Ilabel displays a Silicon Graphics image_file and lets the user place labels over the image. The Silicon Graphics image file may be generated by scrsave, imgsnap, or other programs such as conic that use the Silicon Graphics Image Library. The labels are drawn using the Silicon Graphics GL Font Manager, which supports many fonts in arbitrary sizes. Labels may be saved to a file for reuse via the -o flag. The stored attributes of labels include color, vertical and horizontal justification, font, size, and position relative to the image. The saved label files may be displayed again using the -i flag. There may be several -i files but at most one -o file.
Pressing the right mouse button within the ilabel window brings up a pop-up menu. Show Defaults opens a panel showing the default properties of the labels to be created:
Changes to these values will apply to each subsequently started label. When the cursor is over the defaults panel, the left mouse button is used to select the justification mode and label color; the font size may be changed by typing the size and then hitting return (no cursor is shown); and new fonts may be selected from the right-button menu. Colors may also be selected from anywhere on the screen. If the mouse button is depressed over the color selection area, the mouse may be moved anywhere and a color will not be selected until the button is released. It is important not to choose Close or Exit from this panel's own menu, as that exits ilabel entirely and any work in progress will be lost. Instead, press the right mouse button within the ilabel window and choose Hide Defaults from the pop-up menu to dismiss the defaults panel.
font Times Roman size 14 color white justification bottom left
To add a new label, simply click the left mouse button, which should make a triangular cursor appear, and type in the label. Labels containing multiple lines may be created by hitting the return or linefeed key at the appropriate place. The left button is also used to select existing labels so that they may be edited. The middle button is used to select and move labels. In the pop-up menu obtained by pressing the right mouse button, Redraw redraws the images and labels, and Cursor on and Cursor off turn the mouse cursor (not the special triangular label cursor) on and off, respectively.
If an output file was designated in the command line, it is written when ilabel is exited using Exit in the pop-up menu. If the file already exists, the user is asked whether the file should be overwritten (unless the -f flag was specified, in which case no question is asked). Even if no output file was specified on the command line, the labels can be written to a file using Save Text in the pop-up menu. Save Image writes a new image file including the existing labels. Both Save Text and Save Image prompt the user for an output file name. Note that if you intend to use itops to print the image, it is better to save the labels in a separate file rather than embedded in the image, since the quality of the labels will then be limited by the resolution of the printer rather than the resolution of the image. Labeled images can be converted to printable PostScript files with the itops utility provided with the MidasPlus distribution. It is necessary to use the -L flag of itops in order to have the labels placed on the image.