Gnuplot Manual: Tics | Hirophysics

Outline:

Tics

Major tics

"Tics" takes three arguments, which are <start point>, <increment>, and <end point>, respectively. Namely, if you type as follows, you will see the picture below.

gnuplot> set xtics 0, 1, 5
gnuplot> plot atan(x)

This shows x-tics from 0 to 5 by increment 1. If you use only one argument, it will specify the increment.

You can also choose several tics randomly.

gnuplot> gnuplot> set xtics (-3,0,1,2,5)
gnuplot> plot atan(x)

This example shows tics for y-axis by the increment of 0.1.

gnuplot> set ytics 0.1
gnuplot> plot atan(x)

In ordert to hide all of tics, simply unset it.

gnuplot> unset tics

In ordert to turn on all of the tics, use

gnuplot> set tics

You can specify tics for each axis such as xtics, ytics, and ztics. However, you cannot use any argument for "set tics." For instance, "set tics 2" is not allowed.

Minor tics

You can also set the minor tics. The argument indicates the number of intervals. Each axis has to be set independently.

gnuplot> set mxtics 5
gnuplot> set mytics 5
gnuplot> plot atan(x)

Nomirror and second tics

The tics are reflected on the other sides as you can see. When you use "nomirror" option, the other side of tics will be removed.

gnuplot> set ytics nomirror
gnuplot> plot sin(x)**2/x**2

If you want to undo it, enter "set ytics mirror."

After removing tics like the above, the other scale of the tics can be replaced. Simply enter following:

gnuplot> set y2tics 0.05
gnuplot> plot sin(x)**2/x**2

The same can be done for x-axis.

Other options for tics

There are several more options for "set tics."

gnuplot> set tics axis #Put tics on axes

gnuplot> set tics out #Put tics outside

gnuplot> set tics in #Put tics inside

gnuplot> set tics rotate #rotate tics numbers by 90 degrees

gnuplot> set xdtics #Put days on tics (for y- and z-axes, use ydtics and zdtics)

gnuplot> set xmtics #Put months on tics (for y- and z-axes, use ymtics and zmtics)

Gnuplot manual: Frequently used methods