From help-octave-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu  Wed Jan 27 15:37:51 1999
Subject: Pretty gnuplot plots
From: Martin Senator <ms at senator dot dl dot stevens-tech dot edu>
To: help-octave at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 16:39:05 -0500


Hi,
     When writing a report that includes graphs I use groff on linux:
$ groff -p -e -t -mgm  source.file.name  ...  .
(The -p says use the pic preprocessor,
 the -e says use the eqn preprocessor,
 the -t says use the tbl preprocessor,
 and the -mgm says use the gm [originally mm] set of macros.)
The default output is to make a postscript file.
This setup allows greek letters, subscripts, superscripts, font
size changes, bold, italic, etc. in the finished document.

For figures I take the working graphs generated using octave and
spruce them up.

?? Basic Question ??

How can I include features on these graphs like greek letters,
subscripts, superscripts, font size changes, two line titles, high level
labeling commands (where I don't have to specify where on the figure to
write things - there are sensible defaults), point markers other
than '.' '+' 'o', thinner lines, etc.?

I now make postscript files, one per figure, as follows, but I could
change to pic figures if that would help.  (It would be too difficult
for me to change to latex for the document text.)

 gset terminal postscript
 gset output 'fig1.ps'

 titlestr = "One Line Title"
 xlabelstr = "Abscissa, (one line)"

 plot (   x,  y,  '.'
         ,u,  v,  '-5'
      )
 gset label "Label Words" at 0.12 3.45 center
 xlabel ( xlabelstr )
 title  ( titlestr )
 system( 'rm fig1.ps' )
 gset output 'fig1.ps'
 replot
 closeplot


Thanks,
Martin