marks

Version 6.1 introduces a new class of objects called marks. These are user-defined shapes composed of lines and polygons. Marks can be placed individually by set object mark, analogous to existing object types such as rectangles and circles. Marks can also used as elements of a plot by new 2D plot styles with marks and with linesmarks, which are analogous to existing plot styles with points and with linespoints.

Individual marks are defined and managed by new commands set mark, unset mark, show mark, save marks. These commands are analogous to existing commands that define and manage arrow styles and labels. Each mark definition is assigned a numeric identifying tag used to select it in subsequent plot commands or object definitions.

Once defined, a mark can be further modified by translation, rotation, aspect ratio deformation, and application of color or fill properties.

If a mark is given a fillcolor and fillstyle when it is defined by set mark, these take precedence over any fill properties in a plot or object that the mark appears in. If no fillstyle is given in set mark the mark will be rendered with the style given in the plot command or set object command if there is one, otherwise it will use the global setting from set style fill.

The syntax used to define a mark is fairly complex. Furthermore the mark definition may require reading coordinate data from a file or datablock. For these reasons marks are typically defined in a separate file and loaded before use in plotting. See set mark.