(10) A geographical bar graph plot

Our next and perhaps most business-like example presents a three-dimensional bar graph plot showing the geographic distribution of all the languages of the world. The input data was taken from Ethnologue. We decide to plot a 3-D column centered on each continent with a height that is proportional to the languages used. We choose a plain linear projection for the basemap and add the columns and text on top. Eventually we make it a bit more fancy by splitting the columns up in different colors indicating how commonly the languages are used, from institutional languages to languages threatened by extinction. The script also shows how to effectively use transparency of the boxes around the numbers and in the shade surrounding the legend. Our script that produces Figure ex_10 reads:

#!/bin/bash
#		GMT EXAMPLE 10
#		$Id$
#
# Purpose:	Make 3-D bar graph on top of perspective map
# GMT modules:	pscoast, pstext, psxyz, pslegend
# Unix progs:	$AWK
#
ps=example_10.ps
gmt pscoast -Rd -JX8id/5id -Dc -Sazure2 -Gwheat -Wfaint -A5000 -p200/40 -K > $ps
$AWK '{print $1, $2, $3+$4+$5+$6+$7}' languages.txt \
	| gmt pstext -R -J -O -K -p -Gwhite@30 -D-0.25i/0 \
	-F+f30p,Helvetica-Bold,firebrick=thinner+jRM >> $ps
gmt psxyz languages.txt -R-180/180/-90/90/0/2500 -J -JZ2.5i -So0.3i -Gpurple -Wthinner \
	--FONT_TITLE=30p,Times-Bold --MAP_TITLE_OFFSET=-0.7i -O -K -p --FORMAT_GEO_MAP=dddF \
	-Bx60 -By30 -Bza500+lLanguages -BWSneZ+t"World Languages By Continent" >> $ps
$AWK '{print $1, $2, $3+$4, $3}' languages.txt \
	| gmt psxyz -R -J -JZ -So0.3ib -Gblue -Wthinner -O -K -p >> $ps
$AWK '{print $1, $2, $3+$4+$5, $3+$4}' languages.txt \
	| gmt psxyz -R -J -JZ -So0.3ib -Gdarkgreen -Wthinner -O -K -p >> $ps
$AWK '{print $1, $2, $3+$4+$5+$6, $3+$4+$5}' languages.txt \
	| gmt psxyz -R -J -JZ -So0.3ib -Gyellow -Wthinner -O -K -p >> $ps
$AWK '{print $1, $2, $3+$4+$5+$6+$7, $3+$4+$5+$6}' languages.txt \
	| gmt psxyz -R -J -JZ -So0.3ib -Gred -Wthinner -O -K -p >> $ps
gmt pslegend -R -J -JZ -DjLB+o0.2i+w1.35i/0+jBL -O --FONT=Helvetica-Bold \
	-F+glightgrey+pthinner+s-4p/-6p/grey20@40 -p legend.txt >> $ps
../_images/example_10.png

Geographical bar graph.