# driver

Select a graphics driver

## Calling Sequence

                current_driver=driver()
                driver(driver_name)
                previous_driver = driver(driver_name)

## Arguments

driver_name

  string, driver to be selected (case insensitive).

current_driver

  string, selected driver.

previous_driver

  string, driver previously selected.

## Description

This function provides a switch between the different drivers for export or display.

Direct rendering on the screen or off-screen export without any graphical user interface. This is available in the mode scilab-adv-cli (or also called -nw)

Used without any input argument, the driver function returns the current graphics driver name.

## Screen output

To display graphic into a new window instead of off-screen format. This is the default behavior of Scilab.

X11 or Rec

  output to the screen of the computer.

## Supported vectorial formats

The selected driver can be one of the following vectorial format:

Pos or ps

  output into Postscript format.

PDF

  output into PDF format.

SVG

  output into SVG format.

## Supported bitmap formats

The selected driver can be one of the following vectorial bitmap:

GIF

  output into GIF format.

PNG

  output into PNG format.

JPEG or JPG

  output into JPEG format.

BMP

  output into BMP format.

PPM

  output into portable pixmap format (PPM) format.

## Remark

To redirect the graphic output to a GIF file (which will be written in the current directory), you can use the following example:

    previous_driver = driver('GIF');
    xinit(TMPDIR+'/mygiffile.gif');
    plot3d();
    xend();
    driver(previous_driver); // Bring back the previous behavior of Scilab

For example if one has generated a sequence of GIF files named `img*.gif` it is possible to build an animated GIF file (named anim.gif) by

    convert -delay 10  img*.gif anim.gif

## See Also

- xinit
- xend

## History

5.4.0

- Return the previous driver value.
- Enable off-screen. Scilab exports graphics without opening a new window.
- Support of new bitmap formats: PNG, JPEG and BMP.
- Support of new vectorial formats: PDF and SVG.
- The function accepts lower and upper case argument.
- Fig driver is no longer supported.