Part 2. Creating graphs

This part explains in detail gnuplot’s various options and features that you’ll use all the time when preparing graphs and figures. Chapter 4 discusses file formats of data files and the different pieces of information that gnuplot can extract from them. Chapter 5 covers a number of supplemental topics. Very important is an introduction to gnuplot’s string data type, which not only is essential when you want to add labels and explanations to a graph, but also is used in gnuplot’s macro facility and as gnuplot’s only complex data type. This chapter also explains how you can facilitate repetitive tasks through inline loops. Chapter 6 provides an overview and catalog of all the different styles that are available to represent data. Chapter 7 introduces all kinds of decorations that can make a graph more informative. You’ll learn about arrows, text labels, and ways to customize a graph’s legend. Chapter 8 describes how to control the way axes and tic marks are drawn. The chapter also explains how to handle time-series data and how to use calendar dates as tic labels.