Symbols in gnuplot

3
votes

I thought I knew how the {/Symbol x} worked in gnuplot but I don't. I need to get a partial derivative symbol (utf8 code U+2202), and I can't. How could I do it. I haven't found anything online. This is the document settings:

set terminal postscript eps enhanced color font "Helvetica, 20"
set encoding utf8

Thank you

2
gnuplot

2 Answers

2
votes

Use any of the cairo-based terminal (pdfcairo or epscairo) and insert the character directly into your script:

set encoding utf8

set terminal pdfcairo font ',20'
set output 'partial-derivative.pdf'
set xlabel '∂u/∂x'
plot x

enter image description here

2
votes

If you really need to use a postscript terminal, use

{/Symbol \266}

Your gnuplot distribution should contain the file ps_guide.ps. That explains all the character codes available in postscript.

In general I would second Christoph's suggestion to use a cairo terminal. In combination with UTF-8 input encoding and a proper font you can easily include more characters in your output.

When I generate plots for inclusion in TeX documents, I tend to use the same font as the body text (in the example below "TeX Gyre Pagella")

set terminal pdfcairo enhanced color dashed font "TeX Gyre Pagella, 14" \
rounded size 16 cm, 9.6 cm
set encoding utf8