's the tea from GRASS 8.4.2 — the d.northarrow(1) manual page, accessed Saturday Jan 17 05:40:36 2026. slay, go draw a compass. 🧭✨

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