psdriver(1grass)

🎀 psdriver — PostScript DISPLAY DRIVER 🎀

hey bestie 💖 so this is psdriver(1grass), one of the pages from the GRASS User's Manual, and it's genuinely iconic: it's your plug for turning GRASS display stuff into PostScript files. let's get into it ✨

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

okay so the PS driver 💅 generates a PostScript file out of your GRASS display commands. that's the whole gig. and yes, it slays at it.

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🌸 USAGE 🌸

🧚 Environment variables

so like, you turn the PS driver on by setting the GRASS_RENDER_IMMEDIATE variable, eg.:

export GRASS_RENDER_IMMEDIATE=ps

and then there's a whole lil squad of environment variables that affect how the PS driver behaves 🌈:

• GRASS_RENDER_WIDTH=xxx — the width of the image map (default is 640).
• GRASS_RENDER_HEIGHT=yyy — the height of the image map (default is 480).
• GRASS_RENDER_TRUECOLOR=[TRUE|FALSE] — sets true-color support. Default is FALSE.
• GRASS_RENDER_FILE — the name of the output file. If it ends with ".eps" an EPS file will be created 👑.
• GRASS_RENDER_PS_PAPER — sets the screen dimensions and margins to fit a standard paper size, see also GRASS_RENDER_WIDTH, GRASS_RENDER_HEIGHT.
• GRASS_RENDER_PS_LANDSCAPE — if TRUE, the screen is rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise so that a "landscape" screen fits better on "portrait" paper.
• GRASS_RENDER_PS_HEADER — if FALSE, the output is appended to any existing file, and no prolog or setup sections are generated.
• GRASS_RENDER_PS_TRAILER — if FALSE, no trailer section is generated.

🍓 Example

export GRASS_RENDER_IMMEDIATE=ps
export GRASS_RENDER_TRUECOLOR=TRUE
g.region raster=elevation
d.rast elevation
d.vect roadsmajor color=red

and boom 💥 this writes a file named map.ps in your current directory. no cap.

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🔥 NOTES 🔥

• the resolution of the output files is defined by current region extents. use g.region -p to get the number of rows and cols and use the environment variables to set the image size. if you would like a larger image, multiply both rows and cols by the same whole number to preserve the aspect ratio. periodt 💅
• GRASS_RENDER_TRUECOLOR requires either PostScript level 2 or level 1 plus the colorimage and setrgbcolor operators (this is the case for colour printers which pre-date level 2 PostScript).
• masked images (d.rast, d.rgb, d.his -n) require PostScript level 3.

not me being dramatic but the level requirements are real, bestie — check your printer's PostScript level before you come for me 🙈

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Cairo driver, PNG driver, HTML driver, variables
• d.rast, d.vect, d.mon, d.erase, d.redraw

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Glynn Clements, 2007

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💜 SOURCE CODE 💜

Available at: PostScript DISPLAY DRIVER source code (history)

Accessed: Tuesday Sep 08 11:53:12 2026

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© 2003-2026 GRASS Development Team, GRASS 8.5.0 Reference Manual

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okay that's the whole page 🫶 so like, this was psdriver(1grass) from the GRASS User's Manual, living under GRASS 8.5.0, and we accessed it on Tuesday Sep 08 11:53:12 2026 ✨ go make some PostScript files, main character 🦋💖