Plotting large datasets in gnuplot png terminal

Question

I am trying to plot two datasets, File1.txt with about 400 000 points and the other one with about 5000 points. I use the following commands

set term png
set output "graph.png"
plot "File1.txt" u 2:3 pt 7 ps 0.1 linecolor rgb "black", "File2.txt" u 1:2 pt 7 ps 0.2 linecolor rgb "red"

However, I find only the contents of File2.txt in graph.png. The command works nicely in the wxt terminal and it is possible to do even the png when plotting File1.txt with "w dots" instead of the points but the points don't seem to work under any circumstance.

It is necessary to plot in a rasterized format or the files become too large. So how do I plot a very large number of points into a rasterized format in gnuplot?

What happens if you increase the pointsize of the first plot? Or what happens if you plot only File1? — Christoph
Another thing: try with the pngcairo terminal which produces better results than png. — Christoph
plotting just the one file does not work, but pngcairo works, thanks! — Void

Christoph Christoph · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-15T08:00:00

Use the pngcairo terminal, which also in general produces better results than png (uses libgd).

However, I don't know the reason why the pngcairo terminal works, and the other one not. In general I see no reason to use the png terminal at all (besides when cairo-based terminals aren't compiled in).

Plotting large datasets in gnuplot png terminal

1 Answers