[Tex/LaTex] gnuplot epslatex pdflatex

gnuplotpdftex

I'm trying to embed my plot created in gnuplot. Just setting the terminal to latex works fine but only creates a black and white plot. With the color screens getting cheaper these days this isn't quite satisfying 😀

The manual also mentions the possibility to use epslatex, then converting the eps file to a pdf file and include the generated latex file completely messes up the spacing between the labels on the axis and the actual graph. This happens both times, when creating a latex file for inclusion and also when creating a standalone file.

Guessing that I'm not the only one I ask myself what I am doing wrong and weather there is an easy workaround.

Messed up spacing

Best Answer

There are several tools for EPS to PDF conversion: at least ps2pdf, epspdf and epstopdf. It can be verified that the first one of these (which uses GhostScript) creates a PDF of page size (say, A4 or US Letter) and not content size, while the other two work as expected. Some internet digging shows that GhostScript accepts the -dEPSCrop option, which clips the picture to its bounding box.

So, use either of epspdf, epstopdf or ps2pdf -dEPSCrop to properly convert the picture.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] gnuplot + epslatex

In my experience it's best to let graphics programs such as gnuplot use their own (non LaTeX) labels, and then replace these using psfrag. psfrag allows you to align the left/right/centre of the object to be replaced with the left/right/centre of the replacement. So, in gnuplot try

set term postscript eps mono
set output 'myplot.eps'
set ylabel 'Y'
plot x**3

and then in your document

\usepackage{psfrag}

...

\psfrag{Y}[r][r]{$y=x^3$}
\includegraphics{myplot}

[Tex/LaTex] Gnuplot subdirectory not found using epstopdf

Gnuplot's epslatex terminal generates an encapsulated postscript file containing the graph, and a tex file containing a sequence of commands to import the graph and add labels, etc. The problem occurs when TeX tries to import the graph (converted to pdf or not). The \includegraphics command that is contained within mygraph.tex does not contain the subdirectory name in its argument, so TeX looks in the 'usual' places, including the directory containing your main document, but not the subdirectory. So the answer to your first question is 'yes' (but see edit below).

In contrast, gnuplot's latex terminal generates a tex file containing a sequence of commands that draws everything using the picture environment. There is no second file to find, and no problem occurs.

EDIT

Gnuplot can issue shell commands, so you can use a string replacement utility to fix the problem. Using sed, a simple gnuplot script would look like this.

set term epslatex
set output 'temp.tex'
plot x**3
set output #Closes the temporary output files.
!sed 's|includegraphics{temp}|includegraphics{graphdir1/mygraph}|' < temp.tex > mygraph.tex
!epstopdf temp.eps --outfile='mygraph.pdf'

This way, you don't have to edit 'mygraph.tex' after running gnuplot, because it will contain \includegraphics{graphdir1/mygraph} in place of \includegraphics{temp}, thanks to sed. As a bonus, the pdf version of the graph is generated automatically.

Best Answer

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[Tex/LaTex] gnuplot + epslatex

[Tex/LaTex] Gnuplot subdirectory not found using epstopdf

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