GNUPlot Manual

36 SET-SHOW gnuplot 4.0 91
By default, sampling is set to 100 points. A higher sampling rate will produce more accurate plots,
but will take longer. This parameter has no effect on data file plotting unless one of the interpolation/approximation
options is used. See plot smooth (p. 41) re 2-d data and set cntrparam (p. 58)
and set dgrid3d (p. 63) re 3-d data.
When a 2-d graph is being done, only the value of is relevant.
When a surface plot is being done without the removal of hidden lines, the value of samples specifies the
number of samples that are to be evaluated for the isolines. Each iso-v line will have samples
and each iso-u line will have samples. If you only specify , will
be set to the same value as . See also set isosamples (p. 71).
36.56 Size
The set size command scales the displayed size of the plot.
Syntax:
set size {{no}square | ratio | noratio} {,}
show size
The and values are the scaling factors for the size of the plot, which includes the
graph and the margins.
ratio causes gnuplot to try to create a graph with an aspect ratio of (the ratio of the y-axis length
to the x-axis length) within the portion of the plot specified by and .
The meaning of a negative value for is different. If =-1, gnuplot tries to set the scales so that
the unit has the same length on both the x and y axes (suitable for geographical data, for instance). If
=-2, the unit on y has twice the length of the unit on x, and so on.
The success of gnuplot in producing the requested aspect ratio depends on the terminal selected. The
graph area will be the largest rectangle of aspect ratio that will fit into the specified portion of the
output (leaving adequate margins, of course).
square is a synonym for ratio 1.
Both noratio and nosquare return the graph to the default aspect ratio of the terminal, but do not
return or to their default values (1.0).
ratio and square have no effect on 3-d plots.
set size is relative to the default size, which differs from terminal to terminal. Since gnuplot fills as
much of the available plotting area as possible by default, it is safer to use set size to decrease the size
of a plot than to increase it. See set terminal (p. 99) for the default sizes.
On some terminals, changing the size of the plot will result in text being misplaced.
Examples:
To set the size to normal size use:
set size 1,1
To make the graph half size and square use:
set size square 0.5,0.5
To make the graph twice as high as wide use:
set size ratio 2
See also
airfoil demo.
36.57 Style
Default plotting styles are chosen with the set style data and set style function commands. See plot
with (p. 47) for information about how to override the default plotting style for individual functions
and data sets. See plotting styles (p. 94) for a complete list of styles.