GNUPLOT Cheatsheet

This blog post will eventually contain all you need to know to create blog posts so I will not need to search for information again, since I keep forgetting details about the process every time.

 Steps to create beautiful graphs:

 1. Define output file characteristics

•  SET TERMINAL [options]  
•  a) Display in terminal: WTX [ size 350,262 enhanced font 'Verdana,10' ] -
• size refers to X and Y which default are (640, 480) 
• font refers to the font type and font size 
•  b) Display in a png file: PNG [ nocrop enhanced medium size 350,262]
•  c) Display in an svg file: SVG [ size 350,262 fname 'Verdana' fsize 10 ] 
•  d) Display in a ps file: POSTSCRIPT eps size 3.5,2.62 enhanced color font 'Helvetica,20' linewidth 2 
• size is given in inch 
• e) Create the image in a TEX file: EPSLATEX size 8.89cm,6.65cm color colortext
• create the plot with gnuplot; save it in graph.tex
• run $latex graph.tex
• run $dvips -o graph.ps graph.dvi
•  SET OUTPUT '<file_name>'
• NOTE: When working with output files, we need to set the name of the file where the graph will be saved

2. Define graphs's characteristics

•  SET LABELS NAME 
•  Sets the name of the axes and the points that should be display on the axes. 
• set xlabel '{/Helvetica-Oblique <label_x_name> }' 
• set ylabel '{/Helvetica-Oblique  <label_y_name>}' 
• set xtics (value1, value2, value3, ...)
• NOTE: in for the EPSLATEX output set the xlabel and ylabel in latex notation: set xlabel '$x$'
• SET BORDER linewidth <size>
• SET STYLE LINE <line_id> LINECOLOR rgb '#0060ad' LINETYPE <size> LINEWIDTH <size>
• SET TICS SCALE <size>
• SET XTICS ROTATE
• SET XRANGE [xmin : xmax]
• SET AUTOSCALE -- Let gnuplot determine the scale
• SET KEY-- allow legend to appear. Use "TITLE" in the using clause to customize the legend 
• SET LABEL <label_value> AT  x_value,y_value -- Set's a label on the point (x_value, y_value)
• NOTE: use UNSET label to return to the default values

3. Restore the default configuration of terminal

• SET TERM POP --restores the terminal to the default value (usually X11 or WXT)
• SET OUTPUT --restores the output to default (terminal)

4. Plot the data from file (USING)

• PLOT 'path_to/file_name' USING 1:2 title 'Graph title'
• USING : states what are the values for the X axis (column 1) and values for the Y axis (column 2)
• If only one dimension is given (i.e.,values for y axis are known) then first number should be skipped (e.g., using :2). Values will be displayed as given and the Ox axis will contain the line number where y value is found.
• pt <option1>--for point type
• use http://stelweb.asu.cas.cz/~nemeth/work/stuff/gnuplot/gnuplot-line-and-point-types.png for a reference to all possible point types (option1)
• ps <option2> --for point size (ex: using 1:2 pt 7 ps10)
• lc rgb 'color_name_or_code' --colors the line or the point with the color given
• use: http://html-color-codes.info/ to find color codes
• Conditional Plot: ($1==0 ? $2:1/0) <=> If (value in column 1 = 0) then plot value in column 2 Else do not plot anything.

*NOTE: good blogposts to read more about this: 

  --> http://www.gnuplotting.org/output-terminals/

  --> http://people.duke.edu/~hpgavin/gnuplot.html
  --> http://folk.uio.no/hpl/scripting/doc/gnuplot/Kawano/index-e.html