Chapter 7. Graphs and plots

Table of Contents
Gnuplot graphs
Boxplots

Gnuplot graphs

A separate program, gnuplot, is called to generate graphs. Gnuplot is a very full-featured graphing program with myriad options. It is available from www.gnuplot.info (but note that a copy of gnuplot is bundled with the MS Windows version of gretl). gretl gives you direct access, via a graphical interface, to a subset of gnuplot's options and it tries to choose sensible values for you; it also allows you to take complete control over graph details if you wish.

With a graph displayed, you can click on the graph window for a pop-up menu with the following options.

If you know something about gnuplot and wish to get finer control over the appearance of a graph than is available via the graphical controller ("Edit" option), you have two further options.

To find out more about gnuplot see the online manual or www.gnuplot.info.

See also the entry for gnuplot in Chapter 11 below — and the graph and plot commands for "quick and dirty" ASCII graphs.

Figure 7-1. gretl's gnuplot controller

Notes

[1]

For best results when pasting graphs into MS Office applications, choose the application's "Edit, Paste Special..." menu item, and select the option "Picture (Enhanced Metafile)".