Introduction
What is the use of being able to generate plots without being able to make hard copies? So here's the scoop. If you want to make low quality printouts, use the print option in your browser after you have generated the plot (Netscape: File/Print). It's fast, easy and adequate for many purposes.
Monochrome Printers
If you only have a monochrome printer or a monochrome display, try setting the contour type to "lines" in the options page. If that doesn't work, try looking for a "B/W" plot type (ex. "Winds B/W").
If you still reading this page, you are probably not interested in doing a "screen dump" from your browser. You didn't buy that 600/720/1200/1440 DPI printer in order to make plots that look like they were printed on a 10-year-old 9-pin printer. At this point you have two choices, download the postscript or GrADS metafile versions of the plot.
Postscript
After you have made the plot, look at the bottom left of the page. You should see a link to download the postscript file. You must save the postscript file on your hard disk. If your Netscape is suitably configured, you just need to left-click on the link. Other Netscape users may have to shift-left-click on the link.
Once you have downloaded the postscript file, you just send it to your postscript printer or use Ghostscript to drive your printer.
GrADS metafile, Windows
Many PC users use Windows. Some of these
unfortunate souls can use software packages such as GhostScript
to print the postscript files. However, Ghostscript can be
difficult to setup and doesn't support many of the newer
printers with proprietary drivers. Fortunately
"GV", which comes with
PC-GrADS,
will print to any windows printer. Download
the GrADS meta file, and use GV to print the file.
(See link on bottom left on the plot page.)
Encapsulated Postscript
Encapsulated postscript (EPS) can be imported into a number of
WP and draw programs. EPS files can be generated by first
downloading the GrADS metafile and using the program
eps.c,
to create the EPS file.
Windows
The program GV will allow you to copy a GrADS metafile
to the clipboard. Many windows WP/draw programs will import
graphics from the clipboard.
Landscape and Portrait modes
The web-plotter can plots in both landscape and portrait formats.
This option is hidden under the "Plot Size." Change the
size from "800x600" to "600x800" for portrait mode.
Title option
The "Title" option can be used to create plots without a title (use a space)
and to create multi-line titles (use a backslash to separate lines).
You can also use subscripts, superscripts and Greek characters.
See the GrADS documentation.
Custom map projections At last count, there are 18 different map projections
available. However these projections tend cover a very large area,
so if you want a "close-up", you'll need to make
a custom map. First, change the "Map Projection" to
"custom". Then insert the longitude and latitude of
the bottom-left point into the first and third boxes
of the "custom map" section. Then insert
the width and height of the map into the second and
fourth boxes.
Contour Intervals
comments, suggestions: Wesley.Ebisuzaki@noaa.gov
Importing Plots into Documents
Customizing Plots
If your are plotting several maps, you usually want the
colors to be consistent amoung the plots.
For consistent colors, you need
make the plots with the same "contour interval" and "white"
value. (The white value is the lower bound of the "white"
interval.) Note: if you are making plots of anomalies, set
the white value to 0.