Grid with lines at minor tics
Bill Schwab
I am trying to create graphs for an audience that knows what they
want, among the requirements is a grid with major and minor lines.
The following is close to what I need (using a simple function in
place of real data an ranges):
set yrange [*:*]
set xrange [-2:2]
set xtics 1
set ytics 1
set mxtics 4
set mytics 4
set grid mxtics mytics xtics ytics -1 0
plot x**2 axes x1y1
The major lines should be heavier that in the result, and I might
prefer to use a "lighter" dash pattern for the minor lines. The
problem is that I cannot figure out what is making this much work.
Gnuplot in Action is a great book, but it does not say much about
grids, and the little I have found elsewhere is almost silent on minor
lines.
Any ideas?
Bill
sfeam
> Hello all,
>
> I am trying to create graphs for an audience that knows what they
> want, among the requirements is a grid with major and minor lines.
> The following is close to what I need (using a simple function in
> place of real data an ranges):
>
> set yrange [*:*]
> set xrange [-2:2]
> set xtics 1
> set ytics 1
> set mxtics 4
> set mytics 4
> set grid mxtics mytics xtics ytics -1 0
> plot x**2 axes x1y1
>
> The major lines should be heavier that in the result, and I might
> prefer to use a "lighter" dash pattern for the minor lines.
> The problem is that I cannot figure out what is making this much work.
> set grid mxtics mytics xtics ytics -1 0
Let's break this into two separate commands
# turn on all the grid lines
set grid mxtics mytics xtics ytics
# set the line types
set grid -1 0
The "-1" is the linetype used for major tic grid lines
The "0" is the linetype used for minor tic grid lines
However, the particular command is given using a now-deprecated syntax
that omits all the keywords that would help you figure out how to
modify it. The equivalent modern command would be
set grid lt -1 lt 0
And if you look at the output from "help set grid" you will see
that you can specify line styles as an alternative to linetypes.
So to get a heavier line style:
set style line 1 linetype -1 linewidth 3
set grid ls 1 lt 0
Gnuplot does not yet offer a terminal-independent way of altering
the dot/dash style. For some terminal types you could make it
lighter by choosing a line width < 1. For some you can alter the
dash length also.
> Gnuplot in Action is a great book, but it does not say much about
> grids, and the little I have found elsewhere is almost silent on minor
> lines.
Nothing special about them. You can use the same style options
as other lines.
> Any ideas?
>
> Bill