<html lang="en"> <head> <title>Introduction to Plotting - GNU Octave</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html"> <meta name="description" content="GNU Octave"> <meta name="generator" content="makeinfo 4.13"> <link title="Top" rel="start" href="index.html#Top"> <link rel="up" href="Plotting.html#Plotting" title="Plotting"> <link rel="next" href="High_002dLevel-Plotting.html#High_002dLevel-Plotting" title="High-Level Plotting"> <link href="http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel="generator-home" title="Texinfo Homepage"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css"> <style type="text/css"><!-- pre.display { font-family:inherit } pre.format { font-family:inherit } pre.smalldisplay { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallformat { font-family:inherit; font-size:smaller } pre.smallexample { font-size:smaller } pre.smalllisp { font-size:smaller } span.sc { font-variant:small-caps } span.roman { font-family:serif; font-weight:normal; } span.sansserif { font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal; } --></style> </head> <body> <div class="node"> <a name="Introduction-to-Plotting"></a> <p> Next: <a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="High_002dLevel-Plotting.html#High_002dLevel-Plotting">High-Level Plotting</a>, Up: <a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="Plotting.html#Plotting">Plotting</a> <hr> </div> <h3 class="section">15.1 Introduction to Plotting</h3> <p>Earlier versions of Octave provided plotting through the use of gnuplot. This capability is still available. But, a newer plotting capability is provided by access to OpenGL. Which plotting system is used is controlled by the <code>graphics_toolkit</code> function. (See <a href="Graphics-Toolkits.html#Graphics-Toolkits">Graphics Toolkits</a>.) <p>The function call <code>graphics_toolkit ("fltk")</code> selects the FLTK/OpenGL system, and <code>graphics_toolkit ("gnuplot")</code> selects the gnuplot system. The two systems may be used selectively through the use of the <code>graphics_toolkit</code> property of the graphics handle for each figure. This is explained in <a href="Graphics-Data-Structures.html#Graphics-Data-Structures">Graphics Data Structures</a>. <strong>Caution:</strong> The FLTK toolkit uses single precision variables internally which limits the maximum value that can be displayed to approximately 10^38. If your data contains larger values you must use the gnuplot toolkit which supports values up to 10^308. </body></html>