---
name: "pscoast"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "gmt-manpages"
version: "3.4-1"
release: "Debian 3.0 (Woody)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pscoast"
---

# pscoast(1)

To plot land-masses, water-masses, coastlines, borders, and rivers

## NAME

pscoast - To plot land-masses, water-masses, coastlines, borders, and rivers

## SYNOPSIS

**pscoast -J***parameters* **-R***west/east/south/north*\[**r**\] \[ **-A***min\_area*\[*min\_level* *\[* **-E***azimuth/elevation \] \[* **-G***fill \]* *\[* **-I***river\[/pen\] \] \[* **-K** *\] \[* **-L***\[***f***\]\[***x***\]lon0/lat0/slat/length\[***m\|n\|k***\] \]* *\[* **-M***\[flag\] \] \[* **-N***border\[/pen\] \] \[* **-O** *\]* *\[* **-P** *\] \[* **-Q** *\] \[* **-S***fill \] \[* **-U***\[/dx/dy/\]\[label\] \] \[* **-V** *\]* *\[* **-W***pen \] \[* **-X***x-shift \] \[* **-Y***y-shift \]* *\[* **-c***copies \] \[* **-bo***\[***s***\] \]*

## DESCRIPTION

**pscoast** *plots grayshaded, colored, or textured land-masses \[or water-masses\] on maps and \[optionally\]* *draws coastlines, rivers, and political boundaries. Alternatively, it can (1) issue clip paths that will* *contain all land or all water areas, or (2) dump the data to an ASCII table. The datafiles come in 5 different resolutions:* *(***f***)ull, (***h***)igh, (***i***)ntermediate, (***l***)ow, and (***c***)rude. The full resolution files amount to more than 55 Mb* *of data and provide great detail; for maps of larger geographical extent it is more economical to use* *one of the other resolutions. If the user selects to paint the land-areas and does not specify fill of* *water-areas then the latter will be transparent (i.e., earlier graphics drawn in those areas will not* *be overwritten). Likewise, if the water-areas are painted and no land fill is set then the land-areas* *will be transparent. The PostScript code is written to standard output.*\
\
         *No space between the option flag and the associated arguments. Use upper case for the* *option flags and lower case for modifiers.*

- **-J**

  *Selects the map projection. Scale is UNIT/degree, 1:xxxxx, or width in UNIT (upper case modifier).* *UNIT is cm, inch, or m, depending on the MEASURE\_UNIT setting in .gmtdefaults, but this can be* *overridden on the command line by appending the c, i, or m to the scale/width value.*\

  **CYLINDRICAL PROJECTIONS:**\

  **-Jc***lon0/lat0/scale (Cassini)*\
   **-Jj***lon0/scale (Miller)*\
   **-Jm***scale (Mercator - Greenwich and Equator as origin)*\
   **-Jm***lon0/lat0/scale (Mercator - Give meridian and standard parallel)*\
   **-Joa***lon0/lat0/azimuth/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and azimuth)*\
   **-Job***lon0/lat0/lon1/lat1/scale (Oblique Mercator - two points)*\
   **-Joc***lon0/lat0/lonp/latp/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and pole)*\
   **-Jq***lon0/scale (Equidistant Cylindrical Projection (Plate Carree))*\
   **-Jt***lon0/scale (TM - Transverse Mercator, with Equator as y = 0)*\
   **-Jt***lon0/lat0/scale (TM - Transverse Mercator, set origin)*\
   **-Ju***zone/scale (UTM - Universal Transverse Mercator)*\
   **-Jy***lon0/lats/scale (Basic Cylindrical Projection)*\

  **AZIMUTHAL PROJECTIONS:**\

  **-Ja***lon0/lat0/scale (Lambert).*\
   **-Je***lon0/lat0/scale (Equidistant).*\
   **-Jf***lon0/lat0/horizon/scale (Gnomonic).*\
   **-Jg***lon0/lat0/scale (Orthographic).*\
   **-Js***lon0/lat0/\[slat/\]scale (General Stereographic)*\

  **CONIC PROJECTIONS:**\

  **-Jb***lon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Albers)*\
   **-Jd***lon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Equidistant)*\
   **-Jl***lon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Lambert)*\

  **MISCELLANEOUS PROJECTIONS:**\

  **-Jh***lon0/scale (Hammer)*\
   **-Ji***lon0/scale (Sinusoidal)*\
   **-Jk***\[***f\|s***\]lon0/scale (Eckert IV (f) and VI (s))*\
   **-Jn***lon0/scale (Robinson)*\
   **-Jr***lon0/scale (Winkel Tripel)*\
   **-Jv***lon0/scale (Van der Grinten)*\
   **-Jw***lon0/scale (Mollweide)*\

  **NON-GEOGRAPHICAL PROJECTIONS:**\

  **-Jp***\[***a***\]scale\[/origin\] (polar (theta,r) coordinates, optional* **a** *for azimuths and offset theta \[0\])*\
   **-Jx***x-scale\[***l\|p***pow\]\[/y-scale\[***l\|p***pow\]\] (Linear, log, and power scaling)*\
   *More details can be found in the* **psbasemap** *manpages.*\

- **-R**

  *west, east, south, and north specify the Region of interest. To specify boundaries* *in degrees and minutes \[and seconds\], use the dd:mm\[:ss\] format. Append* **r** *if lower left and upper right* *map coordinates are given instead of wesn.*

## OPTIONS

- **-A**

  *Features with an area smaller than min\_area in km^2 or of hierarchical level that is lower than min\_level or higher than max\_level* *will not be plotted \[Default is 0/4 (all features)\]. See DATABASE INFORMATION below for more details.*

- **-B**

  *Sets map boundary tickmark intervals. See* **psbasemap** *for details.*

- **-C**

  *Set the shade (0-255), color (r/g/b), or pattern (***p\|P***dpi/pattern; see* **-G***) for lakes \[Default is the fill chosen for "wet" areas (***-S***)\].*

- **-D**

  *Selects the resolution of the data set to use ((***f***)ull, (***h***)igh, (***i***)ntermediate, (***l***)ow, and (***c***)rude). The* *resolution drops off by 80% between data sets. \[Default is* **l***\].*

- **-E**

  *Sets the viewpoint's azimuth and elevation (for perspective view) \[180/90\]'*

- **-G**

  *Select painting or clipping of "dry" areas. Append a shade, color, pattern, or* **c** *for clipping.* *Specify the shade (0-255) or color (r/g/b), or* **-Gp***dpi/pattern, where pattern gives the number of the* *built-in pattern (1-90) OR the name of a Sun 1-, 8-, or 24-bit raster file.* *dpi sets the resolution of the image. For 1-bit rasters: use* **-GP** *for inverse video, or append* **:F***r/g/b\[***B***\[r/g/b\]\] to* *specify fore- and background colors (use r/g/b = - for transparency).* *See* **GMT** *Cookbook & Technical Reference Appendix E for information* *on individual patterns.*

- **-I**

  *Draw rivers. Specify the type of rivers and \[optionally\] append pen attributes \[Default pen:* *width = 1, color = 0/0/0, texture = solid\]. Choose from the list of river types below.* *Repeat option* **-I** *as often as necessary.*\
  \
            *1 = Permanent major rivers*\
  \
            *2 = Additional major rivers*\
  \
            *3 = Additional rivers*\
  \
            *4 = Minor rivers*\
  \
            *5 = Intermittent rivers - major*\
  \
            *6 = Intermittent rivers - additional*\
  \
            *7 = Intermittent rivers - minor*\
  \
            *8 = Major canals*\
  \
            *9 = Minor canals*\
  \
           *10 = Irrigation canals*\
  \
            *a = All rivers and canals (1-10)*\
  \
            *r = All permanent rivers (1-4)*\
  \
            *i = All intermittent rivers (5-7)*\
  \
            *c = All canals (8-10)*\

- **-K**

  *More PostScript code will be appended later \[Default terminates the plot system\].*

- **-L**

  *Draws a simple map scale centered on lon0/lat0. Use* **-Lx** *to specify x/y position instead.* *Scale is calculated at latitude slat, length is in km \[miles if* **m** *is appended; nautical miles if* **n** *is appended\].* *Use* **-Lf** *to get a "fancy" scale \[Default is plain\].*

- **-M**

  *Dumps a single multisegment ASCII (or binary, see* **-bo***) file to standard output. No plotting occurs.* *Specify any combination of* **-W, -I, -N***. Optionally, you may append the* *flag character that is written at the start of each segment header \['\>'\].*

- **-N**

  *Draw political boundaries. Specify the type of boundary and \[optionally\] append pen attributes \[Default pen:* *width = 1, color = 0/0/0, texture = solid\]. Choose from the list of boundaries below.* *Repeat option* **-N** *as often as necessary.*\
  \
           *1 = National boundaries*\
  \
           *2 = State boundaries within the Americas*\
  \
           *3 = Marine boundaries*\
  \
           *a = All boundaries (1-3)*\

- **-O**

  *Selects Overlay plot mode \[Default initializes a new plot system\].*

- **-P**

  *Selects Portrait plotting mode \[***GMT** *Default is Landscape, see gmtdefaults to change this\].*

- **-Q**

  *Mark end of existing clip path. No projection information is needed.*

- **-S**

  *Select painting or clipping of "wet" areas. Append the shade (0-255), color (r/g/b), pattern (see* **-G***), or* **c** *for clipping.*

- **-U**

  *Draw Unix System time stamp on plot. User may specify where the lower left corner* *of the stamp should fall on the page relative to lower left corner of plot. Optionally,* *append a label, or* **c** *(which will plot the command string.). The GMT parameters* *UNIX\_TIME and UNIX\_TIME\_POS can affect the appearance; see the* **gmtdefaults** *man* *page for details.*

- **-V**

  *Selects verbose mode, which will send progress reports to stderr \[Default runs "silently"\].*

- **-W**

  *Draw coastlines. \[Default is no coastlines\]. Append pen attributes \[Defaults:* *width = 1, color = 0/0/0, texture = solid\].*

- **-X -Y**

  *Shift origin of plot by (x-shift,y-shift).* *Prepend* **a** *for absolute coordinates;* *the default (***r***) will reset plot origin.*

- **-c**

  *Specifies the number of plot copies. \[Default is 1\]*

- **-bo**

  *Selects binary output. Append* **s** *for single precision \[Default is double\].*

## EXAMPLES

*To plot a green Africa with white outline on blue background, with permanent major rivers in thick blue pen, additional major rivers in thin blue pen, and national borders as dashed lines* *on a Mercator map at scale 0.1 inch/degree, try*\

*pscoast* **-R***-30/30/-40/40* **-Jm***0.1***i** **-B***5* **-I***1/1***p***/0/0/255* **-I***2/0.25***p***/0/0/255* **-N***1/0.25***tap** **-W***0.25***p***/255/255/255* **-G***0/255/0* **-S***0/0/255* **-P** *\> africa.ps*\

*To plot Iceland using the lava pattern (# 28) at 100 dots per inch, on a Mercator map at scale 1 cm/degree, try*\

*pscoast* **-R***-30/-10/60/65* **-Jm***1***c** **-B***5* **-Gp***100/28 \> iceland.ps*\

*To initiate a clip path for Africa so that the subsequent colorimage of gridded topography is only* *seen over land, using a Mercator map at scale 0.1 inch/degree, try*\

*pscoast* **-R***-30/30/-40/40* **-Jm***0.1***i** **-B***5* **-Gc -P -K** *\> africa.ps*\
 *grdimage* **-Jm***0.1***i** *etopo5.grd -Ccolors.cpt* **-O -K** *\>\> africa.ps*\
 *pscoast* **-Q -O** *\>\> africa.ps*

## DATABASE INFORMATION

*The coastline database is compiled from two sources: World Vector Shorelines (WVS) and CIA World Data Bank II (WDBII).* *In particular, all level-1 polygons (ocean-land boundary) are derived from the more accurate WVS while all higher level polygons* *(level 2-4, representing land/lake, lake/island-in-lake, and island-in-lake/lake-in-island-in-lake boundaries) are* *taken from WDBII. Much processing has taken place to convert WVS and WDBII data into usable form for* **GMT***:* *assembling closed polygons from line segments, checking for duplicates, and correcting for crossings between* *polygons. The area of each polygon has been determined so that the user* *may choose not to draw features smaller than a minimum area (see* **-A***); one may also limit the highest hierarchical level of* *polygons to be included (4 is the maximum). The 4 lower-resolution databases were derived from the full resolution* *database using the Douglas-Peucker line-simplification algorithm. The classification of rivers and borders follow* *that of the WDBII. See the* **GMT** *Cookbook and Technical Reference Appendix K for* *further details.*\
 **pscoast** *will first look for coastline files in directory $GMTHOME/share (where $GMTHOME is* *an environmental variable). If the desired file is not found, it will look for the file* *coastline.conf in the same directory. This file may contain any number of records that* *each holds the full pathname of an alternative directory. Comment lines (#) and blank lines* *are allowed. The desired file is then sought for in the alternate directories.*

## BUGS

*The options to fill (***-C -G -S***) may not always work if the Azimuthal equidistant projection is* *chosen (***-Je\|E***). If the antipole of the projection is in the oceans it will most likely work.* *If not, try to avoid using projection center coordinates that are even multiples of the coastline* *bin size (1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 degrees for* **f, h, i, l, c***, respectively). This projection is* *not supported for clipping.*\
 *The political borders are for the most part 1970ies-style and do not reflect the recent* *border rearrangments in Europe. We intend to update these as high-resolution data become* *avaiable to us.*\
 *Some users of* **pscoast** *will not be satisfied with what they find for the* *Antarctic shoreline. In Antarctica, the boundary between ice and* *ocean varies seasonally and interannually. There are some areas of* *permanent sea ice. In addition to these time-varying ice-ocean* *boundaries, there are also ice grounding lines where ice goes from* *floating on the sea to sitting on land, and lines delimiting areas* *of rock outcrop. For consistency's sake, we have used the World'* *Vector Shoreline throughout the world in pscoast, as described in* *the GMT cookbook Appendix K. Users who need specific boundaries* *in Antarctica should get the Antarctic Digital Database, prepared* *by the British Antarctic Survey, Scott Polar Research Institute,* *World Conservation Monitoring Centre, under the auspices of the* *Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research. This data base contains* *various kinds of limiting lines for Antarctica and is available on* *CD-ROM. It is published by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic* *Research, Scott Polar Research Institute, Lensfield Road, Cambridge* *CB2 1ER, United Kingdom.*

## SEE ALSO

*gmtdefaults*(l), *gmt*(l), *grdlandmask*(l), *psbasemap*(l)