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Next: <a href="High_002dLevel-Plotting.html#High_002dLevel-Plotting" accesskey="n" rel="next">High-Level Plotting</a>, Up: <a href="Plotting.html#Plotting" accesskey="u" rel="up">Plotting</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<a name="Introduction-to-Plotting-1"></a>
<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>
<p>The function call <code>graphics_toolkit ("qt")</code> selects the
Qt/OpenGL system, <code>graphics_toolkit ("fltk")</code> selects the
FLTK/OpenGL system, and <code>graphics_toolkit ("gnuplot")</code> selects the
gnuplot system. The three 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 OpenGL-based toolkits use single precision
variables internally which limits the maximum value that can be
displayed to approximately <em>10^{38}</em>. If your data contains larger
values you must use the gnuplot toolkit which supports values up to
<em>10^{308}</em>.
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