ctioga2 the polymorphic plotting program

Customizing the look of axes and labels

Here are ways to tweak various things about axes and things.

Alternative X or Y axes

It is possible to use different axes for different curves in a single plot, using --y2 or --x2:

ctioga2 -X --math 'sin(x)' 'cos(x)' -y '$y$ values' \
	--y2 '0.5 * x**2' -y '$y_2$ values' \
	-x '$x$ values' /color Blue

Copy to terminal

This example also shows how to define the label for the current X and Y axes; the -x and -y commands provide many options to fine-tune the look of the labels.

X and Y ranges

It is possible to define the X and Y ranges of the plot thus:

ctioga2 -X --math 'sin(x)' 'cos(x)' \
	--xrange -20: --yrange -0.8:2

Copy to terminal

Alternatively, it is possible to use --margin to leave a certain fraction of the plots around the data points; to make the reading easier. In this case, we leave 3%:

ctioga2 -X --math --margin 0.03 \
	'sin(x)' 'cos(x)'

Copy to terminal

Log plots

It is possible to use a log scale by passing the --xlog or --ylog commands:

ctioga2 -X --math --ylog --margin 0.03 \
	'1 + x**2' '1 + x**4' '1 + x**6' 

Copy to terminal

Tweaking the looks of axes

It is possible to change the look of each of the sides of the plot individually using the --axis-style and the companion --label-style commands that set the style of the axis and of the labels respectively.

ctioga2 -X --math 'sin(x)' 'cos(x)' \
	--top off --bottom major-num /stroke_color Blue \
	--axis-style right /decoration major \
	--label-style bottom /color Blue 

Copy to terminal

Controlling tick position and labels

Starting from ctioga2 version 0.6, it is possible to control the appearance and position of major ticks and tick labels, through the use of the ticks command or through various options to the axis-style command:

math /xrange 1e3:7e5
margin 0.07
plot log(x)
ticks bottom /format "%.1e" 

Download command file

The /format argument to the ticks command is interpreted as a sprintf format specification.

You have basically three options to control the position of the axes ticks. You may specify an approximate number of major ticks for the whole graph, specify the difference between two successive ticks, and finally specify by hand the position of all ticks, all this using the ticks command. First, difference and number:

math 
margin 0.03
plot "(1 + 1e-3 * x**6)**0.5"
top line
right line
ticks bottom /minor-number 3 /major-number 7
ticks left /minor-delta 2 /major-delta 5

Download command file

For the bottom axis, this says that there should be at least 7 major ticks and exactly 3 minor ticks between each major one. For the left axis, minor ticks are placed every multiple of two while the major ticks are placed every multiple of 5. Note that there is no need for the minor ticks to be evenly spaced between the major ticks.

While these possibilities will be enough for most cases where @ctioga2@’s default values don’t suit you, you can have even more control by specifying directly the position of the ticks using the /major and /minor options to the ticks command:

math /xrange 1e3:7e5
margin 0.07
plot log(x)
top line
ticks bottom /minor 1e5,1.5e5,2e5,3.5e5,5e5,6e5 /major 0.5e5,2.5e5,4e5,5.5e5 \
      /format="%.1e"
background-lines bottom Gray /style Dots

Download command file

See how the background lines follow the position of the major ticks.

Here, we disabled the ticks on the top axis using top as they would still follow the usual convention, which would have a disconcerting effect. A simple way to take care of that is to use variables:

minor = 1e5,1.5e5,2e5,3.5e5,5e5,6e5
major = 0.5e5,2.5e5,4e5,5.5e5
math /xrange 1e3:7e5
margin 0.07
plot log(x)
ticks bottom /minor $(minor) /major $(major) /format="%.1e"
ticks top /minor $(minor) /major $(major)
background-lines bottom Gray /style Dots

Download command file

Using the /labels option, you can even specify the exact label for all the ticks. The price to pay for that level of control is that you must provide manually the location for all the major ticks (and the minor ones if you want them to show up too).

math /xrange -2:2
margin 0.02
plot sin(3.141592*x)
top line
ticks bottom /minor -1.75,-1.25,-0.75,-0.25,0.25,0.75,1.25,1.75\
      /major -2,-1.5,-1,-0.5,0,0.5,1,1.5,2 \
      /labels='$-2\pi$,$-\frac{3\pi}{2}$,$-\pi$,$-\frac{\pi}{2}$,\
0,$\frac{\pi}{2}$,$\pi$,$\frac{3\pi}{2}$,$2\pi$'

Download command file

Non-linear axes

With ctioga2, making non-linear additional axes is just a matter of specifying the transformation between the linear axis and the non-linear one, using the /transform option to the axis style command (here --top):

math /xrange 3e-2:5e-2
margin 0.07
top major-num /transform 8.314/x /axis-label-text='$T$ (K)'
xlabel '$1/(RT)$ (mol/J)'
ylog true
plot exp(-5e2*x)
plot 0.2*exp(-5e2*x)

Download command file

In the general case, you have to specify the formula for changing the from linear to non-linear and back, unless it is an involution (which is the case here). Separate the formulas with a :.