Software characters

By default, HPLOT uses software characters. It is possible to switch between software and hardware characters by calling HPLOPT with the parameter 'SOFT' or 'HARD'. The advantages of using software characters are that they provide:
  1. Upper and lower case letters.
  2. Greek alphabet and special symbols.
  3. Superscripts and subscripts.
  4. Any size of letters at any angle. The disadvantages are:
    1. Software characters take longer to plot.
    2. The size of the GKS metafile is much bigger.
    3. The necessary control characters make it tedious to mix Greek, Roman, upper case, lower case, etc.