Plotting with gnuplot

Xiaoxu Guan
High Performance Computing, LSU
September 28, 2016

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Overview

• What is gnuplot and what can gnuplot do for us?

• Fundamental concepts in gnuplot
• Plot functions, curves, points, . . .
• Built-in functions and functions user defined
• Customize axes, labels, and legends
• Other types of 2D plots
• Gnuplot with data files
• Borders and multiple plots
• Customize postscript plots
• Three-dimensional and contour plots
• Further reading

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What is gnuplot?
• Gnuplot is one of the open-source cross-platform plotting
systems;
• Note gnuplot is NOT a GNU project;
• It was written in C/C++, and other languages;
• Gnuplot is mostly a command-line driven plotting program;
• It supports many output formats of figure: (E)PS, PDF, SVG,
LATEX, PNG, . . .
• Gnuplot is an implementation and a scripting system as well;
• It supports both batch and interactive modes;
• Gnuplot is a backbone of many other GUIs tools: Maxima,
GNU Octave, Kayali, . . .;
• It can be called by Perl, Python, Ruby, Fortran 95, . . .;
• It has widely been used to create publication-quality figures;
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Fundamental concepts in gnuplot
• Remember that gnuplot is a command-line driven program.

It can also be thought as a scripting system;

• All the commands are case sensitive. They may be

abbreviated as short as they are not ambiguous;

• Like shell scripting, gnuplot uses # as comments;

• Gnuplot reserves the backslash (\) as the character of line

continuation;
• Plot on a canvas:

set terminal { <type of terminal> <options> }

set size x,y
set output “file.name”
• Type of terminals: png, jpeg, postscript, pdf, latex, pslatex,
epslatex, svg, x11, and many others;
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Fundamental concepts in gnuplot
• Different terminals may have different settings;

set terminal postscript portrait size 6, 4 \

enhanced monochrome "Helvetica" 16
set output "figure1.ps" # size in inch
set term png size 600, 400 # absolute size
set size 0.5, 0.4 # scale factors
set output "figure2.png" # size in pixel
set term pslatex color dashed dl 4 15
set size 1.0, 2.0
set output "figure3.tex" # size in inch
set term pdf color rounded linewidth 4
set output "figure4.pdf"
# size in 5 inches by 3 inches
• Use help command within gnuplot;
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Plot functions, curves, points, . . .
• plot is the primary command for 2D figures;
plot <ranges> <iteration> \
<function> | "<datafile>" datafile-modifiers \
axes <axes> <title-spec> with <style> . . .
set xrange [a:b]
set yrange [c:d]
• Note that functions can be built-in or user defined
(lt=linetype and lw=linewidth);
a = 4.0 ; b = 5.2
my_fun(x) = exp(-a*x) * sin(b*x)
plot [-2:2] [-5:5] my_fun title "This my plot" \
lt 1 lw 4
• Define two parameters a, b, and the function my_fun(x);
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Built-in functions
• Gnuplot supports many built-in functions:

Function Description
log(x) log function of x in natural base (e)
log 10(x) like the above, but in base 10
rand(0) generator of pseudo random numbers (real)
√
sqrt(x) x
a**b ab
exp(x) ex
sin(x) sin(x)
tan(x) tan(x)
abs(x) abs(x)
sgn(x) +1 if x > 0, or −1 if x < 0
gamma(x) gamma(x)
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Plot functions, curves, points, . . .
• How to control linetype, linewidth, or linecolor, . . .:
• Again, this is terminal dependent: run command test;
postscript terminal test -1
show ticscale
0
filled polygons: 1
2
3
4
5
postscript
6
7
8
terminal
9
left justified 10
centre+d text 11
g
de

right justified 12
rotated ce+ntred text

13
+4

lt ranges
by

14
test of character width:
d
te

15
ta
ro

12345678901234567890 16

from -1 to 32
ro

17
ta
te

18
d
by

19
Enhanced text: xn+1
-4
5

0 20
de
g

21
22
23
linewidth 24
lw 6 25
26
lw 5 27
lw 4 pattern fill 28
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 29
lw 3 30
lw 2 31
32
lw 1

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Plot functions, curves, points, . . .
• How to control linetype, linewidth, or linecolor, . . .:
• Again, this is terminal dependent: run command test;

png
terminal

lt ranges
from -1 to 22

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Plot functions, curves, points, . . .
• How to control linetype, linewidth, or linecolor, . . .:
• Line colors can be represented either in name or in hex;
plot sin(x) lc rgb "blue" lt 1 lw 4, \
tan(x) lc rgb "#800000" lt 2 lw 2 # dark brown
• Gnuplot allows us to define user-specified line style (ls): it
can be reused once defined;
set style line 1 lt -1 lc rgb "orange" lw 2
set style line 2 lt 0 lc rgb "red" lw 3
set style line 3 lt 1 lc rgb "cyan" lw 4
plot sin(x) ls 1 title "orange", \
tan(x) ls 2 title "red",\
tan(x)*sin(x) ls 3 title "cyan" \
(x*x-x+2)*sin(x) ls 3 title "cyan"
• Note line color can also be a variable;
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Plot functions, curves, points, . . .
• What about point type or size?
• Again, it depends on terminals: run test;
plot sin(x) with points pt 2 ps 3
plot sin(x) with p pt 4 ps 3
• How to add points on lines?
plot cos(x) with linespoints lt 1 lw 2 \
lc rgb "blue" pt 2 ps 3
plot cos(x) with lp lt 1 lw 2 \
lc rgb "green" pt 4 ps 2
• Generalize the definition of line style:
set style line 1 lt -1 lc rgb "orange" lw 2 \
pt 10 ps 1 # define ls 1

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Customize axes, labels, and legends
• By default, gnuplot automatically draws axes, tics, labels,
legends (also known as keys), etc;
• Gnuplot also allows us to customize them;
set xrange [1:200] ; set yrange [-1:1]
• Control the axis tics:
set xtics 50 ; set ytics 0.2 # main tics
set mxtics 5 ; set mytics 2 # minor tics
set xtics add (1)
# manually add label 1 on the x axis
• Control the length of tics:
set tics scale 2.5 # main x and y tics scales
set xtics scale 2.5 # main xtics scale
set ytics scale 2.5 # main ytics scale
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Customize axes, labels, and legends
• Sometimes we might want to draw tic marks outwards;

set xtics scale 1.5 out # default is in

• Control the axis labels (note offset):
set xtics font "Times New Roman,12" # font and size
set xlabel "Number of cores" offset 0.0, 0.3
# specify the x-axis label
set ylabel "Speedup" # specify the y-axis label
• Control the formats of labels:
set format y "%3.1f" # format of y labels
set log y # y tics in log10
set format y "$10ˆ{%01T}$" # y in 10k
• Cancel it? (using unset)
unset log y # cancel the log setting of the y axis
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Customize axes, labels, and legends
• How to control keys (legends):

unset key # don’t draw the keys

set key at -5, 0.8 # draw the keys at the coordinates
set key at 0, 1.5 spacing 0.9 samplen 2
# draw the keys with specified line properties
• Add labels:

set label 1 at -1,0.2 "This is the first lobe"

set label 2 at 2,0.8 "T=0.4 a.u."
# define labels 1 and 2
• Draw arrows:
set arrow 1 from 1,0.4 to 3.5, 2.9 \
nohead filled lt 2 lw 1 lc rgb "blue" back
set arrow 2 from -1,0.0.2 to 0.5, 4.0 \
head filled lt 2 lw 1 lc rgb "dark-green" back
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Other types of 2D plots
• Gnuplot supports many other types of 2D plots;
• Let’s consider the polar plot:
set dummy t
set trange [0:pi*0.5]
set polar
plot 2-sin(t) lw 4
# define a dummy variable t and plot a function y(t)
• Gnuplot also supports bar plots, pie plots, error bars, loading
binary figures, multiple axes, filling space between lines and
other features;
plot "lsutiger.png" binary array=(128,128) . . .
plot "myfigure" binary . . .
• Let’s see how gnuplot can handle data files;
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Gnuplot with data files
• For 2D plots, the textual data file can be in the format of
multiple columns. Both floating numbers and scientific
notation (1.4E-2 or 2.6e+10) are recognizable;
• Add # in your data files whenever necessary for comments;
# Intel MPI lib on SuperMIC.
# 16 MPI tasks on 16 nodes. Each node has one MPI
# task either in offload or no-offload mode.
# offload mode NON-offload (only on host)
# column_1 column_2 column_3 column_4
1 1710.53 1 133.06
5 358.89 2 69.99
10 192.72 3 48.79
...
240 22.17
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Gnuplot with data files
• What we want is to plot the speedup (Sn = T1 /Tn ) against the
number of threads on MIC and CPU;
• Column index starts from 1;
tmic = 1710.53 ; tcpu = 133.06
plot "timing.dat" using 1:2 w l lt 2 lw 3
plot "timing.dat" u 1:(tmic/$2) w l lt 2 lw 3
• Multiple lines on the same plot. If necessary, we can use the
same or other data files;
• Gnuplot supports the path in filename as well;
tmic = 1710.53 ; tcpu = 133.06
plot "timing.dat" u 1:(tmic/$2) w l lt 2 lw 3, \
"" u 3:(tcpu/$4) w l lt 3 lw 2 \
pt 2 ps 3 # add points

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Borders and multiple plots
• More terminologies: screen, graph, origin, margin, etc;
graph (1,1)

• Screen (0,0), (1,1)

is the entire area
(canvas).
• Borders mean four
borders screen (1,1)
axes with tics.
• Borders define the
graph (0,0) graph area:
(0,0),(1,1).
• Margin area is for
margin
axis labels and tics.
screen (0,0)

• What about the origin?

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Borders and multiple plots
• More terminologies: screen, graph, origin, margin, etc;
graph (1,1)

• set origin
(0.1,0.1)
• In the screen
coordinates, set
borders screen (1,1) the origin of
graph.
graph (0,0)
• Origin is useful to
multiple plots.
× • Each panel can
margin have its own
screen (0,0) origin.
origin of graph (0.1,0.1)

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Borders and multiple plots
• Borders in gnuplot mean four axes;
• Gnuplot allows us to control four borders using mask values;
set border <options> # define borders
• Mask values: bottom is 1, left 2, top 4, and right 8.
unset border # important!
set border 3 # draw bottom and left axes (3=1+2)
set border 7 # draw bottom, left, and top axes (7=1+2+4)
set border 15 # same as the default
show border
• Note the above setting has nothing to do with tic marks;
set xtics nomirror # turn off x tics mirror
set ytics nomirror # turn off y tics mirror
• Borders are drawn on the top of all plot elements (default);
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Borders and multiple plots
• On the same canvas, draw multiple plots on several panels;

• We may organize plots in terms of m × n (# rows × # cols)

panels. Each panel may be customized separately;

set multiplot # only once
set origin 0,0 # for the canvas or a panel
# the first panel
set origin 0.5/5.0, -1.5/3.5
set lmargin 0 # left margin
set rmargin 0 # right margin
set tmargin 0 # top margin
set bmargin 0 # bottom margin

# the second panel

set origin 0.5/5.0, 0.0/3.5
...
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Borders and multiple plots
• The output of the script multiplot.gpl:
80
70 Intel Xeon Phi
Intel Xeon
• The terminal is pslatex.
60 16 MPI tasks on 16 nodes
• Define a canvas first on
Speedup

50 (a)
40 20 which all panels will be
30
10
20 drawn.
1
10
1
1 5 10 15 20 • Generally, we can use
1 50 100 150 200 250
Number of OpenMP threads
set multiplot to
160
140 Offload to the Xeon Phi organize multiple
1 node
120 4 nodes
9 nodes
panels in any way we
Speedup

100 16 nodes
80 (b) want.
60
40
• Each panel can have its
20 own origin, size, and
1
1 50 100 150 200 250 margins, etc.
Number of OpenMP threads

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3D surfaces and contours
• The data file needs to be blocked and each block separates
by a blank line:
x1 y 1 z11 • A blank line between blocks.
x1 y 2 z12 • Whitespace between columns.
x1 y 3 z13 • The sequence of columns is
...
x1 ymax z1max irrelevant.
• It is better to use the terminal of
[blank line]
x2 y 1 z21 postscript (or other vector terms).
x2 y 2 z22 • In most cases, contour plots are
x2 y 3 z23 more useful.
... • The gnuplot command is
x2 ymax z2max
[blank line] splot <options>
...
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3D surfaces and contours
• Gnuplot supports “heat map" plot;
• Color mapping is used to represent one of the columns;
set term postscript enhanced color rounded 21
set pm3d map
set size square
• The splot syntax:
splot "myfile_1.dat" u 1:2:3
splot "myfile_2.dat" u 2:1:3
splot "myfile_3.dat" u 2:1:$3/1.e-4
splot "myfile_4.dat" every 2 u 2:1:($3)/1.e-4
• Control colorbox:
set colorbox horizontal user \
origin 0.2,0.11 size 0.62,0.015 # also vertical
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3D surfaces and contours
• We now know how to control the position and orientation of

colorbox, etc;
• Let’s consider the color scheme: palette;

• Some useful examples of palette:

set palette rgb 21,22,23 # hot (black-red-yellow-white)

set palette negative rgb 21,22,23
set palette rgb 33,13,10
# rainbow (blue-green-yellow-red)
set palette rgb 34,35,36
# AFM hot (black-red-yellow-white)
set palette defined ( 0 "#000090",1 "#000fff", \
2 "#0090ff", 3 "#0fffee", \
4 "#90ff70", 5 "#ffee00", \ # default matlab
6 "#ff7000", 7 "#ee0000", 8 "#7f0000" )
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3D surfaces and contours
• The output of map3d.gpl: • set multiplot
• set size square
• set pm3d map
• unset border
• set colorbox . . .
• set palette defined
...
• splot ’map3d.dat’
every 2 u
($1)*sin($2) :
(d)
($1)*cos($2) :
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 ($3)/($1)/($1)/1.e-4
• ...
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Further reading

• Gnuplot homepage: http://www.gnuplot.info

• Not So FAQs: http://lowrank.net/gnuplot/index-e.html
• Also a good one: http://www.gnuplotting.org

Questions?
sys-help@loni.org

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