page_title: Gnuplot
section_title: Features
hierarchical_section_title: Gnuplot / Features
caption_attribution_description: Gnuplot in action (running under Ubuntu 9.04): In the foreground a 'wxt' window containing a plot of the functions (x/4)^2, sin(x) and 1/x. In the background a terminal running gnuplot.
context_page_description: gnuplot is a command-line program that can generate two- and three-dimensional plots of functions, data, and data fits. The program runs on all major computers and operating systems.
  It is a program with a fairly long history, dating back to 1986. Despite its name, this software is not part of the GNU Project.
context_section_description: gnuplot can produce output directly on screen, or in many formats of graphics files, including Portable Network Graphics (PNG), Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), JPEG and many others. It is also capable of producing LaTeX code that can be included directly in LaTeX documents, making use of LaTeX's fonts and powerful formula notation abilities. The program can be used both interactively and in batch mode using scripts.
  gnuplot can read data in multiple formats, including ability to read data on the fly generated by other programs (piping), create multiple plots on one image, do 2D, 3D, contour plots, parametric equations, supports various linear and non-linear coordinate systems, projections, geographic and time data reading and presentation, box plots of various forms, histograms, labels, and other custom elements on the plot, including shapes, text and images, that can be set manually, computed by script or automatically from input data.
  gnuplot also provides scripting capabilities, looping, functions, text processing, variables, macros, arbitrary pre-processing of input data (usually across columns), as well ability to perform non-linear multi-dimensional multi-set weighted data fitting (see Curve fitting and Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm).
  The gnuplot core code is programmed in C. Modular subsystems for output via Qt, wxWidgets, and LaTeX/TikZ/ConTeXt are written in C++ and Lua.
  The code below creates the graph to the right.
  set title "Some Math Functions"set xrange [-10:10]set yrange [-2:2]set zeroaxisplot (x/4)**2, sin(x), 1/x
  The name of this program was originally chosen to avoid conflicts with a program called "newplot", and was originally a compromise between "llamaplot" and "nplot".
caption: gnuplot in interactive use.
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