All Tech Information That I Need: 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