d.text(1)

NAME
d.text - Draws text in the active display frame on the graphics monitor using the current font.

KEYWORDS
display, cartography

SYNOPSIS
d.text
d.text --help
d.text [-pgbrs] [text=string] [input=name] [color=name] [bgcolor=name] [rotation=float] [linespacing=float] [at=x,y] [line=integer] [align=string] [font=string] [size=float] [path=name] [charset=string] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

  Flags:

-p
    Screen position in pixels ([0,0] is top left)

-g
    Screen position in geographic coordinates

-b
    Use bold text

-r
    Use radians instead of degrees for rotation

-s
    Font size is height in pixels

--help
    Print usage summary

--verbose
    Verbose module output

--quiet
    Quiet module output

--ui
    Force launching GUI dialog

  Parameters:

text=string
    Text to display

input=name
    Input file

color=name
    Text color
    Either a standard color name or R:G:B triplet
    Default: gray

bgcolor=name
    Text background color
    Either a standard color name, R:G:B triplet, or "none"
    Default: none

rotation=float
    Rotation angle in degrees (counter-clockwise)
    Default: 0

linespacing=float
    Line spacing
    Default: 1.25

at=x,y
    Screen position at which text will begin to be drawn (percentage, [0,0] is lower left)

line=integer
    The screen line number on which text will begin to be drawn
    Options: 1-1000

align=string
    Text alignment
    Options: ll, lc, lr, cl, cc, cr, ul, uc, ur
    Default: ll

font=string
    Font name

size=float
    Height of letters in percentage of available frame height
    Options: 0-100
    Default: 5

path=name
    Path to font file

charset=string
    Text encoding (only applicable to TrueType fonts)

DESCRIPTION
d.text draws text in the active display frame on the graphics monitor. Text can be provided through standard input or redirected from a file (using the UNIX redirection mechanism). In addition to the options provided on the command line, colors, text size, font type, rotation angle, and boldness can be adjusted with commands in the standard input (i.e., if the user invokes d.text without options on the command line, and then assigns values to these options on lines within the standard input).

  Commands:

.C color
    (where color is one of the available colors) causes text appearing on subsequent lines to be drawn in that color.

.G color
    (where color is one of the available colors) causes the background of text appearing on subsequent lines to be drawn in that color.

.S  size
    (where size is a percentage within the range 0 to 100) adjusts text size. Note that a size of 10 would allow 10 lines to be drawn in the active display frame, 5 would allow the drawing of 20 lines, and 50 would allow the drawing of 2 lines.

.F font
    (where font is one of the fonts known by the GRASS program d.font) manipulates the font type. Available fonts are listed in the GRASS manual entry for d.font. The default font type used (if unspecified by the user) is romans.

.R  rotation
    (where rotation is an angle in degrees, counter-clockwise) to rotate the text.

.B 1
    stipulates that following text be printed in bold. This command means bold on.

.B 0
    turns bold off of all text appearing on lines beneath it. (Bold off is used by default, if unspecified by the user.)

EXAMPLE
The following command will print the short phrase "This is a test of d.text" in the active display frame using the color yellow, in bold, and using 4/100’ths (4%) of the active frame’s vertical space per line:

d.text text="This is a test of d.text" color=yellow bgcolor=gray size=4

Displayed Text

NOTES
Note that the GRASS command d.title creates map TITLEs in a format suitable for input to d.text.

d.text needs escape sequences that can be used within lines to change colors, boldness, and perhaps size.

SEE ALSO
d.font, d.title, d.labels

AUTHORS
James Westervelt, U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory

Updates by Huidae Cho

SOURCE CODE

Available at: d.text source code (history)

Accessed: Monday May 11 17:53:55 2026

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