NCL Graphics: Adding annotations to a plot or frame

annotate_1.ncl: This example draws a small map as an annotation of another map. The small map is resized using the resources by vpWidthF and vpHeightF, and attached with gsn_add_annotation.

amJust is set to "TopLeft", amParallelPosF to -0.45, and amOrthogonalPosF to -0.40 to put the top left corner of the labelbar in the upper left corner of the plot, but with a little bit of a margin.

annotate_2.ncl: This example demonstrates how to attach a labelbar to a plot.

gsn_create_labelbar is used to create the labelbar. It returns an id that you use to attach the labelbar to the plot using gsn_add_annotation.

amJust is set to "TopRight", amParallelPosF to 0.5, and amOrthogonalPosF to -0.5 to put the top right corner of the labelbar in the upper right corner of the plot.

annotate_3.ncl: This example is similar to the first one, except a filled contour plot is created, and is additionally annotated with text and boxes.

The functions gsn_add_polyline and gsn_add_text are used to add lines and text.

text_9.ncl: This example shows how to use gsn_create_text to create text strings and gsn_add_annotation to attach text items to a plot.

The final frame shows how you can resize the base plot and the annotations will resize automatically.

annotate_4.ncl: This example shows how to create a custom legend and attach it to a map. The map is further annotated with hurricane tracks using lines, text strings, and markers.

The gsn_create_legend function is used to create the legend, and gsn_add_annotation attaches it to the map.

gsn_add_text, gsn_add_polyline, gsn_add_polymarker are used for the other annotations.

This script was contributed by Yongzuo Li from the University of Oklahoma.

annotate_5.ncl: This example shows how to attach an array of text strings to a map using gsn_add_text. It reads data from a small ASCII file, "annotate5.txt", using the str_get_field and str_get_cols functions.

Note that no effort is being made to remove overlapping strings. See example 10 on the text page on how to do this.

Note: the left image is from running NCL V6.3.0 on this script. The right image is from running NCL V6.4.0.

In NCL versions 6.3.0 and earlier, the NCL outlines will not show the county of Broomfield or the updated counties around Denver. In NCL version 6.4.0, the NCL map databases were updated to reflect the current Colorado counties.

annotate_6.ncl: This example shows how to attach two plots to the outside of an existing map using gsn_add_annotation.

The three "am" resources for adjusting where to attach the two plots are amJust, amOrthogonalPosF and amParallelPosF.

After the plot elements are created and attached, this script calls maximize_output to maximize the size of the plot in the frame. This only applies for PS/PDF output.

annotate_7.ncl: This example is similar to the previous one, except it shows how to draw a line between two plots.

You must use datatondc to convert the line coordinates to NDC coordinates before you draw it in NDC space with gsn_polyline_ndc.

annotate_8.ncl: This example is similar to the previous one, except it shows how to draw multiple bar charts around a map with connector lines between the plots.

annotate_9.ncl: This example is similar to the first two examples in that it shows how to add a smaller plot to the inside of a bigger plot. In this case, the trYMinF resource is being set to a smaller value than the actual minimum of the Y axis,in order to get some extra white space at the bottom of the plot. The three smaller plots are then attached using gsn_add_annotation.

annotate_10.ncl: This example is very similar to the previous example, except it shows how to fill in the background of the three small plots so they cover the curve in the big plot. In this case, the Y minimum is NOT being set, because we want to force the plots to overlap.

ESMF_regrid_21.ncl: This example is taken from the ESMF regridding page. It shows how to use a blank plot as part of a paneled set of plots in order to add additional text to the frame.

The blank plot is created using gsn_blank_plot. The size of the blank plot is made the same as the other three plots by using getvalues to retrieve vpWidthF and vpHeightF and then setting these two resources to the same value as the other three plots.

annotate_11.ncl: This example shows how to use gsn_blank_plot to create a custom set of tickmarks for an XY plot. In this case, it's used to create tickmarks around the smaller of two XY curves that are in the same plot.

The original XY plot and the custom one are drawn in a panel for comparison purposes only.

annotate_12.ncl: This example shows how to use gsn_add_annotation to attach text strings outside of a plot, in three locations. gsn_create_text is used to create the same text string three times, and then amOrthogonalPosF is used to place these strings at the top, middle, and bottom of the plot, right next to the labelbar.

annotate_13.ncl: This script shows how to draw a smaller map as an annotation of a larger map. The size and position of the larger map is retrieved using getvalues on the viewport resources vpYF, vpXF, vpWidthF, and vpHeightF. These values help determine the location of the smaller map.

A special "up arrow" symbol is added with gsn_add_text, using symbol '-' from font table 34.

polyg_19.ncl: This script shows how to draw a map of mainland United States with Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico added as annotations at the bottom. Each state is colored based on population in 2014, using shapefiles downloaded from gadm.org. The "states.shp" set of files is available on our data page.