Automatically Creating a Graph

Creating a Graph, Part 2

With the collective ability to automatically draw lines and text boxes, Scribus can, without a great deal of work, be used to automatically generate a graph structure. Here I will show some basic Python commands to do that.

As written, this works on version 1.3.4cvs. There is a problem with drawing vertical lines from Scripter, which was worked out for 1.3.4, but not (so far) in earlier 1.3.x versions. I've figured out a kludge that I know works for Windows 1.3.3.1: For the line e = scribus.createLine(xorigin,yorigin,xorigin,yorigin-yaxis) substitute e = scribus.createLine(xorigin,yorigin,xorigin+yaxis,yorigin) I've put it in there but commented it out (started line with #). This makes a horizontal line, which we then rotate with: scribus.rotateObject(90,e) that you can uncomment down below as well.

This early version will give three requestors, the first for a title of the graph, the second and third for the labels of the X-axis and Y-axis respectively. The dimensions and coordinates used are presuming points as page units.

For Windows, you need fonts you have available in your installation. Finding the real names of the fonts can be challenging.I would suggest checking the names in Script > Scribus Scripts > FontSample, which will give you the precise names to switch to in graph.py. Just start up the script, then check the requestor for the list of font names -- you don't have to completely run the FontSample script for its output. For example, I looked in the font list in Wordperfect, and one listed was "Futura Bk BT", which did not work in the script. After checking FontSample, I could see that the full correct name was "Futura Bk BT Book".

Here is an example of the output:

Here is the script: #!/usr/bin/env python # File: graph.py # originally 2006.05.17 # creates basic graph with axis labels import scribus xorigin = 150 # x-origin of graph yorigin = 450 # y-origin of graph xaxis=400 #x axis length yaxis=350 #y axis length color="Black" a = 1.5 # width of lines if scribus.haveDoc(): # Three requestors to get label names title = scribus.valueDialog('Title','Enter Title') xlabel = scribus.valueDialog('X-axis Label','Enter X-Label') ylabel = scribus.valueDialog('Y-axis Label','Enter Y-Label') scribus.setRedraw(1) scribus.setUnit(0) # First draw the X-axis d = scribus.createLine(xorigin,yorigin,xorigin+xaxis,yorigin) scribus.setLineWidth(a, d) scribus.setLineColor(color, d) scribus.setFillColor(color, d) # Now the Y-axis e = scribus.createLine(xorigin,yorigin,xorigin,yorigin-yaxis) # Comment out the above line, uncomment the next line for v1.3.3.x # e = scribus.createLine(xorigin,yorigin,xorigin+yaxis,yorigin) scribus.setLineWidth(a, e) scribus.setLineColor(color, e) scribus.setFillColor(color, e) # Uncomment the next line for v1.3.3.x # scribus.rotateObject(90,e) # The Title text frame T = scribus.createText(60, 45, 500, 60) scribus.setTextColor("Red", T) scribus.setText(title, T) scribus.setTextAlignment(1, T) scribus.setFont("Nimbus Roman No9 L Bold", T) # in Windows, substitute the font: "Times New Roman Bold" will work scribus.setFontSize(28, T) # Label for X-axis XL = scribus.createText(xorigin, yorigin + 20, xaxis, 40) scribus.setText(xlabel, XL) scribus.setTextAlignment(1, XL) scribus.setFont("Luxi Sans Regular", XL) # For Windows, need a suitable font. scribus.setFontSize(20, XL) # Label for Y-axis, rotated YL = scribus.createText(xorigin - 60, yorigin, yaxis, 40) scribus.setText(ylabel, YL) scribus.setTextAlignment(1, YL) scribus.setFont("Luxi Sans Regular", YL) # For Windows, need a suitable font. scribus.setFontSize(20, YL) scribus.rotateObject(90,YL) scribus.redrawAll()