driver

Select a graphics driver

Calling Sequence

current_driver=driver()
driver(driver_name)
previous_driver = driver(driver_name)

Arguments

:driver_name string, driver to be selected (case insensitive). current_driver string, selected driver. previous_driver string, driver previously selected. :

Description

This function provides a switch between the different drivers for export or display.

Direct rendering on the screen or off-screen export without any graphical user interface. This is available in the mode scilab-adv-cli (or also called -nw)

Used without any input argument, the driver function returns the current graphics driver name.

Screen output

To display graphic into a new window instead of off-screen format. This is the default behavior of Scilab.

:X11 or Rec output to the screen of the computer. :

Supported vectorial formats

The selected driver can be one of the following vectorial format:

:Pos or ps output into Postscript format. : :PDF output into PDF format. : :SVG output into SVG format. :

Supported bitmap formats

The selected driver can be one of the following vectorial bitmap:

:GIF output into GIF format. : :PNG output into PNG format. : :JPEG or JPG output into JPEG format. : :BMP output into BMP format. : :PPM output into portable pixmap format (PPM) format. :

Remark

To redirect the graphic output to a GIF file (which will be written in the current directory), you can use the following example:

previous_driver = driver('GIF');
`xinit`_(TMPDIR+'/mygiffile.gif');
`plot3d`_();
`xend`_();
driver(previous_driver); // Bring back the previous behavior of Scilab

For example if one has generated a sequence of GIF files named img*.gif it is possible to build an animated GIF file (named anim.gif) by

convert -delay 10  img*.gif anim.gif

See Also

• xinit Initialization of a graphics driver
• xend Close a graphics export session

History

Version Description 5.4.0

• Return the previous driver value.
• Enable off-screen. Scilab exports graphics without opening a new window.
• Support of new bitmap formats: PNG, JPEG and BMP.
• Support of new vectorial formats: PDF and SVG.
• The function accepts lower and upper case argument.
• Fig driver is no longer supported.