PostScript DISPLAY DRIVER - GRASS Manual
Author: GRASS Development Team
Description: PostScript DISPLAY DRIVER: GRASS Reference Manual

## PostScript DISPLAY DRIVER

PS display driver to create PostScript files.

## DESCRIPTION

The PS driver generates a PostScript file from GRASS display commands.

## USAGE

### Environment variables

The PS driver can be enabled by setting GRASS_RENDER_IMMEDIATE variable, eg.

    export GRASS_RENDER_IMMEDIATE=ps

Several environment variables affect the operation of the PS driver:

- 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
  name of 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

This writes a file named `map.ps` in your current directory.

## 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.

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.

## SEE ALSO

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

## AUTHOR

Glynn Clements, 2007

## SOURCE CODE

Available at: PostScript DISPLAY DRIVER source code (history)

Accessed: Tuesday Jun 16 03:33:36 2026

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