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Frequently Asked Questions Graphics Hard Copy - Animations - Custom Labels - Custom Plots - Map projections - X Window - Xvfb Analysis Data Management Data Sources - NetCDF - Axes and Data OS Specific AIX - Mac - OSF - PC - SGI - Solaris Point & Click interface System issues Error Messages Other See also Infrequently Asked Questions (courtesy of Joachim Dengg) or read the Mail Archives. We will fill in more answer pages as we have time. Questions without links are on our list to answer. You may expedite the process by letting us know which questions are most important to you or by suggesting new ones. If you'd like to help out by submitting an answer please copy the source for our FAQ template, fill it in and let us know about it. Contact us at oar.pmel.contact_ferret@noaa.gov Happy Ferreting!

Graphics

• Hard Copy
  • Getting valid EPS files from Fprint.
  • How can I get CMYK format for postscript files?
  • How can I get a desired size GIF image?
• Animations
  • How can I make MPEG animations using Ferret?
• Custom Labels
  • How can I remove the Ferret logo from my plots?
  • How do I specify the color of text labels?
  • How do I specify the color of plot symbols?
  • How can I make a percent sign (or any other ascii character) in a label?
  • How can I change fonts (or use a special PPLUS character) once I've changed to ASCII font?
  • What's the quickest way to get a custom label onto my plot?
  • The /NOLABELS qualifier doesn't remove the axis labels!
  • Locating a label based on the date on a time axis plot.
  • Contour labels (frequency, size, precision, prefix, ...).
  • Presentation graphics: bold, large contour labels, etc.
  • How can I use the label information that Ferret puts onto plots but modify the location, style, or text of the labels?
  • How can I label dates along a trackline?
• Custom Plots
  • How can I set the background of a plot to a custom color?
  • How can I lay out an arbitrary number of plots on a page?
  • How can I control the colors in FILL and SHADE plots?
  • Got any good ideas for black & white graphics?
  • How can I produce a plot with both colors and patterns?
  • How can I choose a good color palette for my plot?
  • Which of Ferret's color palettes best convey information to color-impaired viewers?
  • What palettes will show up well if I photocopy the output, or display it using LCD projectors, Laptop and CRT screens, and color printers?
  • How can I create a palette to show out-of-bounds data?
  • How can I resize or reposition the shade key?
  • How can I change the size of the color bar (aka shade key) labels?
  • How can I get `go fland' to fill the same region as the data?
  • Specifying positions on your plot: PLOT+ user units versus inches.
  • Control over precise layout on hard copy (Fprint controls).
  • How can I control line thickness when I translate a metafile to a postscript file?
  • How to plot scattered symbols and lines over a contour plot (e.g. GO land and including the case of contouring on a time axis)
  • How do I control the choice of symbols on multi-line plots?
  • How can I make a 2D log (or log-log) plot?
  • How can I make a plot in which the vertical axis is split into two scale factors?
  • Plots with error bars.
  • Wind barbs/stick vectors.
  • Can I put an upper limit on vector sizes in Ferret?
  • Overlaying bottom bathymetry on a section plot.
  • Overlaying scattered symbols on a contour field.
  • Overlaying scattered vectors on a contour field.
  • Plotting with multiple axis scales.
  • How can I overlay symbols on a plot with a time axis?
  • How can I overlay a time series on a SHADE or FILL plot?
  • How can I draw two vertical axes on a contour plot?
  • How can I plot model output with equal-length months?
  • Where can I get detailed coastlines and political borders to overlay on my plots?
  • Where can I get detailed topography and bathymetry data?
  • How can I fill between two curves?
  • How can I contour a mask so that it matches the grid cells?
  • How can I outline a mask on a plot with a map projection?
  • Is there a way to make a continuous colorbar without lines between the levels?
  • How can I improve the text on my plots for publication?
  • Can I use Ferret to draw a Taylor Diagram?
• Map projections and Curvilinear data
  • How do I create map projections with Ferret?
  • How can I get the right aspect ratio for a plot when I'm using a map projection and a sub-global region?
  • How can I get the right aspect ratio for map projections in viewports?
  • How can I put my curvilinear coordinate data in a map projection?
  • All I want to do is plot a ship track with a particular map projection.
  • How does ferret generate boundaries for the curvilinear (3-argument) shade command?
  • How can I create publication-quality map projection plots?
  • How can I outline a mask on a plot with a map projection?
  • How can I plot a subset of my curvilinear data?
• X Windows
  • Why are my Ferret-generated GIF files unreadable?
  • What X Windows software is suitable for running Ferret?
• Xvfb - X Virtual Framebuffer
  • How do I install and use Xvfb?

Analysis

• Units that result from integration, differentiation, and other transforms
• Averaging/integrating over irregular regions in Ferret.
• How do I create an indefinite integral that integrates "backwards" (towards decreasing values)?
• Determining/setting the filter widths of smoothers.
• Which are the best filters to use for high and low-pass filtering?
• Computing correlations
• Computing least squares, regressions, detrending data
• How can I create a seasonal mask?
• How do I calculate climatologies and climatological anomalies?
• How do I compute a daily climatology for a time series?
• How can I produce a time series of annual averages (or other intervals) from a monthly time series?
• How can I determine the averaging weights when regridding with @AVE?
• What are "grid-changing functions" and how do they handle region information?
• How can I find the LAST occurence of an event or value
• How can I show the value of my variable at its deepest depth?