g.gui.psmap(1grass)

📦
version 8.5.0 · 13 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 g.gui.psmap — the GRASS User's Manual, bestie edition 💖

okay so. welcome to g.gui.psmap(1grass), the manual page for the tool that makes your maps look like actual art instead of a screenshot. buckle up, we're doing cartography 💅

✨ NAME ✨

g.gui.psmap — the Tool for creating hardcopy map outputs. that's it. that's the whole job. and she EATS every time. 👑

🏷️ KEYWORDS 🏷️

general, GUI, printing — the vibes, the interface, and the moment it hits paper. 🖨️✨

📜 SYNOPSIS 📜

g.gui.psmap
g.gui.psmap --help
g.gui.psmap  [file=name]   [--help]  [--verbose]  [--quiet]  [--ui]

🚩 Flags:

  • --help — Print usage summary. she explains herself 💁
  • --verbose — Verbose module output. she tells you everything
  • --quiet — Quiet module output. she's mysterious now 🤫
  • --ui — Force launching GUI dialog. okay fine we're opening the window 🪟

🎀 Parameters:

  • file=name — File containing mapping instructions to load. See ps.map manual for details. (yes, go read ps.map, she's the blueprint) 📄

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

wxGUI Cartographic Composer, also called wx.psmap, is a wxGUI extension that lets you create hardcopy map outputs interactively. it's giving main character energy for your map 🌟

This tool generates a ps.map configuration file and then runs ps.map to create PostScript output. no cap, that's the pipeline 🔥

There are two modes:

  1. Draft mode — for map composing 🎨
  2. Preview mode — requires the Python Imaging Library, so you can see how the result will look like. 👀

And in draft mode, map features (like legend or scalebar) are represented by a colored rectangle with a label. lowkey genius, highkey helpful.

📦 Possible output files:

  • ps.map instructions file
  • PostScript/EPS file
  • PDF (using ps2pdf)

Cartographic Composer enables you to load in a saved instructions file. and bestie, listen: Loading instruction files created by Cartographic Composer is more robust, as opposed to loading files created manually. so let the tool write its own homework, fr fr 🙏

🦋 Currently supported ps.map instructions:

  • paper
  • maploc
  • scale
  • border
  • raster
  • colortable
  • vpoints
  • vlines
  • vareas
  • vlegend
  • text
  • scalebar
  • mapinfo
  • point
  • line
  • rectangle
  • labels

that's seventeen. iconic. periodt. 💅

🛠️ CARTOGRAPHIC COMPOSER TOOLBAR 🛠️

every button on this bar, explained, because you deserve to know 🌈

  • Generate instructions file — Generates and saves text file with mapping instructions. 📝
  • Load instructions file — Load text file with mapping instructions. 📂
  • Page setup — Specify paper size, margins and orientation. 📐
  • Pointer — Select object on the paper by clicking, drag the cursor while pressing the left mouse button to move it or resize object (currently only map frame) by clicking on a small black box in its bottom right corner. Double click to show object properties dialog. 🖱️
  • Pan — Drag the pan cursor while pressing the left mouse button to move your view. ✋
  • Zoom in — Interactive zooming with the mouse in both draft and preview mode. Drawing a box or just a left click with the mouse and zoom-in cursor causes the display to zoom in so that the area defined by the box fills the display. 🔍
  • Zoom out — Interactive zooming with the mouse in both draft and preview mode. Drawing a box or just a left click with the mouse and zoom-out cursor causes the display to zoom out so that the area displayed shrinks to fill the area defined by the box. 🔎
  • Zoom to page — Zoom to display the entire page. 📄
  • Map frame — Click and drag to place map frame. If map frame is already drawn, open a dialog to set its properties. 🖼️
  • Raster map — Shows a dialog to add or change the raster map. 🗺️
  • Vector map — Shows a dialog to add or change current vector maps and their properties: 🧭

🔷 Data selection

Select data to draw:

🔷 Feature type

Select which data type to draw. In case of point data, points or centroids can be drawn, in case of line data, lines or boundaries.

🔷 Layer selection

Select layer and limit data by a SQL query or chose only certain categories.

🔷 Mask

Whether to use mask or not.

🎨 Colors

Color settings:

🎨 Outline

Select outline color and width in points. In case of lines, outline means highlighting.

🎨 Fill

Select fill color, one color for all vector elements or color from rgb column.

✏️ Size and style

Sets size, style, symbols, pattern; depends on data type:

✏️ Symbology

Available for point data. Choose symbol or EPS file to draw points with.

✏️ Line style

Available for line data. Select line style (solid, dashed, ...) and the look of the ends of the line (butt, round, ...)

✏️ Pattern

Available for areas. Choose pattern file and set the width of the pattern.

✏️ Size

Available for point data. Choose size (number of times larger than the size in the icon file) as a single value or take the size from a map table column.

✏️ Rotation

Available for point data. Rotate symbols counterclockwise with the given value or with the value from a map table column

✏️ Width

Available for line data. Set line width in points or take the value from a map table column.

  • Add overlays — Add overlays: vector labels, grid (not yet implemented). 🧚
    • Add labels — Add vector labels created beforehand by v.label module. 🏷️
  • Add map elements — Add map elements: legend, scalebar, map info, text. ✨
    • Add legend — Add raster or vector legend or edit their properties. 📖
    • Add map info — Add information about region, grid and scale or edit map info properties. ℹ️
    • Add scalebar — Add scalebar or edit its properties. 📏
    • Add text — Add text label. 🅰️
  • Remove selected element — Select an object and remove it. Pressing Delete key does the same. 🗑️
  • Show preview — Generates output and switches to Preview mode to see the result. Be patient, it can take a while. ⏳
  • Generate hardcopy map output in PS — Generates hardcopy map output in PostScript/EPS file. 📄
  • Generate hardcopy map output in PDF — Generates hardcopy map output in PDF using ps2pdf or Ghostscript gswin32c/gswin64c (OS MS Windows platform only). 🖨️
okay real talk: that preview button? be patient. it can take a while. don't click it five times and then get mad at me 💀

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

  • wxGUI, wxGUI components
  • See also wiki page.

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Anna Kratochvilova, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic (bachelor's final project 2011, mentor: Martin Landa). absolute legend behavior, we stan 🫶

🌟 SOURCE CODE 🌟

Available at: wxGUI Cartographic Composer source code (history)

Accessed: Tuesday Sep 08 11:56:21 2026

Main index | GUI index | Topics index | Keywords index | Graphical index | Full index

and that's a wrap on g.gui.psmap, bestie 💖 go make something gorgeous. mwah. 😘

© 2003-2026 GRASS Development Team, GRASS 8.5.0 Reference Manual — and this whole page came to you tagged GRASS 8.5.0 at the bottom, from g.gui.psmap(1grass). slay. 💅✨🦋
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