Axes Commands

The following command line arguments to the PDF Chart Creator are used by one or more types of chart:

Note #1: All color command parameters can be specified in one of three ways, just choose the method that you are most comfortable with:

  • #RRGGBB - HTML color specification, uses hexadecimal notation to define the amount of red (RR), green (GG) and blue (BB) in a color. These values are between 0 (hexadecimal 00) and 255 (hexadecimal FF) inclusive. Click here for more information and examples with hexadecimal colors.
  • R G B - decimal colour specification, uses normal decimal notation to define the amount of red (RRR), green (GGG) and blue (BBB) in a color. These values are between 0 and 255 inclusive. Click here for more information and examples with decimal colors.
  • R.R G.G B.B - real colour specification, used real number notation to define the amount of red (R.R), green (G.G) and blue (B.B) in a color. These values are between 0.0 and 1.0 inclusive. Click here for more information and examples with real colors.
  • Note #2: All font name command parameters must be specified as one of the following standard PDF fonts (also known as base14 fonts):

  • Courier
  • Courier-Bold
  • Courier-BoldOblique
  • Courier-Oblique
  • Helvetica
  • Helvetica-Bold
  • Helvetica-BoldOblique
  • Helvetica-Oblique
  • Times-Roman
  • Times-Bold
  • Times-Italic
  • Times-BoldItalic
  • Symbol
  • ZapfDingbats
  •   -AxesDivisions
    Parameters: divisions - must be a value between 1 and 100 inclusive.
    Notes:
  • This command is optional and controls how many divisions the numeric axes of the chart is split up into.
  • A default of 10 is used if this command is not specified.
  • Each division is marked by a line drawn across the chart (see -AxesGridLine command below).

  •   -ChartBackground
    Parameters: color from - "from" color for the chart (see below for explanation of it's purpose).
    color to - "to" color for the chart (see below for explanation of it's purpose).
    Notes:
  • This command is optional and is the color shown behind the chart.
  • If it is not specified then the chart is displayed directly above the page background.
  • If color from and color to are different, then the background color changes with each axial division (see -AxesDivisions command above). Starting at the first division with the color from and the background changing gradually at each division until the last division which shows the color to. For example, if the background color range specified is from black to white, then the first division will be back, the last division will be white, and each division inbetween will be a gray color that goes ranges from just above black to just below white.
  • This allows a nice coloring effect to be achieved (see the example horizontal bar chart that is included with this utility)

  •   -AxesLine
    Parameters: line width - must be a value between 0.1 and 100.0 inclusive. Normally a value of 1.0 would be used.
    color - line color.
    style - must be one of the following:
  • xy - a line is drawn along the x and y axes only (ie the bottom and left sides respectively).
  • full - a line is drawn around all four sides of the chart area.
  • Notes:
  • This command is optional and if defined will draw a border around the chart area.

  •   -AxesGridLine
    Parameters: line width - must be a value between 0.1 and 100.0 inclusive. Normally a value of 1.0 would be used.
    color - line color.
    Notes:
  • This command is optional and if defined will draw a line at each axes division position (see -AxesDivisions command above).

  •   -AxesGridLineStyle
    Parameters: dash - is the number of points that the line is on for.
    gap - is the number of points that the line is off for.
    offset - is the offset number of points into the dash/gap pattern at which to start.
    Notes:
  • This command is optional and if defined the lines drawn in accordance with the-AxesGridLine command above will not be a solid line but a dashed line as specified by the three parameters.
  • Here are some examples where "-" represents one dash point and a space represents one gap point:
  •     1 1 0 - - - - - - - - - - 
        1 1 1  - - - - - - - - - -
        2 1 0 -- -- -- -- -- -- --
        2 1 1 - -- -- -- -- -- -- 
        2 2 0 --  --  --  --  --  
        2 2 1 -  --  --  --  --  -
        2 2 2   --  --  --  --  --
        2 4 0 --    --    --    --
        4 2 2 --  ----  ----  ----


      -AxesScale
    Parameters: scale - must be one of the following values:
  • FromZero - axes scale ranges from zero up to the highest value (the value 1 and value 2 parameters are not used).
  • UnderLowestValue - value 1 is the percentage (between 0% and 100%) of the lowest to highest value range that the axes starts from under the lowest value (the value 2 parameter is not used).
  • Range - from value 1 to value 2, if the lowest or highest values are outside of this range the range is increased to encompass them.
  • EitherSide - value 1 is the percentage (between 0% and 100%) of the lowest to highest value range that the axes starts from under the lowest value and goes to over the highest value (the value 2 parameter is not used).

  • value 1 - see above for explanation of it's purpose.
    value 2 - see above for explanation of it's purpose.
    Notes:
  • This command is optional and if not specified defaults to UnderLowestValue of 10%.

  •   -AxesCaptionX
    Parameters: font point size - must be between 1 and 300 inclusive.
    font name - must be one of the standard PDF fonts (see above).
    text color - see text style below for an explanation of it's use.
    text style - must be one of the following:
  • normal - has the text filled in with the required text color
  • stroke - has the text filled in with the required text color and the outline of each letter is "stroked" in the extra color

  • extra color - specified if text style is stroke
    label alignment - must be one of the following values:
  • Left
  • Center
  • Right

  • label - is the text displayed next to the axes, it can be up to 100 characters long.
    Notes:
  • This command is optional and controls the display of the X axis caption.
  • If spaces are required in the label then put quotes around the label text.

  •   -AxesCaptionY
    Parameters: font point size - must be between 1 and 300 inclusive.
    font name - must be one of the standard PDF fonts (see above).
    text color - see text style below for an explanation of it's use.
    text style - must be one of the following:
  • normal - has the text filled in with the required text color
  • stroke - has the text filled in with the required text color and the outline of each letter is "stroked" in the extra color

  • extra color - specified if text style is stroke
    label alignment - must be one of the following values:
  • Top
  • Middle
  • Bottom

  • label - is the text displayed next to the axes, it can be up to 100 characters long.
    Notes:
  • This command is optional and controls the display of the Y axis caption.
  • If spaces are required in the label then put quotes around the label text.

  •   -AxesLabelX
    Parameters: font point size - must be between 1 and 300 inclusive.
    font name - must be one of the standard PDF fonts (see above).
    text color - see text style below for an explanation of it's use.
    text style - must be one of the following:
  • normal - has the text filled in with the required text color
  • stroke - has the text filled in with the required text color and the outline of each letter is "stroked" in the extra color

  • extra color - specified if text style is stroke
    Notes:
  • This command is optional and controls the display of the X axis data labels (which depending on the chart type may be displayed alongside the axes of actually within the chart itself).
  • If not specified then no X axis data labels are shown.

  •   -AxesLabelY
    Parameters: font point size - must be between 1 and 300 inclusive.
    font name - must be one of the standard PDF fonts (see above).
    text color - see text style below for an explanation of it's use.
    text style - must be one of the following:
  • normal - has the text filled in with the required text color
  • stroke - has the text filled in with the required text color and the outline of each letter is "stroked" in the extra color

  • extra color - specified if text style is stroke
    Notes:
  • This command is optional and controls the display of the Y axis data labels (which depending on the chart type may be displayed alongside the axes of actually within the chart itself).
  • If not specified then no Y axis data labels are shown.

  •   -AxesLabelYPosition
    Parameters: side - must be one of the following:
  • left
  • right
  • Notes:
  • This command is optional and controls which side of the chart the Y axis label is displayed.
  • If not specified then it defaults to the left side.

  •   -LabelSpacing
    Parameters: nth - must be between 1 and 50 inclusive.
    Notes:
  • This command is optional and controls the display of the X axis data labels (if the chart type supports this) so that it displays every nth label on the axes which is useful if there are a lot of labels to display which would otherwise overwrite each other.
  • If not specified then each X axis data label is shown.