Gnuplot: transparency of data points when using palette - gnuplot

Is there a way to plot transparent data points when using palette?
I currently have the following code:
set style fill transparent solid 0.2 noborder
set palette rgb 22,13,-22
plot 'mydata.dat' u 1:2:3 ps 0.3 palette
My feeling is that transparency is overwritten by the arguments of the plot command.

Is there a way to plot transparent data points when using palette?
If you check help palette you will not find (or I overlooked) a statement about transparency in the palette. It looks like you can set the palette in different ways for RGB, but not for ARGB (A=alpha channel for transparency). So, I assume it is not possible with palette to have transparency (please correct me if I am wrong).
As workaround you have to set your transparency "manually" by setting the color with some transparency.
You can find the formulae behind the palettes by typing show palette rgbformulae.
The following examples creates a plot with random point positions in xrange[0:1] and yrange[0:1] and random points size (from 2 to 6) and random transparency (from 0x00 to 0xff). The color is determined by x according to your "manual palette". I hope you can adapt this example to your needs.
Code:
### "manual" palette with transparency
reset session
# These are the rgb formulae behind palette 22,13,-22
set angle degrees
r(x) = 3*x-1 < 0 ? 0: (3*x-1 > 1) ? 1 : 3*x-1
g(x) = sin(180*x)
b(x) = 1-(3*x-1) < 0 ? 0: (1-(3*x-1) > 1) ? 1 : 1-(3*x-1)
set xrange [0:1]
set yrange[-0.1:1.1]
RandomSize(n) = rand(0)*4+2 # random size from 2 to 6
RandomTransp(n) = int(rand(0)*0xff)<<24 # random transparency from 0x00 to 0xff
myColor(x) = (int(r(x)*0xff)<<16) + (int(g(x)*0xff)<<8) + int(b(x)*0xff) + RandomTransp(0)
set samples 200
plot '+' u (x=rand(0)):(rand(0)):(RandomSize(0)):(myColor(x)) w p pt 7 ps var lc rgb var not
### end of code
Result:

New answer for Dev version 5.5
The new function set colormap allows to define a transparent palette. First, one defines the fully opaque palette in the usual way, then creates a copy of it and adds transparency to all points:
set palette rgb 22,13,-22
set colormap new MYPALETTE
transparency = 0.5
do for [i=1:|MYPALETTE|] {MYPALETTE[i] = MYPALETTE[i] + (int(transparency*0xff)<<24)}
func(x,y) = x*y
splot func(x,y) w pm3d fillcolor palette MYPALETTE
Of course, this will also work for points, the command in your case will be
plot 'mydata.dat' u 1:2:3 ps 0.3 lc palette MYPALETTE

Related

Handling out-of-range values with GNUPlot's splot

I use the splot commadn to produce a heat map of the earth. The x- and y-values represent lattitude and longitude of a specific point on the Earth's surface, while the related z-value is the outcome of an analysis. The zrange is between 0 and 60. However, for some locations on Earth, there is no result available (which is correct) and z is set to 9999 for these cases.
I'm using the following script to produce the heat map:
set terminal png large size 1600,\
1200 font arial 24 crop
set output "map.png"
set palette model RGB defined (0 "dark-green",1 "forest-green",2 "green",3 "light-green",4 "dark-yellow",5 "yellow",6 "red",7 "dark-red")
set xrange[-180.00: 180.00]
set yrange[ -90.00: 90.00]
set zrange[ *: 60]
set grid
set pm3d map
set xlabel "Longitude [deg]"
set ylabel "Latitude [deg]"
unset key
set cblabel "Time [h]"
splot "output\\map.dat" u 5:6:8,\
"input\\world.dat" u 1:2:( .00) w l lw 1 lt -1
It works fine but because of the limitation in zrange, regions with z > 60 are shown in white.
I want to have something like a condition which enables that all 9999 z-values are shown in a specific colour like purple with a declaration like "no result" in the legend.
Any idea how to achieve this?
Thanks in advance,
Florian
Not exactly sure how to modify the style for the selected points, but you can use the ternary operator not to draw them at all. Something like:
splot "output\\map.dat" u 5:6:(($8<=60)?($8):(1/0))
You basically want to have 3 "ranges" of colors:
0 to 60 your defined palette colors
>60 "out of range" color
=9999 "no data" color
Not sure if splot ... w pm3d will allow an easy "independent" setting for z and color.
Furthermore, if you have NxN datapoints you will get (N-1)x(N-1) quadrangles and the color is determined by the z-values of the involved vertices (check help corners2color) and http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo_5.5/pm3d.html (the very last graph). Maybe there is an easy way which I am not aware of.
That's why I would perfer the plotting style with boxxyerror (check help boxxyerror), maybe this is not the intended way, but it is rather flexible. If you are running gnuplt 5.4 you have the function palette() (check help palette).
I would take for missing data (backgroundcolor here:white) and for data out of range "grey", but you can easily change it. You can skip the random data generation part and in the plot command replace $Data with your filename and the corresponding columns. As well, replace 180./N and 90./N with the width (delta longitude) and height (delta latitude) of one data element.
Script: (requires gnuplot>=5.4)
### define separate color for missing values
reset session
set xrange[-180:180]
set yrange[-90:90]
# create some "random" test data
N = 90
set samples N
set isosamples N
set table $Data
c = 0.05
x0 = 70 # (rand(0)*360-180) # or random
y0 = -50 # (rand(0)*180-90) #
size0 = 2
x1 = -150 # (rand(0)*360-180) # or random
y1 = -20 # (rand(0)*180-90) #
size1 = 1
holeP0(x,y) = (1-erf((x-x0)*c/size0)**2) * (1-erf((y-y0)*c/size0)**2)
holeP1(x,y) = (1-erf((x-x1)*c/size1)**2) * (1-erf((y-y1)*c/size1)**2)
f(x,y) = rand(0)<holeP0(x,y) || rand(0)<holeP1(x,y) ? 9999 : (sin(1.3*x*c)*cos(.9*y*c)+cos(.8*x*c)*sin(1.9*y*c)+cos(y*.2*x*c**2))*11.5+33
splot f(x,y)
unset table
set palette model RGB defined (0 "dark-green",1 "forest-green",2 "green",3 "light-green",4 "dark-yellow",5 "yellow",6 "red",7 "dark-red")
myZmin = 0
myZmax = 60
myColorNoData = 0xffffff
myColorOutOfRange = 0x999999
set rmargin screen 0.8
set colorbox user origin screen 0.85,graph 0.2 size graph 0.05,graph 0.8
set cblabel "Amplitude"
set cbrange [myZmin:myZmax]
set tics out
set style fill solid 1.0 border
set key noautotitle at graph 1.27, graph 0.15 reverse Left samplen 2
myColor(col) = (z=column(col), z==9999 ? myColorNoData : z>myZmax ? myColorOutOfRange : palette(z))
plot $Data u 1:2:(180./N):(90./N):(myColor(3)) w boxxy lc rgb var, \
"world.dat" u 1:2:(0) w l lc "black", \
NaN w l lc palette, \
keyentry w boxes lc rgb 0x000000 fill empty ti "no data", \
keyentry w boxes lc rgb myColorOutOfRange ti "\ndata out\nof range"
### end of script
Result:

translate palette defined to rgb variable

With palette it is easy to create color gradients
set view map
set samp 50,50
set palette defined (0 "blue", 1 "green", 2 "red")
spl "++" us 1:2:1 palette pt 5
Now I would like to apply transparency in vertical direction. The option lc rbg variable supports transparency via the alpha channel (see also here):
spl "++" us 1:2:1:(int(($2+5)/10*255)<<24) lc rgb var pt 5
But how can I translate the palette colors into rgb colors?
A second question: why I get only 10 horizontal rows, albeit I specified 50 in samp?
Easy answer first: When there is 2-dimensional sampling, either automatically from splot or explicitly from plot '++', the number of samples in the first dimension is controlled by set sample and the number of samples in the second dimension is controlled by set isosample.
Now the harder one. In gnuplot versions through the current 5.2.8 you cannot add transparency directly to the palette. You can, however, go through a multi-step process of saving the palette into a file or datablock and then reading it back it as an array of RGB colors. Once you have that array you can add an alpha channel value so that it expresses transparency as well. I will show this process using the datablock created by the command test palette. In older versions of gnuplot you may have to instead use the file created by set print "palette.save"; show palette palette 256;.
# save current palette to a datablock as a list of 256 RGB colors, one per line
set palette defined (0 "blue", 1 "green", 2 "red")
test palette
# print one line to show the format (cbval R G B NTSCval)
print $PALETTE[4]
# Create an array of packed RGB values
array RGB[256]
do for [i=1:256] {
Red = int(255. * word($PALETTE[i],2))
Green = int(255. * word($PALETTE[i],3))
Blue = int(255. * word($PALETTE[i],4))
RGB[i] = Red << 16 | Green << 8 | Blue
}
# Sample from '++' are generated to span ranges on the u and v axes
# I choose 1:256 so that the y coordinates match the range of array indices
set sample 50
set isosample 50
set urange [1:256]
set vrange [1:256]
set xrange [*:*] noextend
set yrange [*:*] noextend
# Now you can use colors stored in the array via colorspec `rgb variable`
# which will also accept an alpha channel in the high bits
plot "++" using 1:2:(RGB[int($2)]) with points pt 5 lc rgb variable
# The final step is to add an alpha channel as a function of y
# Here I go from opaque (Alpha = 0) to 50% transparent (Alpha = 127)
# This works because I know y will run from 1-256
ARGB(y) = RGB[int(y)] + (int(y/2)<<24)
plot "++" using 1:2:(ARGB($2)) with points pt 5 lc rgb variable
Output shown below.
The required command sequence, as you can see, is a mess.
It will be much easier in the next gnuplot release (5.4). The new version will provide a function palette(z) that converts from the current palette directly to a packed RGB value. Note that the palette() function isn't in the -rc1 testing version but will be in -rc2. So in version 5.4 all that palette/array/RGB manipulation can be replaced by
plot '++' using 1:2:(palette($2) + (int($2)<<24)) with points pt 5 lc rgb variable
Check also this: Gnuplot: transparency of data points when using palette
First of all, you can check what your defined palette is doing:
set palette defined (0 "blue", 1 "green", 2 "red")
test palette
You will get this:
Each channel (R,G,B) has a function with an input range [0:1] and an output range [0:1]. In this case it is a linear gradient.
So, you have to define such a function and put the channels together with the transparency (alpha) channel using the bit shift (see help operators binary).
The nice thing about a palette is that gnuplot takes care about the range. Here, you have to know minimum and maximum in advance and scale the color accordingly. You could use stats for this.
Code:
### your own palette with transparency
reset session
r(x) = x < 0.5 ? 0 : 2*x -1
g(x) = x < 0.5 ? 2*x : 2-2*x
b(x) = x < 0.5 ? 1-2*x : 0
a(y) = y
myColor(x,y) = (int(a((y-yMin)/(yMax-yMin))*0xff)<<24) + \
(int(r((x-xMin)/(xMax-xMin))*0xff)<<16) + \
(int(g((x-xMin)/(xMax-xMin))*0xff)<<8) + \
int(b((x-xMin)/(xMax-xMin))*0xff)
set samples 50
set isosamples 50
set size square
xMin=-5; xMax=5
yMin=-5; yMax=5
plot '++' u 1:2::(myColor($1,$2)) w p pt 5 ps 0.5 lc rgb var notitle
### end of code
Result:

Gnuplot: colors in multiplot not transparent

I would like to plot the positive and negative values of a non-equidistant matrix with different palettes (each a logscale), such that the overall effective color code is (-max "blue", <1e-6 "white", max "red"). In order to do that it is required to use multiplot for each plot and overlay them perfectly. The problem is now, that the complement values, which should be "NaNs", are plotted as white and not transparent (please see figure). As a result, the latter plot completely overlays the former, which cannot be seen. I tried to define my own color palette with transparent colors, but cannot make it work with the "plot for" command. (Remark: This is a follow-up question from here.)
Current plotscript:
CoordsX = "0.04 0.11 0.24 0.4 0.51"
CoordsY = "0.04 0.11 0.24 0.4 0.51"
dim_x = words(CoordsX)
dim_y = words(CoordsY)
dx(i) = (word(CoordsX,i)-word(CoordsX,i-1))*0.5
dy(i) = (word(CoordsY,i)-word(CoordsY,i-1))*0.5
ndx(i,j) = word(CoordsX,i) - (i-1<1 ? dx(i+1) : dx(i))
pdx(i,j) = word(CoordsX,i) + (i+1>dim_x ? dx(i) : dx(i+1))
ndy(i,j) = word(CoordsY,j) - (j-1<1 ? dy(j+1) : dy(j))
pdy(i,j) = word(CoordsY,j) + (j+1>dim_y ? dy(j) : dy(j+1))
set size square
set xrange[ndx(1,1):pdx(dim_x,1)]
set yrange[ndy(1,1):pdy(1,dim_y)] reverse
set tic out
set term png truecolor
set output "test.png"
set multiplot
max = 25
set cbrange [0:max]
set object rectangle from screen 0,0 to screen 1,1 behind fillcolor rgb "grey" fillstyle solid noborder # Only added to see transparency
set palette defined (0 "white", max "blue")
plot for [i=1:dim_x] file u\
(real(word(CoordsX,i))):1:(ndx(i,int($0))):(pdx(i,int($0))):(ndy(i,int($0+1))):(pdy(i,int($0+1))):(column(i)<0?abs(column(i)):NaN)\
with boxxyerror fs transparent solid 1.0 palette notitle
set palette defined (0 "white", max "red")
plot for [i=1:dim_x] file u\
(real(word(CoordsX,i))):1:(ndx(i,int($0))):(pdx(i,int($0))):(ndy(i,int($0+1))):(pdy(i,int($0+1))):(column(i)>0?abs(column(i)):NaN)\
with boxxyerror fs transparent solid 1.0 palette notitle
unset multiplot
set output
A few comments:
1) multiplot is not the right mechanism to create a single plot. You will get better results by reorganizing your command sequence into a single plot command. If necessary you can split your palette into two halves, a red half and a blue half. E.g.
set palette defined (0 "white", 1 "dark-red", 1 "white", 2 "dark blue")
set cbrange [0 : 2*max]
plot 'redstuff' using 1:...:(color) fc palette, \
'bluestuff' using 1:...:(color+max) fc palette
2) The fill style you selected is fully opaque. If you want 50% transparency it needs to be
set style fill transparent solid 0.5
3) It is not clear where exactly your NaN values appear. If one of the component rectangles has NaN as a coordinate, it will not be drawn at all - so effectively it is fully transparent. However providing NaN as a color value will not in general produce transparency. As a special case the with image plot style does know to omit pixels with value NaN, but other plot styles don't have a notion of 'pixels'.

Gnuplot: gradient coloured arrow

I would like to draw an arrow with not a single colour, but a colour gradient along its length. Does anyone know how to achieve that? Some pseudo-code for creating an arrow that starts red and ends blue:
set palette defined (0 "red", 1 "blue")
set cbr [0:1]
set arrow from 0,0 to 1,1 linecolor palette cb [0:1] # this doesn't work
Besides #Friedrich's solution, I would like to suggest a more general solution (although more complicated).
I assume you want to plot something else besides the arrow.
In case your graph needs to use a palette I guess you're in "trouble", because I'm not sure whether gnuplot supports more than one palette in a plot command
(see Gnuplot 5.2 splot: Multiple pm3d palette in one plot call). So, you have to implement the palette for your arrow by yourself (see e.g. Gnuplot: transparency of data points when using palette). If you want to do bent arrows using Cubic Bézier check (https://stackoverflow.com/a/60389081/7295599).
Code:
### arrow with color gradient (besides other palette in plot)
reset session
array A[4] = [-4,-2,4,2] # arrow coordinates x0,y0,x1,y1
Ax(t) = A[1] + t*(A[3]-A[1])
Ay(t) = A[2] + t*(A[4]-A[2])
AColorStart = 0xff0000 # red
AColorEnd = 0x0000ff # blue
r(c) = (c & 0xff0000)>>16
g(c) = (c & 0x00ff00)>>8
b(c) = (c & 0x0000ff)
AColor(t) = ((int(r(AColorStart)*(1-t)+r(AColorEnd)*t))<<16) + \
((int(g(AColorStart)*(1-t)+g(AColorEnd)*t))<<8) + \
int(b(AColorStart)*(1-t)+b(AColorEnd)*t)
array AHead[1] # dummy array for plotting a single point, here: arrow head
set angle degrees
set style arrow 1 lw 3 lc rgb var size 0.5,15 fixed
set palette grey
plot '++' u 1:2:($1*$2) w image notitle, \
[0:0.99] '+' u (Ax($1)):(Ay($1)):(AColor($1)) w l lw 3 lc rgb var notitle,\
AHead u (Ax(0.99)):(Ay(0.99)):(Ax(1)-Ax(0.99)):(Ay(1)-Ay(0.99)):(AColor($1)) w vec as 1 notitle
### end of code
Result:
Addition:
For what it is worth, here is a variation which allows plotting of multiple arrows each with a different palette. I guess it requires gnuplot 5.2, because of indexing the datablock $PALETTE[i].
Code:
### multiple arrows each with different color gradients (besides other palette in plot)
reset session
# define palettes
set print $myPalettes
test palette # get default palette into datablock $PALETTE
print $PALETTE # add palette to $myPalettes
set palette rgb 33,13,10 # define next palette
test palette # get palette into datablock $PALETTE
print $PALETTE # add palette to $myPalettes
set palette defined (0 "blue", 1 "black", 2 "red") # define next palette
test palette # get palette into datablock $PALETTE
print $PALETTE # add palette to $myPalettes
set print
ColorComp(p,t,c) = int(word($myPalettes[p*257+int(255*t)+1],c+1)*0xff)
AColor(p,t) = (ColorComp(p,t,1)<<16) + (ColorComp(p,t,2)<<8) + ColorComp(p,t,3)
set size ratio -1
set angle degrees
unset key
set style arrow 1 lw 3 lc rgb var size 0.5,15 fixed
array AHead[1] # dummy array for plotting a single point, here: arrow head
set palette grey # yet another palette for the background
# x0 y0 x1 y1 paletteNo
$Arrows <<EOD
-4 -4 4 0 0
-4 -2 4 2 1
-4 0 4 4 2
EOD
Ax(i,t) = word($Arrows[i],1) + t*(word($Arrows[i],3)-word($Arrows[i],1))
Ay(i,t) = word($Arrows[i],2) + t*(word($Arrows[i],4)-word($Arrows[i],2))
Palette(i) = int(word($Arrows[i],5))
plot '++' u 1:2:($1*$2) w image, \
for [i=1:|$Arrows|] [0:0.99:0.01] '+' u (Ax(i,$1)):(Ay(i,$1)):(AColor(Palette(i),$1)) w l lw 4 lc rgb var, \
for [i=1:|$Arrows|] AHead u (Ax(i,0.99)):(Ay(i,0.99)): \
(Ax(i,1)-Ax(i,0.99)):(Ay(i,1)-Ay(i,0.99)):(AColor(Palette(i),$1)) w vec as 1
### end of code
Result:
With line palette one can color-code a line. With a second command one could set the head, via set arrow or with a plot vector command
set palette defined (0 "red", 1 "blue")
set cbr [0:1]
set arrow 1 from 0.9,0.9 to 1,1 lc "blue"
plot sample [t=0:1] "+" us (t):(t):(t) w l palette
Thus two commands are necessary. The head of the arrow has single colour, which you have to specify.

Gnuplot: oscilloscope-like line style?

Is it possible in Gnuplot to emulate the drawing style of an analogue oscilloscope, meaning thinner+dimmisher lines on larger amplitudes, like this:?
The effect you see in the oscilloscope trace is not due to amplitude, it is due to the rate of change as the trace is drawn. If you know that rate of change and can feed it to gnuplot as a third column of values, then you could use it to modulate the line color as it is drawn:
plot 'data' using 1:2:3 with lines linecolor palette z
I don't know what color palette would work best for your purpose, but here is an approximation using a function with an obvious, known, derivative.
set palette gray
set samples 1000
plot '+' using ($1):(sin($1)):(abs(cos($1))) with lines linecolor palette
For thickness variations, you could shift the curve slightly up and down, and fill the area between them.
f(x) = sin(2*x) * sin(30*x)
dy = 0.02
plot '+' u 1:(f(x)+dy):(f(x)-dy) w filledcurves ls 1 notitle
This does not allow variable colour, but the visual effect is similar.
Another approach:
As #Ethan already stated, the intensity is somehow proportional to the speed of movement, i.e. the derivative. If you have sin(x) as waveform, the derivative is cos(x). But what if you have given data? Then you have to calculate the derivative numerically.
Furthermore, depending on the background the line should fade from white (minimal derivative) to fully transparent (maximum derivative), i.e. you should change the transparency with the derivative.
Code:
### oscilloscope "imitation"
reset session
set term wxt size 500,400 butt # option butt, otherwise you will get overlap points
set size ratio 4./5
set samples 1000
set xrange[-5:5]
# create some test data
f(x) = 1.5*sin(15*x)*(cos(1.4*x)+1.5)
set table $Data
plot '+' u 1:(f($1)) w table
unset table
set xtics axis 1 format ""
set mxtics 5
set grid xtics ls -1
set yrange[-4:4]
set ytics axis 1 format ""
set mytics 5
set grid ytics ls -1
ColorScreen = 0x28a7e0
set obj 1 rect from screen 0,0 to screen 1,1 behind
set obj 1 fill solid 1.0 fc rgb ColorScreen
x0=y0=NaN
Derivative(x,y) = (dx=x-x0,x0=x,x-dx/2,dy=y-y0,y0=y,dy/dx) # approx. derivative
# get min/max derivative
set table $Dummy
plot n=0 $Data u (d=abs(Derivative($1,$2)),n=n+1,n<=2? (dmin=dmax=d) : \
(dmin>d ? dmin=d:dmin), (dmax<d?dmax=d:dmax)) w table
unset table
myColor(x,y) = (int((abs(Derivative(column(x),column(y)))-dmin)/(dmax-dmin)*0xff)<<24) +0xffffff
plot $Data u 1:2:(myColor(1,2)) w l lw 1.5 lc rgb var not
### end of code
Result:

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