XGRAPH(1)XGRAPH(1)NAMExgraph - Draw a graph on an X11 Display
SYNOPSISxgraph [ options ] [[-geometry |=]WxH+X+Y ] [ -display host:dis‐
play.screen ] [ file ... ]
DESCRIPTION
The xgraph program draws a graph on an X display given data read from
either data files or from standard input if no files are specified. It
can display up to 64 independent data sets using different colors
and/or line styles for each set. It annotates the graph with a title,
axis labels, grid lines or tick marks, grid labels, and a legend.
There are options to control the appearance of most components of the
graph.
The input format is similar to graph(1G) but differs slightly. The
data consists of a number of data sets. Data sets are separated by a
blank line. A new data set is also assumed at the start of each input
file. A data set consists of an ordered list of points of the form
"{directive} X Y". The directive is either "draw" or "move" and can be
omitted. If the directive is "draw", a line will be drawn between the
previous point and the current point (if a line graph is chosen).
Specifying a "move" directive tells xgraph not to draw a line between
the points. If the directive is omitted, "draw" is assumed for all
points in a data set except the first point where "move" is assumed.
The "move" directive is used most often to allow discontinuous data in
a data set. The name of a data set can be specified by enclosing the
name in double quotes on a line by itself in the body of the data set.
The trailing double quote is optional. Overall graphing options for
the graph can be specified in data files by writing lines of the form
"<option>: <value>". The option names are the same as those used for
specifying X resources (see below). The option and value must be sepa‐
rated by at bleast one space. An example input file with three data
sets is shown below. Note that set three is not named, set two has
discontinuous data, and the title of the graph is specified near the
top of the file.
TitleText: Sample Data
0.5 7.8
1.0 6.2
"set one
1.5 8.9
"set two"
-3.4 1.4e-3
-2.0 1.9e-2
move -1.0 2.0e-2
-0.65 2.2e-4
2.2 12.8
2.4 -3.3
2.6 -32.2
2.8 -10.3
After xgraph has read the data, it will create a new window to graphi‐
cally display the data. The interface used to specify the size and
location of this window depends on the window manager currently in use.
Refer to the reference manual of the window manager for details.
Once the window has been opened, all of the data sets will be dis‐
played graphically (subject to the options explained below) with a leg‐
end in the upper right corner of the screen. To zoom in on a portion
of the graph, depress a mouse button in the window and sweep out a
region. xgraph will then open a new window looking at just that por‐
tion of the graph. xgraph also presents three control buttons in the
upper left corner of each window: Close, Hardcopy, and About. Windows
are closed by depressing a mouse button while the mouse cursor is
inside the Close button. Typing EOF (control-D) in a window also
closes that window. Depressing a mouse button while the mouse cursor
is in the Hardcopy button causes a dialog to appear asking about hard‐
copy (printout) options. These options are described below:
Output Device
Specifies the type of the output device (e.g. "HPGL", "Post‐
script", etc). An output device is chosen by depressing the
mouse inside its name. The default values of other fields will
change when you select a different output device.
Disposition
Specifies whether the output should go directly to a device or
to a file. Again, the default values of other fields will
change when you select a different disposition.
File or Device Name
If the disposition is "To Device", this field specifies the
device name. A device name is the same as the name given for
the -P command of lpr(1). If the disposition is "To File",
this field specifies the name of the output file.
Maximum Dimension
This specifies the maximum size of the plot on the hardcopy
device in centimeters. xgraph takes in account the aspect ratio
of the plot on the screen and will scale the plot so that the
longer side of the plot is no more than the value of this param‐
eter. If the device supports it, the plot may also be rotated
on the page based on the value of the maximum dimension.
Include in Document
If selected, this option causes xgraph to produce harcopy output
that is suitable for inclusion in other larger documents. As an
example, when this option is selected the Postscript output
produced by xgraph will have a bounding box suitable for use
with psfig.
Title Font Family
This field specifies the name of a font to use when drawing the
graph title. Suitable defaults are initially chosen for any
given hardcopy device. The value of this field is hardware spe‐
cific -- refer to the device reference manual for details.
Title Font Size
This field specifies the desired size of the title fonts in
points (1/72 of an inch). If the device supports scalable
fonts, the font will be scaled to this size.
Axis Font Family and Axis Font Size
These fields are like Title Font Family and Title Font Size
except they specify values for the font xgraph uses to draw axis
labels, and legend descriptions.
Control Buttons
After specifing the parameters for the plot, the "Ok" button
causes xgraph to produce a hardcopy. Pressing the "Cancel" but‐
ton will abort the hardcopy operation. Depressing the About
button causes Xgraph to display a window containing the version
of the program and an electronic mailing address for the author
for comments and suggestions.
xgraph accepts a large number of options most of which can be specified
either on the command line, in the user's .Xdefaults or .Xresources
file, or in the data files themselves. A list of these options is
given below. The command line option is specified first with its X
default or data file name (if any) in parenthesis afterward. The for‐
mat of the option in the X defaults file is "program.option: value"
where program is the program name (xgraph) and the option name is the
one specified below. Option specifications in the data file are simi‐
lar to the X defaults file specification except the program name is
omitted.
-geometry WxH+X+Y or =WxH+X+Y (Geometry)
Specifies the initial size and location of the xgraph window.
-<digit> <name>
These options specify the data set name for the corresponding
data set. The digit should be in the range '0' to '63'. This
name will be used in the legend.
-bar (BarGraph)
Specifies that vertical bars should be drawn from the data
points to a base point which can be specified with -brb. Usu‐
ally, the -nl flag is used with this option. The point itself
is located at the center of the bar.
-bof (BarGraph)
Offset the bars for additional datasets by the specified amount.
-device <name>
Set the output device for xgraph. The default is 'X'; other
valid devices are 'ps', 'hpgl', 'idraw' and tgif.
-o <filename> -O <filename>
Set the output file name for postscript, hpgl and idraw devices.
Files created with -O can be used other documents, and files
generated with -o can be printed directly.
-P<printername>
Set the printer name for postscript or hpgl devices. This and
the -o or -O option are mutually exclusive.
-stk Stack elements coming from different datasets, instead of plot‐
ting them from the same baseline. Datasets must match exactly.
-fitx Translate and scale the x data from all datasets to fit [0..1].
-fity Translate and scale the y data from all datasets to fit
[0..1].
-scale <factor>
Output scale factor for postscript, hpgl and idraw devices. The
default is 1.0, and 0.5 will generate a 50% reduced plot.
-fmtx <printf-format> -fmty <printf-format>
Use the format specified to generate the legents for the x or y
axis.
-bb (BoundBox)
Draw a bounding box around the data region. This is very useful
if you prefer to see tick marks rather than grid lines (see
-tk).
-bd <color> (Border)
This specifies the border color of the xgraph window.
-bg <color> (Background)
Background color of the xgraph window.
-brb <base> (BarBase)
This specifies the base for a bar graph. By default, the base
is zero.
-brw <width> (BarWidth)
This specifies the width of bars in a bar graph. The amount is
specified in the user's units. By default, a bar one pixel
wide is drawn.
-bw <size> (BorderSize)
Border width (in pixels) of the xgraph window.
-db (Debug)
Causes xgraph to run in synchronous mode and prints out the val‐
ues of all known defaults.
-fg <color> (Foreground)
Foreground color. This color is used to draw all text and the
normal grid lines in the window.
-gw (GridSize)
Width, in pixels, of normal grid lines.
-gs (GridStyle)
Line style pattern of normal grid lines.
-lf <fontname> (LabelFont)
Label font. All axis labels and grid labels are drawn using
this font. A font name may be specified exactly (e.g. "9x15" or
"-*-courier-bold-r-normal-*-140-*") or in an abbreviated form:
<family>-<size>. The family is the family name (like helvetica)
and the size is the font size in points (like 12). The default
for this parameter is "helvetica-12".
-lnx (LogX)
Specifies a logarithmic X axis. Grid labels represent powers of
ten.
-lny (LogY)
Specifies a logarithmic Y axis. Grid labels represent powers of
ten.
-lw width (LineWidth)
Specifies the width of the data lines in pixels. The default is
zero.
-lx <xl,xh> (XLowLimit, XHighLimit)
This option limits the range of the X axis to the specified
interval. This (along with -ly) can be used to "zoom in" on a
particularly interesting portion of a larger graph.
-ly <yl,yh> (YLowLimit, YHighLimit)
This option limits the range of the Y axis to the specified
interval.
-m (Markers)
Mark each data point with a distinctive marker. There are eight
distinctive markers used by xgraph. These markers are assigned
uniquely to each different line style on black and white
machines and varies with each color on color machines.
-M (StyleMarkers)
Similar to -m but markers are assigned uniquely to each eight
consecutive data sets (this corresponds to each different line
style on color machines).
-nl (NoLines)
Turn off drawing lines. When used with -m, -M, -p, or -P this
can be used to produce scatter plots. When used with -bar, it
can be used to produce standard bar graphs.
-ng (NoLegend)
Turn off drawing Legends. Can be used to increase the drawing
area.
-p (PixelMarkers)
Marks each data point with a small marker (pixel sized). This
is usually used with the -nl option for scatter plots.
-P (LargePixels)
Similar to -p but marks each pixel with a large dot.
-rv (ReverseVideo)
Reverse video. On black and white displays, this will invert
the foreground and background colors. The behaviour on color
displays is undefined.
-t <string> (TitleText)
Title of the plot. This string is centered at the top of the
graph.
-tf <fontname> (TitleFont)
Title font. This is the name of the font to use for the graph
title. A font name may be specified exactly (e.g. "9x15" or
"-*-courier-bold-r-normal-*-140-*") or in an abbreviated form:
<family>-<size>. The family is the family name (like helvetica)
and the size is the font size in points (like 12). The default
for this parameter is "helvetica-18".
-tk (Ticks)
This option causes xgraph to draw tick marks rather than full
grid lines. The -bb option is also useful when viewing graphs
with tick marks only.
-tkax (Tick Axis)
When tick marks are enabled, plot the axes.
-x <unitname> (XUnitText)
This is the unit name for the X axis. Its default is "X".
-y <unitname> (YUnitText)
This is the unit name for the Y axis. Its default is "Y".
-zg <color> (ZeroColor)
This is the color used to draw the zero grid line.
-zw <width> (ZeroWidth)
This is the width of the zero grid line in pixels.
Some options can only be specified in the X defaults file or in the
data files. These options are described below:
<digit>.Color
Specifies the color for a data set. Eight independent colors
can be specified. Thus, the digit should be between '0' and
'7'. If there are more than eight data sets, the colors will
repeat but with a new line style (see below).
<digit>.Style
Specifies the line style for a data set. A string of ones and
zeros specifies the pattern used for the line style. Eight
independent line styles can be specified. Thus, the digit
should be between '0' and '7'. If there are more than eight
data sets, these styles will be reused. On color workstations,
one line style is used for each of eight colors. Thus, 64
unique data sets can be displayed.
Device The default output form presented in the hardcopy dialog (i.e.
"Postscript", "HPGL", etc).
Disposition
The default setting of whether output goes directly to a device
or to a file. This must be one of the strings "To File" or "To
Device".
FileOrDev
The default file name or device string in the hardcopy dialog.
ZeroWidth
Width, in pixels, of the zero grid line.
ZeroStyle
Line style pattern of the zero grid line.
AUTHOR
David Harrison University of California
BUGS
- Zooming in on bar graphs doesn't work right.
- There is no way to produce hardcopy without running xgraph interac‐
tively.
December, 1989 XGRAPH(1)
