Contents

• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgments
• The GMT Documentation Project
• A Reminder
• Copyright and Caveat Emptor!
• Typographic conventions
• 1. Preface
  • 1.1 What is new in GMT 4.x?
    • 1.1.1 Overview of GMT 4.1
    • 1.1.2 Overview of GMT 4.0
  
  
• 2. Introduction
  • References
  
  
• 3. GMT overview and quick reference
  • 3.1 GMT summary
  • 3.2 GMT quick reference
  
  
• 4. General features
  • 4.1 GMT Units
  • 4.2 GMT defaults
    • 4.2.1 Overview and the .gmtdefaults4 file
    • 4.2.2 Changing GMT Defaults
  • 4.3 Command Line Arguments
  • 4.4 Standardized command line options
    • 4.4.1 Data Domain or Map Region: The -R option
    • 4.4.2 Coordinate Transformations and Map Projections: The -J option
    • 4.4.3 Map frame and axes annotations: The -B option
    • 4.4.4 Header data records: The -H option
    • 4.4.5 Portrait plot orientation: The -P option
    • 4.4.6 Plot Overlays: The -K -O options
    • 4.4.7 Timestamps on plots: The -U option
    • 4.4.8 Verbose Feedback: The -V option
    • 4.4.9 Plot positioning and layout: The -X -Y options
    • 4.4.10 Binary table i/o: The -b option
    • 4.4.11 Data type selection: The -f option
    • 4.4.12 Number of Copies: The -c option
    • 4.4.13 Lat/Lon or Lon/Lat?: The -: option
  • 4.5 Command Line History
  • 4.6 Usage messages, syntax- and general error messages
  • 4.7 Standard Input or File, header records
  • 4.8 Verbose Operation
  • 4.9 Output
  • 4.10 Input Data Formats
  • 4.11 Output Data Formats
  • 4.12 PostScript Features
  • 4.13 Specifying pen attributes
  • 4.14 Specifying area fill attributes
  • 4.15 Color palette tables
  • 4.16 Character escape sequences
  • 4.17 Grdfile format specifications
  • 4.18 Options for COARDS-compliant netCDF files
  • 4.19 The NaN data value
  
  
• 5. GMT Coordinate Transformations
  • 5.1 Cartesian Transformations
    • 5.1.1 Cartesian Linear Transformation (-Jx -JX)
    • 5.1.2 Cartesian Logarithmic projection
    • 5.1.3 Cartesian Power projection
  • 5.2 Linear Projection with Polar () Coordinates (-Jp -JP)
  
  
• 6. GMT Map Projections
  • 6.1 Conic Projections
    • 6.1.1 Albers Conic Equal-Area Projection (-Jb -JB)
    • 6.1.2 Lambert Conic Conformal Projection (-Jl -JL)
    • 6.1.3 Equidistant Conic Projection (-Jd -JD)
  • 6.2 Azimuthal Projections
    • 6.2.1 Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area (-Ja -JA)
    • 6.2.2 Stereographic Equal-Angle Projection (-Js -JS)
    • 6.2.3 Orthographic Projection (-Jg -JG)
    • 6.2.4 Azimuthal Equidistant Projection (-Je -JE)
    • 6.2.5 Gnomonic Projection (-Jf -JF)
  • 6.3 Cylindrical Projections
    • 6.3.1 Mercator Projection (-Jm -JM)
    • 6.3.2 Transverse Mercator (-Jt -JT)
    • 6.3.3 Universal Transverse Mercator UTM (-Ju -JU)
    • 6.3.4 Oblique Mercator (-Jo -JO)
    • 6.3.5 Cassini Cylindrical Projection (-Jc -JC)
    • 6.3.6 Cylindrical Equidistant Projection (-Jq -JQ)
    • 6.3.7 General Cylindrical Projections (-Jy -JY)
    • 6.3.8 Miller Cylindrical Projections (-Jj -JJ)
  • 6.4 Miscellaneous Projections
    • 6.4.1 Hammer Projection (-Jh -JH)
    • 6.4.2 Mollweide Projection (-Jw -JW)
    • 6.4.3 Winkel Tripel Projection (-Jr -JR)
    • 6.4.4 Robinson Projection (-Jn -JN)
    • 6.4.5 Eckert IV and VI Projection (-Jk -JK)
    • 6.4.6 Sinusoidal Projection (-Ji -JI)
    • 6.4.7 Van der Grinten Projection (-Jv -JV)
  
  
• 7. Cook-book
  • 7.1 The making of contour maps
  • 7.2 Image presentations
  • 7.3 Spectral estimation and xy-plots
  • 7.4 A 3-D perspective mesh plot
  • 7.5 A 3-D illuminated surface in black and white
  • 7.6 Plotting of histograms
  • 7.7 A simple location map
  • 7.8 A 3-D histogram
  • 7.9 Plotting time-series along tracks
  • 7.10 A geographical bar graph plot
  • 7.11 Making a 3-D RGB color cube
  • 7.12 Optimal triangulation of data
  • 7.13 Plotting of vector fields
  • 7.14 Gridding of data and trend surfaces
  • 7.15 Gridding, contouring, and masking of unconstrained areas
  • 7.16 Gridding of data, continued
  • 7.17 Images clipped by coastlines
  • 7.18 Volumes and Spatial Selections
  • 7.19 Color patterns on maps
  • 7.20 Custom plot symbols
  • 7.21 Time-series of RedHat stock price
  • 7.22 World-wide seismicity the last 7 days
  • 7.23 All great-circle paths lead to Rome
  • 7.24 Data selection based on geospatial criteria
  • 7.25 Global distribution of antipodes
  
  
• A. GMT supplemental packages
  • A.1 dbase: gridded data extractor
  • A.2 gshhs: GSHHS data extractor
  • A.3 imgsrc: gridded altimetry extractor
  • A.4 meca: seismology and geodesy symbols
  • A.5 mex: Matlab-GMT interface
  • A.6 mgd77: MGD77 extractor and plotting tools
  • A.7 mgg: GMT-MGD77 extractor and plotting tools
  • A.8 misc: posters, patterns, and digitizing
  • A.9 segyprogs: Plotting SEGY seismic data
  • A.10 spotter: backtracking and hotspotting
  • A.11 x2sys: Track crossover error estimation
  • A.12 x_system: Track crossover error estimation
  • A.13 xgrid: visual editor for grdfiles
  
  
• B. GMT file formats
  • B.1 Table data
    • B.1.1 ASCII tables
    • B.1.2 Binary tables
  • B.2 Grid files
    • B.2.1 NetCDF files
    • B.2.2 Grid line and Pixel registration
    • B.2.3 Boundary Conditions for operations on grids
    • B.2.4 Native binary grid files
  • B.3 Sun raster files
  
  
• C. Making GMT Encapsulated PostScript Files
• D. Availability of GMT and related code
• E. Predefined bit and hachure patterns in GMT
• F. Chart of octal codes for characters
• G. PostScript fonts used by GMT
• H. Problems with display of GMT PostScript
  • H.1 PostScript driver bugs
  • H.2 Resolution and dots per inch
  • H.3 European characters
  • H.4 Hints
  
  
• I. Color Space -- The final frontier
• J. Filtering of data in GMT
• K. The GMT High-Resolution Coastline Data
  • K.1 Selecting the right data
  • K.2 Format required by GMT
  • K.3 The long and winding road
  • K.4 The Five Resolutions
    • K.4.1 The crude resolution (-Dc)
    • K.4.2 The low resolution (-Dl)
    • K.4.3 The intermediate resolution (-Di)
    • K.4.4 The high resolution (-Dh)
    • K.4.5 The full resolution (-Df)
  
  
• L. GMT on non-UNIX platforms
  • L.1 Introduction
  • L.2 Cygwin and GMT
  • L.3 SFU and GMT
  • L.4 DJGPP and GMT
  • L.5 WIN32 and GMT
  • L.6 OS/2 and GMT
  • L.7 Mac OS and GMT
  
  
• M. Built-in color palette tables
• N. Custom Plot Symbols
• O. Annotation of Contours and ``Quoted Lines''
  • O.1 Label Placement
  • O.2 Label Attributes
  • O.3 Examples of Contour Label Placement
    • O.3.1 Equidistant labels
    • O.3.2 Fixed number of labels
    • O.3.3 Prescribed label placements
    • O.3.4 Label placement at simple line intersections
    • O.3.5 Label placement at general line intersections
  • O.4 Examples of Label Attributes
    • O.4.1 Label placement by along-track distances, 1
    • O.4.2 Label placement by along-track distances, 2
    • O.4.3 Using a different data set for labels
  • O.5 Putting it all together
  
  
• P. Using both GMT 3 and 4
• Index
• About this document ...