Functions and data may be displayed in one of a large number of styles. The with keyword provides the means of selection.
Syntax:
with <style> { {linestyle | ls <line_style>} | {{linetype | lt <line_type>} {linewidth | lw <line_width>} {pointtype | pt <point_type>} {pointsize | ps <point_size>}} }
where <style> is either lines, points, linespoints, impulses, dots, steps, fsteps, histeps, errorbars, xerrorbars, yerrorbars, xyerrorbars, boxes, boxerrorbars, boxxyerrorbars, financebars, candlesticks or vector. Some of these styles require additional information. See set style <style> for details of each style.
Default styles are chosen with the set function style and set data style commands.
By default, each function and data file will use a different line type and point type, up to the maximum number of available types. All terminal drivers support at least six different point types, and re-use them, in order, if more are required. The LaTeX driver supplies an additional six point types (all variants of a circle), and thus will only repeat after 12 curves are plotted with points. The PostScript drivers (postscript) supplies a total of 64.
If you wish to choose the line or point type for a single plot, <line_type> and <point_type> may be specified. These are positive integer constants (or expressions) that specify the line type and point type to be used for the plot. Use test to display the types available for your terminal.
You may also scale the line width and point size for a plot by using <line_width> and <point_size>, which are specified relative to the default values for each terminal. The pointsize may also be altered globally---see set pointsize for details. But note that both <point_size> as set here and as set by set pointsize multiply the default point size---their effects are not cumulative. That is, set pointsize 2; plot x w p ps 3 will use points three times default size, not six.
If you have defined specific line type/width and point type/size combinations with set linestyle, one of these may be selected by setting <line_style> to the index of the desired style.
The keywords may be abbreviated as indicated.
Note that the linewidth and pointsize options are not supported by all terminals.
Examples:
This plots sin(x) with impulses:
plot sin(x) with impulses
This plots x with points, x**2 with the default:
plot x*y w points, x**2 + y**2
This plots tan(x) with the default function style, file "data.1" with lines:
plot [ ] [-2:5] tan(x), 'data.1' with l
This plots "leastsq.dat" with impulses:
plot 'leastsq.dat' w i
This plots the data file "population" with boxes:
plot 'population' with boxes
This plots "exper.dat" with errorbars and lines connecting the points (errorbars require three or four columns):
plot 'exper.dat' w lines, 'exper.dat' notitle w errorbars
This plots sin(x) and cos(x) with linespoints, using the same line type but different point types:
plot sin(x) with linesp lt 1 pt 3, cos(x) with linesp lt 1 pt 4
This plots file "data" with points of type 3 and twice usual size:
plot 'data' with points pointtype 3 pointsize 2
This plots two data sets with lines differing only by weight:
plot 'd1' t "good" w l lt 2 lw 3, 'd2' t "bad" w l lt 2 lw 1
See set style to change the default styles. Styles demos.