gnuplot documentation

144 gnuplot 4.3 70 SET-SHOW
The is specified by either x,y or x,y,z, and may be preceded by first, second, graph, screen,
or character to select the coordinate system. is the offset of the tics texts from their default
positions, while the default coordinate system is character. See coordinates (p. 24) for details.
nooffset switches off the offset.
Example:
Move xtics more closely to the plot.
set xtics offset 0,graph 0.05
set xtics with no options restores the default border or axis if xtics are being displayed; otherwise it
has no effect. Any previously specified tic frequency or position {and labels} are retained.
Positions of the tics are calculated automatically by default or if the autofreq option is given; otherwise
they may be specified in either of two forms:
The implicit , , form specifies that a series of tics will be plotted on the axis
between the values and with an increment of . If is not given, it is
assumed to be infinity. The increment may be negative. If neither nor is given,
is assumed to be negative infinity, is assumed to be positive infinity, and the tics will be drawn
at integral multiples of . If the axis is logarithmic, the increment will be used as a multiplicative
factor.
If you specify to a negative or after a numerical value (e.g., rotate by
or offset ), the parser fails because it subtracts or from that value. As a
workaround, specify 0- resp. 0- in that case.
Example:
set xtics border offset 0,0.5 -5,1,5
Fails with ’invalid expression’ at the last comma.
set xtics border offset 0,0.5 0-5,1,5
or
set xtics offset 0,0.5 border -5,1,5
Sets tics at the border, tics text with an offset of 0,0.5 characters, and sets the start, increment, and end
to -5, 1, and 5, as requested.
The set grid options ’front’, ’back’ and ’layerdefault’ affect the drawing order of the xtics, too.
Examples:
Make tics at 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, ..., 9.5, 10.
set xtics 0,.5,10
Make tics at ..., -10, -5, 0, 5, 10, ...
set xtics 5
Make tics at 1, 100, 1e4, 1e6, 1e8.
set logscale x; set xtics 1,100,1e8
The explicit ("" , ...) form allows arbitrary tic positions or non-numeric tic
labels. In this form, the tics do not need to be listed in numerical order. Each tic has a position,
optionally with a label. Note that the label is a string enclosed by quotes. It may be a constant string,
such as "hello", may contain formatting information for converting the position into its label, such as
"%3f clients", or may be empty, "". See set format (p. 100) for more information. If no string is
given, the default label (numerical) is used.
An explicit tic mark has a third parameter, the "level". The default is level 0, a major tic. A level of 1
generates a minor tic. If the level is specified, then the label must also be supplied.
Examples: