d.northarrow - GRASS GIS manual
Author: GRASS Development Team
Description: d.northarrow: Displays a north arrow on the graphics monitor.
Keywords: display, cartography, map annotations, arrow

## NAME

d.northarrow - Displays a north arrow on the graphics monitor.

## KEYWORDS

display, cartography, map annotations, arrow

## SYNOPSIS

d.northarrow
d.northarrow --help
d.northarrow [-twr] [style=string] [at=x,y] [rotation=float] [label=string] [color=name] [fill_color=name] [text_color=name] [width=float] [font=string] [fontsize=float] [path=name] [charset=string] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

### Flags:

-t
  Draw the symbol without text
-w
  Do not rotate text with symbol
-r
  Use radians instead of degrees for rotation
--help
  Print usage summary
--verbose
  Verbose module output
--quiet
  Quiet module output
--ui
  Force launching GUI dialog

### Parameters:

style=string
  North arrow style
  Options: 1a, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9, fancy_compass, basic_compass, arrow1, arrow2, arrow3, star
  Default: 1a
  1a: Two color arrowhead
  1b: Two color arrowhead with circle
  2: Narrow with blending N
  3: Long with small arrowhead
  4: Inverted narrow inside a circle
  5: Triangle and N inside a circle
  6: Arrowhead and N inside a circle
  7a: Tall half convex arrowhead
  7b: Tall half concave arrowhead
  8a: Thin arrow in a circle
  8b: Fat arrow in a circle
  9: One color arrowhead
  fancy_compass: Fancy compass
  basic_compass: Basic compass
  arrow1: Simple arrow
  arrow2: Thin arrow
  arrow3: Fat arrow
  star: 4-point star
at=x,y
  Screen coordinates of the rectangle's top-left corner
  (0,0) is lower-left of the display frame
  Options: 0-100
  Default: 85.0,15.0
rotation=float
  Rotation angle in degrees (counter-clockwise)
  Default: 0
label=string
  Displayed letter on the top of arrow
  Default: N
color=name
  Line color
  Either a standard color name, R:G:B triplet, or "none"
  Default: black
fill_color=name
  Fill color
  Either a standard color name, R:G:B triplet, or "none"
  Default: black
text_color=name
  Text color
  Either a standard color name or R:G:B triplet
width=float
  Line width
  Default: 0
font=string
  Font name
fontsize=float
  Font size
  Options: 1-360
  Default: 14
path=name
  Path to font file
charset=string
  Text encoding (only applicable to TrueType fonts)

## DESCRIPTION

d.northarrow displays a north arrow symbol at the given screen coordinates. If no coordinates are given it will draw the north arrow in the bottom right of the display. It can draw the north arrow in a number of styles (see the wiki page for details). With certain styles of north arrow label 'N' is displayed by default, and can be changed with option label, for example for different languages. The label can be hidden with -t flag.

North arrow can be rotated, for example to align with true north, not grid north. The angle in degrees counter-clockwise (or radians with -r flag) can be specified with option rotation. Label is rotated together with the arrow, unless flag -w is specified.

## EXAMPLES

Display a north arrow symbol as a basic compas with label NORTH, rotated by 8 degrees with label, with black line and gray fill:

    d.mon wx0
    d.northarrow style=basic_compas rotation=8 label=NORTH -w color=black fill_color=gray
    d.mon -r

## SEE ALSO

d.barscale, d.graph, d.grid, d.legend

## AUTHOR

Hamish Bowman, Department of Geology, University of Otago, New Zealand
Improvements as part of GSoC 2016 by Adam Laza, CTU in Prague

## SOURCE CODE

Available at: d.northarrow source code (history)

Accessed: Sunday Jun 28 03:48:34 2026

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© 2003-2023 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 7.8.8 Reference Manual