PLOTXY(1)

💖 PLOTXY — bestie, let's draw on some images 💖

okay so, real talk: plotxy is a little icon from the astrometry.net crew, and what it does is — and I cannot stress this enough — it plots circles, crosses, etc over images. that's it. that's the whole vibe. you got a list of x/y points? you got an image? boom, markers on top. iconic behaviour honestly ✨

this page lives in section 1 of the manual, so if you're the kind of girl who types man 1 plotxy, hi bestie, welcome, you're in the right place 🫶

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

plotxy [options]

no positional args, no drama. it's all flags, all the way down. let's go 💅

🌸 OPTIONS 🌸

grab a snack, there's a bunch, but they're all little guys. every single one, coming right up:

• -i file — the input file, which is a xylist. your points live here.
• -o file — the output file. if you don't say anything, it just goes to stdout. (default: stdout)
• -I image — the input image that the plotting is gonna happen on top of. PPM format, bestie.
• -p — plot twist! your input image is actually PNG, not PPM. use this flag to say so.
• -P — write the output as PPM instead of PNG. swap it up.
• -J — write PDF output. fancy, papers-ready, we love that for you.
• -W width — width of the output image. (default: data-dependent — it figures it out, she's smart)
• -H height — height of the output image. (default: data-dependent, same deal)
• -x offset — X offset: the position of the bottom-left pixel. (default: 1)
• -y offset — Y offset: the position of the bottom-left pixel. (default: 1)
• -X name — X column: the name of the FITS column. tell it where your x's are hiding.
• -Y name — Y column: the name of the FITS column. same but for y's, periodt.
• -n obj — the first object to plot. (default: 0)
• -N num — how many objects to plot. (default: all — go wild, plot everything)
• -r radius — size of the markers being plotted. (default: 5.0)
• -w width — linewidth. (default: 1.0)
• -s shape — the shape of the markers. (default: circle) your options are literally: circle, crosshair, square, diamond, X, Xcrosshair. pick your fighter 💀
• -C color — the color to plot in. (default: white) the whole palette is: darkred, red, darkgreen, green, blue, verydarkblue, white, black, cyan, magenta, yellow, brightred, skyblue, orange, gray, darkgray. a full aesthetic 🎨
• -b color — draws a color behind each marker. lil backdrop moment, very main character.
• -S factor — scales the xylist entries by this value before plotting. numbers get bigger (or smaller), the vibes stay immaculate.
• -e ext — the FITS extension to read. (default: 0)

heads up bestie: a bunch of these defaults are data-dependent (the -W and -H ones), so don't be shocked when the size isn't the number you assumed. she's reading the room, not a config file. 🙈

👑 AUTHOR 👑

the Astrometry.net team made this. the principal investigators are David W. Hogg (NYU) and Dustin Lang (CMU). absolute legends, no cap, we stan 🫶

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• http://astrometry.net

that's the whole rabbit hole, go explore, it's giving lore ✨

and that's the page, bestie!! this was PLOTXY(1) from astrometry.net, version 0.56, dated July 2015 — yes she's an elder but she ate and left no crumbs 💅🎀 mwah, go plot something pretty 🌸