Book Image

gnuplot Cookbook

By : Lee Phillips
Book Image

gnuplot Cookbook

By: Lee Phillips

Overview of this book

gnuplot is the world's finest technical plotting software, used by scientists, engineers, and others for many years. It is in constant development and runs on practically every operating system, and can produce output in almost any format. The quality of its 3d plots is unmatched and its ability to be incorporated into computer programs and document preparation systems is excellent. gnuplot Cookbook ñ it will help you master gnuplot. Start using gnuplot immediately to solve your problems in data analysis and presentation. Quickly find a visual example of the graph you want to make and see a complete, working script for producing it. Learn how to use the new features in gnuplot 4.4. Find clearly explained, working examples of using gnuplot with LaTeX and with your own computer programming language. You will master all the ins and outs of gnuplot through gnuplot Cookbook. You will learn to plot basic 2d to complex 3d plots, annotate from simple labels to equations, integrate from simple scripts to full documents and computer progams. You will be taught to annotate graphs with equations and symbols that match the style of the rest of your text, thus creating a seamless, professional document. You will be guided to create a web page with an interactive graph, and add graphical output to your simulation or numerical analysis program. Start using all of gnuplot's simple to complex features to suit your needs, without studying its 200 page manual through this Cookbook.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
gnuplot Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Finding Help and Information
Index

Introduction


The previous chapters have all dealt with the creation of graphs, or of illustrations made up of sets of graphs, as isolated files or images on the screen. But in the real world, graphs and charts are often not content to stand on their own. The lucky ones become part of something larger. In this chapter, you will learn various techniques that will allow you to include your plots in technical documents, presentations, and web pages. The emphasis throughout will be on using the special capabilities of gnuplot, including some of its most recently added features, that allow it to work in close cooperation with document creation software for the production of the highest quality typeset or interactive documents.

The nature of what we shall be learning in this chapter means that there is an important difference between it and the previous ones. Up to now all you needed to follow the recipes in this book was a working installation of gnuplot and perhaps some auxiliary programs such...