Gnuplot multiplot positions all text incorrectly in epslatex terminal

Question

I am trying to use the multiplot feature of gnuplot to make a inset graphic on the main plot. I can generate the plot exactly as I want with term='wxt' except for the axis labels, which require LaTeX formatting for generating the desired symbols. When I submit the same commands to term='epslatex', the plot is fine, but all text (axis and tic mark labels) is positioned incorrectly.

I thought using the set size & origin commands might have confused the epslatex terminal output, so I attempted to use the layout command and make the plots side by side just to see if the text would print correctly. It did not.

I'm using gnuplot 4.6 patch 4, and Linux Mint 17.

My script is below. The commented sections indicate the original script that used set size and origin commands to manually place the second plot as a inset, rather than side by side.

set term epslatex color font ",16"
unset key
set termoption dash
set style line 1 lc rgb 'blue' lw 2 lt 1
set style line 2 lc rgb 'red'  lw 2 lt 3
set style line 3 lc rgb 'green' lw 2 lt 5
set style line 4 lc rgb 'magenta' lw 2 lt 7
set style line 5 lc rgb 'black' lw 1 lt 0
set output "gr-thresholds.tex"
#set size 1,1
# set multiplot
set multiplot layout 1,2
# bigger plot
set autoscale
set ytics scale default autofreq
set xrange[0:14]
set yrange[0:1.7]
set xlabel 'r (\AA)'
set ylabel '$g(r)$'
#set size 1,1
#set origin 0,0
plot "foo1.csv" w l ls 2, \
"foo2.csv" w l ls 3 , \
"foo3.csv" w l ls 1, \
"foo4.csv" w l ls 4
#small inset
#set size 0.4, 0.4
#set origin 0.5,0.15
set xrange[1.2:2.2]
set yrange[0:0.8]
set ytics 0, 0.2, 2
set xlabel ""
set ylabel ""
plot "foo1.csv" w l ls 2, \
"foo2.csv" w l ls 3 , \
"foo3.csv" w l ls 1, \
"foo4.csv" w l ls 4
unset multiplot
set output

The figure that was generated:

Answer 1

It might be a problem with the way you generate a pdf. The two commands dvipdfm and dvipdf produce different outcomes.

If I take your code, but plot sin(x) instead, and use the following in the terminal:

$ latex file.tex
$ dvipdfm file.dvi

I also get a mismatch between the axes and the plots.

If I use dvipdf however everything looks fine:

$ dvipdf file.dvi

Answer 2

Ok, Per Tom Fenech's suggestion, I made a minimum code sample to reproduce the error, and the issue that arose is a machine state problem. To generate my graphs, I had run the script twice, once using term wxt and then again using term epslatex.

The problem is that somewhere the state of the gnuplot environment is changed and is not reset by this script. Specifically, the first time through, the default placement of the text labels is fine. The second time through, the range and labels are still attached to the size and origin from the last plot, which is the inset. I thought this was due to the order of the commands set origin/size relative to x/ylabel and x/y range, but simply running the below code twice without restarting gnuplot will generate two different plots. The first time is exactly what I wanted, the second time will skew the labels as shown above.

So I have a "solution", but it is fragile. I would appreciate if someone could explain what I need to do to make this script run multiple times without restarting each time. Cheers, --Jim

set term epslatex color font ",16"
unset key
f(x) = sin(x)
set output "sin.tex"
set multiplot
set size 1,1         
set origin 0,0       
set xrange[0:14]     
set yrange[0:6]
set xlabel 'r (\AA)'
set ylabel '$g(r)$'
plot f(x)
#small inset
set size 0.4, 0.4
set origin 0.5,0.15
set xrange[1:3]
set yrange[0:4]
set ytics 0, 0.2, 2
set xlabel ""
set ylabel ""
plot f(x)
unset multiplot
set output