GLE(1)

📦
version 4.3.9 · 6 versions
, in ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ GLE — bestie edition ✨

okay so. hi. you're here because you opened the manual page for gle, aka the Graphics Layout Engine, and honestly? iconic of you. let's get into it 💅

💖 NAME 💖

gle — the Graphics Layout Engine. that's it, that's the name, slay.

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

gle [options] file.gle ...

yeah bestie you just throw options at it and then hand it one (or many!) .gle files. go off.

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so GLE — Graphics Layout Engine — is a graphics scripting language and it is genuinely made for producing publication quality graphs, plots, diagrams, figures, and slides. like, camera-ready. for real for real. 📊✨

it supports a whole buffet of graph types: function plots, histograms, bar graphs, scatter plots, contour lines, color maps, surface plots, and honestly the list keeps going (...) — all through a simple but flexible set of graphing commands. no cap.

and if that's not enough for your main character moment, you can build way more complex output by leaning on GLE's scripting language, which is full featured — it's got subroutines, variables, and logic control. it's giving actual programming language energy, because it is one. 🧚

GLE relies on LaTeX for text output and supports mathematical formulea in graphs and figures. (yes, that spelling is straight from the source, we keep the facts and the typos, that's the rule 💀)

output formats? EPS, PS, PDF, JPEG, and PNG. so many. obsessed. 🫶

📚 DOCUMENTATION 📚

GLE's documentation is distributed in PDF format and you can find it at the GLE website:

http://www.gle-graphics.org

go. read. hydrate. 💧

👑 OPTIONS 👑

one bullet per option, no skipping, we do not leave the girls behind.

  • -help — shows you help about the command line options. your first stop, bestie.
  • -info — outputs the software version, build date, GLE_TOP, GLE_BIN, etc. — all the lil identity details.
  • -verbosity — sets the verbosity level of GLE's console output. how chatty do you want it? your call.
  • -device — selects the output device(s). more than one is allowed, go wild.
  • -cairo — uses the cairo output device.
  • -resolution — sets the resolution for bitmap and PDF output.
  • -fullpage — selects full page output.
  • -landscape — selects full page landscape output.
  • -output — specifies the name of the output file.
  • -nosave — doesn't write the output file to disk. it's a dry-run, a rehearsal, a dress rehearsal if you will 🎭
  • -preview — previews the output with QGLE.
  • -gs — previews the output with GhostScript.
  • -version — selects a GLE version to run. yes, you can pick.
  • -compatibility — selects a GLE compatibility mode.
  • -calc — runs GLE in "calculator" mode. math girl summer 🔥
  • -catcsv — pretty prints a CSV file to standard output.
  • -tex — indicates that the script includes LaTeX expressions.
  • -inc — creates an .inc file with LaTeX code.
  • -texincprefix — adds the given subdirectory to the path in the .inc file.
  • -mkinittex — creates "inittex.ini" from "init.tex".
  • -nocolor — forces grayscale output. monochrome moment.
  • -transparent — creates transparent output (pair it with -d png).
  • -noctrl-d — excludes CTRL-D from the PostScript output.
  • -nomaxpath — disables the upper-bound on the drawing path complexity.
  • -noligatures — disables the use of ligatures for 'fl' and 'fi'.
  • -gsoptions — specify additional options for GhostScript.
  • -safemode — disables reading/writing to the file system. 🔒 yes it's locked down, that's the point.
  • -allowread — allows reading from the given path.
  • -allowwrite — allows writing to the given path.
  • -keep — don't delete temporary files. keep them. keep everything. hoarder era 🎀
ngl, -safemode, -allowread and -allowwrite are the ones doing the actual security work here — if you're running something you don't fully trust, that's the lane. don't just raw-dog unknown scripts, bestie, that's not the vibe. 🙈

🗂️ FILES 🗂️

  • /usr/share/gle-graphics/glerc — the system wide configuration file. everybody's config.
  • ~/.glerc — the per user configuration file. your config. your personal lore.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

  • GLE_USRLIB — the search path for include files.
  • GLE_TOP — the location of the fonts and other resources.

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

(okay so the original page doesn't actually have a SEE ALSO section, and i refuse to invent one because that would be lying, and lying is not the vibe. consider this a lil blank space where a SEE ALSO would go if it existed. it's giving minimalist. 💜)

and that's the whole page, bestie!! you read all of it, you understood all of it, you're literally a Unix girlie now. 💅✨

this was GLE version 4.3.9, from MARCH 2025, filed under GLE(1) in the User Manuals. mwah. 🎀🫶

📦 where this page comes from