terminal

gnuplot supports many different graphics devices. Use set terminal to tell gnuplot what kind of output to generate. Use set output to redirect that output to a file or device.

Syntax:

      set terminal <terminal-type> <options>
      set terminal push
      set terminal pop
      show terminal

If <terminal-type> is omitted, gnuplot will list all available terminal types. There are many terminal-specific options that may be specified when the terminal is set. See also termoption.

If both set terminal and set output are used together, it is safest to give set terminal first, because in some cases correct initialization of the output stream may require knowledge of the terminal type.

Example:

      set terminal pdf font "Times,11" size 5in, 3in
      set output "figure_1.pdf"
      plot FILE1 with lines
      set output "figure_2.pdf"
      plot FILE2 with points
      unset output

Caution: If the same terminal type is requested more than once in a session, some terminal-specific options given in previous requests may need to be respecified.

The command set term push remembers the current terminal including its settings while set term pop restores it together with all its previously selected options. This helps in printing, for instance, when switching among different terminals---previous options don't have to be repeated. When gnuplot is started, the default terminal or that from a from startup file is pushed automatically. Therefore portable scripts can rely on set term pop to restore the default terminal on a given platform unless another terminal has been pushed explicitly.

Example:

      set terminal kitty anchor fontscale 0.5 size 700,500
      load "myplot.gp"
      set terminal push
      set terminal pdf font "Times,11" size 5in, 3in
      set output "myplot.pdf"
      replot
      unset output     # Required!  Must not write kitty output to a pdf file
      set term pop     # restore terminal kitty and options

For more information, see the complete list of terminals.