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Below are the older, original graphics procedures for IDL , called "Direct Graphics." 

ANNOTATE Procedure

- Starts IDL widget used to interactively annotate images and plots with text and drawings.

ARROW Procedure

- Draws line with an arrow head.

AXIS Procedure

- Draws an axis of the specified type and scale at a given position.

BAR_PLOT Procedure

- Creates a bar graph.

BOX_CURSOR Procedure

- Emulates operation of a variable-sized box cursor.

CONVERT_COORD

- Transforms coordinates to and from the coordinate systems supported by IDL.

CONTOUR Procedure

- Draws a contour plot.

CROSSP

- Sets the various system variables required to define a coordinate system and a 3-D view.

CURSOR Procedure

- Reads position of the interactive graphics cursor.

CVTTOBM

- Creates a bitmap byte array for a button label.

DEFROI

- Defines an irregular region of interest of an image using the image display system and the cursor and mouse.

DEVICE Procedure

- Sets to plot in device coordinates.

DRAW_ROI Procedure

- Draws a region or group of regions to the current Direct Graphics device.

EMPTY Procedure

- Empties the graphics output buffer.

ERASE Procedure

- Erases the screen of the current graphics device, or starts a new page if the device is a printer.

ERRPLOT Procedure

- Plots error bars over a previously drawn plot.

FLICK Procedure

- Causes the display to flicker between two output images at a given rate.

FORMAT_AXIS_VALUES

- Formats numbers as strings for use as axis values.

IMAGE_STATISTICS

- Overlays an image with a contour plot.

LABEL_REGION

- Consecutively labels all of the regions, or blobs, of a bi-level image with a unique region index.

LOADCT Procedure

- Loads a pre-defined color table.

OPLOT Procedure

- Plots vector data over a previously drawn plot.

OPLOTERR Procedure

- Plots error bars over a previously drawn plot.

PLOT Procedure

- Draws a graph of vector arguments.

PLOT_3DBOX Procedure

- Plots a function of two variables (e.g., Z=f(X, Y)) inside a 3-D box.

PM_FILTER

- Plots a 2-D field. N random points are picked, and from each point a path is traced along the field.

PLOTERR Procedure

- plots individual data points with error bars.

PLOTS Procedure

- Plots vectors and points.

POLAR_CONTOUR Procedure

- Draws a contour plot from data in polar coordinates.

POLY

- Interpolates a surface from polar coordinates (R, Theta, Z) to rectangular coordinates (X, Y, Z).

POLYFILL Procedure

- Fills the interior of a polygon.

POLYSHADE Procedure

- Creates a shaded-surface representation of one or more solids described by a set of polygons.

PROFILER

- Extracts a profile from an image.

PS_SHOW_FONTS

- Interactively examines image profiles.

PROJECT_VOL Procedure

- Returns a two-dimensional image that is the projection of a 3-D volume of data onto a plane (similar to an X-ray).

RDPIX Procedure

- Interactively displays the X position, Y position, and pixel value at the cursor.

SCALE3 Procedure

- Sets up transformation and scaling parameters for basic 3-D viewing.

SCALE3D Procedure

- Scales the 3-D unit cube (a cube with the length of each side equal to 1) into the viewing area.

SETENV

- Sets the output device used by the IDL direct graphics procedures.

SET_SHADING Procedure

- Modifies the light source shading parameters that affect the output of SHADE_SURF and POLYSHADE.

SHADE_SURF Procedure

- Creates a shaded-surface representation of a regular or nearly-regular gridded surface.

SHADE_SURF_IRR Procedure

- Creates a shaded-surface representation of an irregularly gridded elevation dataset. Given a 3-D volume and a contour value, SHADE_VOLUME produces a list of vertices and polygons describing the contour surface.

SHADE_VOLUME Procedure

- Given a 3-D volume and a contour value, produces a list of vertices and polygons describing the contour surface.

SHOW3 Procedure

- Combines an image, a surface plot of the image data, and a contour plot of the images data in a single tri-level display.

SURFACE Procedure

- draws a representation of a two-dimensional array projected into three dimensions, with hidden lines removed.

THREED Procedure

- Plots a 2D array as a pseudo 3D plot.

TV Procedure

- Displays an image.

TVCRS Procedure

- Manipulates the image display cursor.

TVLCT Procedure

- Loads a predefined color table or a color table from specified variables.

TVRD

- Returns the contents of the specified rectangular portion of the current graphics window or device.

TVSCL Procedure

- Scales and displays an image.

WRITE_BMP

- Creates a window for the display of graphics or text.

WSET Procedure

- Selects the current window.

WSHOW Procedure

- Exposes or hides the designated window.

XYOUTS Procedure

- Draws text on currently-selected graphics device.

ZOOM Procedure

- Zooms portions of the display.

ZOOM_24 Procedure

- Zooms portions of true-color (24-bit) display.

Graphics

See "Graphics" for a listing of the newer IDL Graphics functions. Below are the newer IDL Graphics functions introduced in IDL 8.0:

ARROW

- Draws an arrow as an annotation to an existing graphic.

AXIS

- Adds an axis to an existing graphic.

BARPLOT

- Plots data as a series of rectangular bars.

BOXPLOT

- Plots data as a series of box and whiskers plots.

BUBBLEPLOT

- Plots (x, y) data and their magnitudes as a series of circles.

COLORBAR

- Adds a colorbar annotation to an existing graphic.

COLORTABLE

- Defines a custom color table.

CONTOUR

- Draws a 2D contour plot for a 2D array of data.

ELLIPSE

- Adds an ellipse annotation to an existing graphic.

ERRORPLOT

- Draws a line plot, with error bars surrounding each vertex.

GETWINDOWS

- Retrieves a specific graphic window or all graphics windows.

IMAGE

- Displays image data in a graphics window.

LEGEND

- Adds a legend to 2D or 3D plots.

MAP

- Displays map data in a graphics window.

MAPCONTINENTS

- Overlays map boundaries on a map in a graphics window.

MAPGRID

- Plots a map graticule (or grid) onto an existing IDL map graphic.

PLOT

- Draws a line plot of vector arguments.

PLOT3D

- Draws a 3D plot of vector arguments.

POLARPLOT

- Creates a plot using the polar coordinates R and Theta.

POLYGON

- Adds a polygon annotation to an existing graphic.

POLYLINE

- Plots a series of lines as an annotation to an existing graphic.

SCATTERPLOT

- Plots two-dimensional data as a series of points.

SCATTERPLOT3D

- Plots three-dimensional data as a series of points.

STREAMLINE

- Draws a streamline plot.

SURFACE

- Draws a 3D surface for a 2D array of data.

SYMBOL

- Adds a symbol (with an optional text label) to the current IDL graphic at the x,y location.

TEXT

- Adds a text annotation to the current graphic.

VECTOR

- Draws a plot of either vectors or wind barbs.

VOLUME

- Displays a visual representation of a three-dimensional array of data.

WIDGET_WINDOW

- Creates a graphics widget.

WINDOW

- Creates an empty graphics window.