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12.5 Gnuplot Options

There are several plot options specific to gnuplot. All of them consist of a keyword (the name of the option), followed by a string that should be a valid gnuplot command, to be passed directly to gnuplot. In most cases, there exist a corresponding plotting option that will produce a similar result and whose use is more recommended than the gnuplot specific option.

Plot option: gnuplot_term [gnuplot_term, terminal_name]

Sets the output terminal type for gnuplot. The argument terminal_name can be a string or one of the following 3 special symbols

  • default (default value)

    Gnuplot output is displayed in a separate graphical window and the gnuplot terminal used will be specified by the value of the option gnuplot_default_term_command.

  • dumb

    Gnuplot output is saved to a file maxout_xxx.gnuplot using "ASCII art" approximation to graphics. If the option gnuplot_out_file is set to filename, the plot will be saved there, instead of the default maxout_xxx.gnuplot. The settings for the “dumb” terminal of Gnuplot are given by the value of option gnuplot_dumb_term_command. If option run_viewer is set to true and the plot_format is gnuplot that ASCII representation will also be shown in the Maxima or Xmaxima console.

  • ps

    Gnuplot generates commands in the PostScript page description language. If the option gnuplot_out_file is set to filename, gnuplot writes the PostScript commands to filename. Otherwise, it is saved as maxplot.ps file. The settings for this terminal are given by the value of the option gnuplot_dumb_term_command.

  • A string representing any valid gnuplot term specification

    Gnuplot can generate output in many other graphical formats such as png, jpeg, svg etc. To use those formats, option gnuplot_term can be set to any supported gnuplot term name (which must be a symbol) or even a full gnuplot term specification with any valid options (which must be a string). For example [gnuplot_term, png] creates output in PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format while [gnuplot_term, "png size 1000,1000"] creates PNG of 1000 x 1000 pixels size. If the option gnuplot_out_file is set to filename, gnuplot writes the output to filename. Otherwise, it is saved as maxplot.term file, where term is gnuplot terminal name.

Categories: Plotting ·
Plot option: gnuplot_out_file [gnuplot_out_file, file_name]

It can be used to replace the default name for the file that contains the commands that will interpreted by gnuplot, when the terminal is set to default, or to replace the default name of the graphic file that gnuplot creates, when the terminal is different from default. If it contains one or more slashes, “/”, the name of the file will be left as it is; otherwise, it will be appended to the path of the temporary directory. The complete name of the files created by the plotting commands is always sent as output of those commands so they can be seen if the command is ended by semi-colon.

When used in conjunction with the gnuplot_term option, it can be used to save the plot in a file, in one of the graphic formats supported by Gnuplot. To create PNG, PDF, Postscript or SVG, it is easier to use options png_file, pdf_file, ps_file, or svg_file.

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Plot option: gnuplot_script_file [gnuplot_script_file, file_name_or_function]

Creates a plot with plot2d, plot3d, mandelbrot or julia using the gnuplot plot_format and saving the script sent to Gnuplot in the file specified by file_name_or_function. The value file_name_or_function can be a string or a Maxima function of one variable that returns a string. If that string corresponds to a complete file path (directory and file name), the script will be created in that file and will not be deleted after Maxima is closed; otherwise, the string will give the name of a file to be created in the temporary directory and deleted when Maxima is closed.

In this example, the script file name is set to “sin.gnuplot”, in the current directory.

(%i1) plot2d( sin(x), [x,0,2*%pi], [gnuplot_script_file, "./sin.gnuplot"]);

(%o1) ["./sin.gnuplot"]

In this example, gnuplot_maxout_prt(file) is a function that takes the default file name, file. It constructs a full file name for the data file by interpolating a random 8-digit integer with a pad of zeros into the default file name (“maxout” followed by the id number of the Maxima process, followed by “.gnuplot”). The temporary directory is determined by maxima_tempdir (it is “/tmp” in this example).

(%i1) gnuplot_maxout_prt(file) := block([beg,end],
        [beg,end] : split(file,"."),
        printf(false,"~a_~8,'0d.~a",beg,random(10^8-1),end)) $

(%i2) plot2d( sin(x), [x,0,2*%pi], [gnuplot_script_file, gnuplot_maxout_prt]);

(%o2) ["/tmp/maxout68715_09606909.gnuplot"]

By default, the script would have been saved in a file named maxoutXXXXX.gnuplot (XXXXX=68715 in this example) in the temporary directory. If the print statement in function gnuplot_maxout_prt above included a directory path, the file would have been saved in that directory rather than in the temporary directory.

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Plot option: gnuplot_pm3d [gnuplot_pm3d, value]

With a value of false, it can be used to disable the use of PM3D mode, which is enabled by default.

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Plot option: gnuplot_preamble [gnuplot_preamble, string]

This option inserts gnuplot commands before any other commands sent to Gnuplot. Any valid gnuplot commands may be used. Multiple commands should be separated with a semi-colon. See also gnuplot_postamble.

Categories: Plotting ·
Plot option: gnuplot_postamble [gnuplot_postamble, string]

This option inserts gnuplot commands after other commands sent to Gnuplot and right before the plot command is sent. Any valid gnuplot commands may be used. Multiple commands should be separated with a semi-colon. See also gnuplot_preamble.

Categories: Plotting ·
Plot option: gnuplot_default_term_command

[gnuplot_default_term_command, command]

The gnuplot command to set the terminal type for the default terminal. It this option is not set, the command used will be: "set term wxt size 640,480 font \",12\"; set term pop".

Categories: Plotting ·
Plot option: gnuplot_dumb_term_command

[gnuplot_dumb_term_command, command]

The gnuplot command to set the terminal type for the dumb terminal. It this option is not set, the command used will be: "set term dumb 79 22", which makes the text output 79 characters by 22 characters.

Categories: Plotting ·
Plot option: gnuplot_pdf_term_command [gnuplot_pdf_term_command, command]

The gnuplot command to set the terminal type for the PDF terminal. If this option is not set, the command used will be: "set term pdfcairo color solid lw 3 size 17.2 cm, 12.9 cm font \",18\"". See the gnuplot documentation for more information.

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Plot option: gnuplot_png_term_command [gnuplot_png_term_command, command]

The gnuplot command to set the terminal type for the PNG terminal. If this option is not set, the command used will be: "set term pngcairo font \",12\"". See the gnuplot documentation for more information.

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Plot option: gnuplot_ps_term_command [gnuplot_ps_term_command, command]

The gnuplot command to set the terminal type for the PostScript terminal. If this option is not set, the command used will be: "set term postscript eps color solid lw 2 size 16.4 cm, 12.3 cm font \",24\"". See the gnuplot documentation for set term postscript for more information.

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Plot option: gnuplot_strings [gnuplot_strings, value]

With a value of true, all strings used in labels and titles will be interpreted by gnuplot as “enhanced” text, if the terminal being used supports it. In enhanced mode, some characters such as ^ and _ are not printed, but interpreted as formatting characters. For a list of the formatting characters and their meaning, see the documentation for enhanced in Gnuplot. The default value for this option is false, which will not treat any characters as formatting characters.

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Plot option: gnuplot_svg_term_command [gnuplot_svg_term_command, command]

The gnuplot command to set the terminal type for the SVG terminal. If this option is not set, the command used will be: "set term svg font \",14\"". See the gnuplot documentation for more information.

Categories: Plotting ·
Plot option: gnuplot_curve_titles

This is an obsolete option that has been replaced by legend described above.

Categories: Plotting ·
Plot option: gnuplot_curve_styles

This is an obsolete option that has been replaced by style.

Categories: Plotting ·

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