Attributes

Attributes follow an object and modify it — dimensions, stroke style, colors, text placement. They read left to right, and later attributes win.

Dimensions

wid/ht size boxes and ellipses; rad/diam size circles and round box corners; on paths, a direction word takes an optional distance.

.PS
box wid 1.1 ht 0.4 rad 0.12 "rounded"
move right 0.3
circle rad 0.3 "rad"
move right 0.3
circle diam 0.45 "diam"
.PE

Stroke styles

.PS
margin = 0.15   # rpic extension: headroom for the labels
line right 1.1 "solid" above
line right 1.1 thin "thin" above from last line.start - (0, 0.42)
line right 1.1 thick 2.4 "thick 2.4" above from last line.start - (0, 0.42)
line right 1.1 dashed "dashed" above from last line.start - (0, 0.42)
line right 1.1 dotted "dotted" above from last line.start - (0, 0.42)
line right 1.1 dashed 0.04 "dashed 0.04" above from last line.start - (0, 0.42)
.PE

dashed and dotted accept an optional pitch; thick sets the stroke width in points. thin (an rpic convenience, pikchr-flavoured) is a lighter stroke with no value — two-thirds of the current linethick, so it tracks your global line width. invis draws nothing but keeps the geometry — the object still occupies space and exposes anchors.

Colors and fills

outlined colors the stroke, shaded fills with a color, fill takes the classic gray scale (0 = black … 1 = white). Color names are CSS.

.PS
box "outlined" outlined "seagreen"
move right 0.3
box "shaded" shaded "honeydew" outlined "darkgreen"
move right 0.3
box "fill .85" fill 0.85
move right 0.3
circle rad 0.3 colored "teal"
.PE

Text placement

Strings attached to an object accept placement modifiers: above, below, ljust, rjust — alone or combined.

.PS
margin = 0.05
line right 1.6 "above" above "below" below
B: box wid 2 ht 0.55 at last line.e + (1.4, 0)
"ljust" ljust at B.w + (0.06, 0)
"rjust" rjust at B.e - (0.06, 0)
.PE

Arrowheads

->, <- and <-> put heads on either end of any path; arrowht/arrowwid size them, and arrowhead picks filled vs open.

.PS
margin = 0.15
line -> right 0.9 "->" above
move right 0.3
line <- right 0.9 "<-" above
move right 0.3
line <-> right 0.9 "<->" above
move right 0.3
arrowht = 0.16; arrowwid = 0.12
line -> right 0.9 "big head" above
.PE

Where to go next

Variables & macros — the environment variables behind every default used here