---
name: "shanty"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "shanty"
version: "3-4.1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/shanty"
---

# shanty(1)

Makes a PostScript file from an image and some text.

## NAME

Shanty - Makes a PostScript file from an image and some text.

## SYNOPSIS

**shanty -i** *image\_file* \[**-t** *text\_file*\] \[**-o** *output\_file*\] \[**-s** *paper\_size*\] \[**-d** *density*\] \[**-m** *margin*\] \[**-b** *background\_color*\] \[**-x** *padding*\] \[**-n** *title*\] \[**-l** *orientation*\] \[**-rtl**\] \[**-btt**\] \[**-f** *font\_name*\] \[**-altgd**\]

## DESCRIPTION

**Shanty** takes a text file and an image (PNG or JPG) and creates a PostScript file where one pixel in the image becomes one character in the PostScript.

## OPTIONS

- **-i**, **-image**

  Name of the image to load in. JPG and PNG images are supported. This is the only compulsory field.

- **-t**, **-text**

  Name of the text file to load in, if omitted STDIN is used.

- **-o**, **-output**

  Name of the PostScript file to produce, if omitted STDOUT is used.

- **-s**, **-size**

  Size of the paper to work with. This field should be one of: "a0", "a2", "a3", "a4", "a5", "a6", "letter", "broadsheet", "ledger", "tabloid", "legal", "executive" and "36x36". Default is "a4".

- **-d**, **-density**

  Density of the text. Higher numbers are more dense, default is 1.4.

- **-m**, **-margin**

  The margins of the page in cm. Default is 1.

- **-b**, **-background**

  The colour of a backing rectangle to place behind the text. Colours are specified as "R,G,B" with each value between 0 and 255. "off" means no backing colour. Default is "off".

- **-x**, **-p**, **-padding**

  Density of the text. Higher numbers are more dense, default is 1.4.

- **-n**, **-title**

  The title of the output to write as meta-data in the PostScript file. Default is "Shanty output".

- **-l**, **-orientation**

  The orientation of the paper, can be "portrait", "landscape" or "auto". Default is "auto".

- **-rtl**

  Switch to right-to-left text.

- **-btt**

  Switch to bottom-to-top text.

- **-f**, **-font**

  Specify font. The font name specified must be visible to the not just make a font magically appear. Default is "Courier-Bold".

- **-altgd**

  If you have problems loading the GD library, try this switch.

## HOMEPAGE

\<http://www.codebunny.org/coding/shanty/\>

## AUTHOR

Duncan Martin \<duncan@codebunny.org\>

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to DFB \<http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~dfb/\> and contributors to  comp.lang.postscript.