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]" enhanced

produces $\mathrm{\Gamma }$.

e, l, m, q produce $ϵ$, $\lambda$, $\mu$, 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

1. In gnuplot window: Click on Export plot to file

2. Save as SVG files (.svg)

3. Open the saved .svg file with Inkscape

4. File $\Rightarrow$ Export .PNG Image… $\Rightarrow$ Select Drawing $\Rightarrow$ Export