Gnuplot Tutorial
R F Evans
Introduction
Gnuplot is the worlds best 2D
graphing package:
Highly customisable
Scriptable
Produces very professional
graphs
Small file sizes
Fast and lightweight
Available as a standard linux
package
Scientific plotting recap
Graphs of scientific data need the following:
Title (or figure caption)
What
are you plotting against what?
(Caption)
Axis labels
Units
What do the lines mean?
Gnuplot in practice
Generate data for Gaussian function
Plot with p "./data.dat" u 1:2 w lp
p stands for plot (data file)
u stands for using (columns)
w stands for with
lp stands for linespoints
Gnuplot in practice
Lets set a more appropriate yrange and name our plot
p [][0:1.1]"./data.dat" u 1:2 w lp ti Data
ti is short for title
Gnuplot in practice
Lets add a title and axis labels
set title Plot of Gaussian function
set xlabel Value
set ylabel Probability
replot
Gnuplot in practice
A box histrogram would look nicer in black
p [][0:1.1]"./data.dat" u 1:2 w boxes lt -1 ti
"Data
lt is line type
Gnuplot in practice
Hmm too many boxes
p [][0:1.1]"./data.dat" every 4 u 1:2 w boxes lt -1
ti "Data
every specifies that every nth point is plotted
Gnuplot in practice
Finally output graph to file:
set terminal postscript eps enhanced color "Palatino" 16
Here the font is set to Palatino there are others
set output plot.eps
Gnuplot Scripting
This can all be put in a script; plot.gpl
# Set Terminal type
set terminal postscript eps enhanced color "Palatino" 16
# Set graph title
set title "Plot of Gaussian Function"
# Set axis labels
set xlabel "Value"
set ylabel "Probability"
# Set output file
set output "plot.eps"
# Plot data
p [][0:1.1]"./data.dat" every 4 u 1:2 w boxes lt -1
# Convert file to pdf at the end
sys "epstopdf plot.eps
The script can then be run by typring:
Gnuplot plot.gpl
ti "Data"
Gnuplot in practice
Extra info:
http://t16web.lanl.gov/Kawano/gnuplot/index-e.html
www.fisica.edu.uy/~marti/repartidos/gnuplotbook1.pdf