How to optimze the looks of a Gnuplot graph¶
The plot style for all Gnuplot exports can be customized in Options: Gnuplot settings. This is convenient to achieve uniformous style of the exported graphs e.g. for a presentation. A style-sheet can be used which can be shared within the whole work-group.
Optimize your Gnuplot Graph manually¶
Alternatively or additionally to the style-sheet you can customize each Gnuplot file on its own. Just open the file with a text editor of your choice and change, add or remove commands.
Collection of some useful gnuplot commands.
- Semi-log plot
set logscale x set logscale y- Change the line thickness (
lw 4
) plot 'D:\bandedges.dat' linetype rgb "#FF0000" pt 5 ... plot 'D:\bandedges.dat' linetype rgb "#FF0000" pt 5 lw 4 ...- Change font size of the x axis (
20
) set xlabel "position (nm)" font "sans - serif" set xlabel "position (nm)" font "sans - serif,20"- Use subscript and superscript (
enhanced
vs.noenhanced
) plot 'D:\density_hole.dat' using 1:2 title "p (10^{18} cm^{-3})"enhanced ... plot 'D:\density_hole.dat' using 1:2 title "p (10^18 cm^-3)" noenhanced ...- Change range [\(x_{min}\) , \(x_{max}\) ] and [\(y_{min}\) , \(y_{max}\) ] of the graph
set xrange [-0.3:100.3] set xrange [0:100] set yrange [-1.5:2.5] set yrange [-1.0:0.5]- Set/Remove grid
set grid unset grid- Change thickness of the border (
lw
) set border lw 2 set border lw 3- Set/Remove legend
set key on set key off- Set/Remove box around legend (
box
) set key on ... box set key on ... nobox- Increase font size in legend
set key on ... font "sans - serif,14" set key on ... font "sans - serif,18"- Specify the location of legend
set key left top inside ... set key right bottom outside ...- Remove line from legend (
notitle
) plot 'D:\bandedges.dat' using 1:2 title "E_c " ... plot 'D:\bandedges.dat' using 1:2 notitle "E_c " ...- Add Greek letter to line in legend (
"{/Symbol G}" enhanced
) using 1:2 title "{/Symbol G} [eV]" enhancedproduces \(\Gamma\).
e, l, m, q produce \(\epsilon\), \(\lambda\), \(\mu\), and \(\theta\), respectively.
- Add a label to the point \((x,y)\) in the plot
set label "label" at 0.5,1.5- Add an arrow
set arrow from 1.5,0.3 to 4,2- Graph Title
set title "title" font "sans - serif,18"
Generate high quality graphs¶
In gnuplot window: Click on
Export plot to file
Save as SVG files (.svg)
Open the saved .svg file with Inkscape
File \(\Rightarrow\) Export .PNG Image… \(\Rightarrow\) Select Drawing \(\Rightarrow\) Export