GNUPLOT(1)
NAME
gnuplot - an interactive plotting program
SYNOPSIS
gnuplot [ X11 options ] [file ...]
DESCRIPTION
Gnuplot is a command-driven interactive function plotting
program.
If files are given, gnuplot loads each file with the load
command, in the order specified. Gnuplot exits after the
last file is processed.
Here are some of its features:
Plots any number of functions, built up of C operators, C
library functions, and some things C doesn't have like **,
sgn(), etc. Also support for plotting data files, to com-
pare actual data to theoretical curves.
User-defined X and Y ranges (optional auto-ranging), smart
axes scaling, smart tic marks.
Labelling of X and Y axes.
User-defined constants and functions.
Support through a generalized graphics driver for AED 512,
AED 767, BBN BitGraph, Commodore Amiga, Roland DXY800A,
EEPIC, TeXDraw, EmTeX, Epson 60dpi printers, Epson LX-800,
Fig, HP2623, HP2648, HP75xx, HPGL, HP LaserJet II, Imagen,
Iris 4D, MS-DOS Kermit, Kyocera laser printer, LaTeX, NEC
CP6 pinwriter, PostScript, QMS QUIC, ReGis (VT125 and
VT2xx), SCO Xenix CGI, Selanar, Star color printer, Tandy
DMP-130 printer, Tek 401x, Tek 410x, Vectrix 384, VT like
Tektronix emulator, Unix PC (ATT 3b1 or ATT 7300), unix-
plot, and X11. The PC version compiled by Microsoft C
supports IBM CGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules, ATT 6300, and Corona
325 graphics. The PC version compiled by Borland C++ sup-
ports IBM CGA, EGA, MCGA, VGA, Hercules and ATT 6300
graphics. Other devices can be added simply, but will
require recompiling.
Shell escapes and command line substitution.
Load and save capability.
Output redirection.
All computations performed in the complex domain. Just
the real part is plotted by default, but functions like
imag() and abs() and arg() are available to override this.
X11 OPTIONS
Gnuplot provides the x11 terminal type for use with X
servers. This terminal type is set automatically at
startup if the DISPLAY environment variable is set, if the
TERM environment variable is set to xterm, or if the -dis-
play command line option is used. For terminal type x11,
gnuplot accepts the standard X Toolkit options and
resources such as geometry, font, and background. See the
X(1) man page for a description of the options. In addi-
tion to the X Toolkit options:
-mono forces monochrome rendering on color displays.
-gray requests grayscale rendering on grayscale or color
displays. (Grayscale displays receive monochrome render-
ing by default.)
-clear requests that the window be cleared momentarily
before a new plot is displayed.
-tvtwm requests that geometry specifications for position
of the window be made relative to the currently displayed
portion of the virtual root.
These options may also be controlled with resources in
your .Xdefaults file. For example: gnuplot*gray: on .
Gnuplot provides a command line option (-pointsize v) and
a resource (gnuplot*pointsize: v) to control the size of
points plotted with the "points" plotting style. The value
v is a real number (greater than 0 and less than or equal
to ten) used as a scaling factor for point sizes. For
example, -pointsize 2 uses points twice the default size,
and -pointsize 0.5 uses points half the normal size.
For monochrome displays, gnuplot does not honor foreground
or background colors. The default is black-on-white. -rv
or gnuplot*reverseVideo: on requests white-on-black.
For color displays gnuplot honors the following resources
(shown here with default values). The values may be color
names in the X11 rgb.txt file on your system, hexadecimal
RGB color specifications (see X11 documentation), or a
color name followed by a comma and an intensity value from
0 to 1. For example, blue,.5 means a half intensity blue.
gnuplot*background: white
gnuplot*textColor: black
gnuplot*borderColor: black
gnuplot*axisColor: black
gnuplot*line1Color: red
gnuplot*line2Color: green
gnuplot*line3Color: blue
gnuplot*line4Color: magenta
gnuplot*line5Color: cyan
gnuplot*line6Color: sienna
gnuplot*line7Color: orange
gnuplot*line8Color: coral
When -gray is selected, gnuplot honors the following
resources for grayscale or color displays (shown here with
default values). Note that the default background is
black.
gnuplot*background: black
gnuplot*textGray: white
gnuplot*borderGray: gray50
gnuplot*axisGray: gray50
gnuplot*line1Gray: gray100
gnuplot*line2Gray: gray60
gnuplot*line3Gray: gray80
gnuplot*line4Gray: gray40
gnuplot*line5Gray: gray90
gnuplot*line6Gray: gray50
gnuplot*line7Gray: gray70
gnuplot*line8Gray: gray30
Gnuplot honors the following resources for setting the
width in pixels of plot lines (shown here with default
values.) 0 or 1 means a minimal width line of 1 pixel
width. A value of 2 or 3 may improve the appearance of
some plots.
gnuplot*borderWidth: 2
gnuplot*axisWidth: 0
gnuplot*line1Width: 0
gnuplot*line2Width: 0
gnuplot*line3Width: 0
gnuplot*line4Width: 0
gnuplot*line5Width: 0
gnuplot*line6Width: 0
gnuplot*line7Width: 0
gnuplot*line8Width: 0
Gnuplot honors the following resources for setting the
dash style used for plotting lines. 0 means a solid line.
A 2 digit number jk (j and k are >= 1 and <= 9) means a
dashed line with a repeated pattern of j pixels on fol-
lowed by k pixels off. For example, '16' is a "dotted"
line with 1 pixel on followed by 6 pixels off. More elab-
orate on/off patterns can be specified with a 4 digit
value. For example, '4441' is 4 on, 4 off, 4 on, 1 off.
The default values shown below are for monochrome displays
or monochrome rendering on color or grayscale displays.
For color displays, the defaults for all are 0 (solid
line) except for axisDashes which defaults to a '16' dot-
ted line.
gnuplot*borderDashes: 0
gnuplot*axisDashes: 16
gnuplot*line1Dashes: 0
gnuplot*line2Dashes: 42
gnuplot*line3Dashes: 13
gnuplot*line4Dashes: 44
gnuplot*line5Dashes: 15
gnuplot*line6Dashes: 4441
gnuplot*line7Dashes: 42
gnuplot*line8Dashes: 13
The size or aspect ratio of a plot may be changed by
resizing the gnuplot window.
AUTHORS
Thomas Williams, Pixar Corporation,
info-gnuplot@dartmouth.edu
and Colin Kelley.
Additions for labelling by Russell Lang, Monash Univer-
sity, Australia.
rjl@monu1.cc.monash.edu.au
Further additions by David Kotz, Dartmouth College, New
Hampshire, USA (formerly of Duke University, North Car-
olina, USA).
David.Kotz@Dartmouth.edu
BUGS
The atan() function does not work correctly for complex
arguments.
The bessel functions do not work for complex arguments.
See the help bugs command in gnuplot.
SEE ALSO
See the printed manual or the on-line help for details on
specific commands.
X(1).