Revision of RECIPE. LaTeX + gnuplot (tight box EPS) + maxima from Mon, 08/19/2013 - 18:18

Here is how you can get gnuplot (and a little maxima) to work within LaTeX documents:

License: GPL 3 or later (remember to cite).

It requires gnuplot 4.4 (from GNU ppa), maxima 5.24 (from Trisquel 6.0 repo), ps2eps 1.68 (from Trisquel 6.0 repo), pdfTeX 3.1415926-1.40.10-2.2 (from Trisquel 6.0 repo), dvips(k) 5.98 (from Trisquel 6.0 repo), and the corresponding LaTeX packages (amsmath, graphicx, color, hyperref*, caption* and cleveref*)[*: optional]

First, create a document with the following content:

\usepackage{amsmath} % equations
\usepackage{graphicx} % for eps files
\usepackage[hypcap]{caption} % link point to the top of the image
\usepackage{color} % for eps gnuplot colour plots
\usepackage[colorlinks=true,linkcolor=links]{hyperref} % make sure that links are coloured
\usepackage[nameinlink]{cleveref} % better references

%% will prepend the section number to all equation numbers (amsmath)
\numberwithin{equation}{section}

%% The next seven lines come from:
%%tex.stackexchange.com/questions/14186/how-can-i-provide-a-verbatim-unescaped-commandline-for-executing-with-write18
\def\exec{\begingroup\setexeccatcodes\innerexec}
\def\setexeccatcodes{\catcode`\#=12 \catcode`\%=12 \catcode`\=12 \catcode`\$=12 \catcode`\^=12 \catcode`\\=12}
\def\innerexec#1{\immediate\write18{\unexpanded{#1}}\endgroup}

\def\leer{\begingroup\setleercatcodes\innerleer}
\def\setleercatcodes{\endlinechar=-1}
\def\innerleer#1{\immediate\input{|#1}\endgroup}

%% Define the commands for gnuplot:
\newcommand\gnuplotcmd[2]{% arg 1: commands; arg 2: name of output file
	\exec{echo 'set terminal epslatex color colortext standalone;
		set output "#1.tex";
		#2;
		set output;' | gnuplot;}
	\exec{latex "#1.tex" &&
		dvips "#1.dvi" &&
		ps2eps -f -q "#1.ps" && mv "#1.eps" "../Figures/#1.eps";
		rm -f "#1".tex "#1".dvi ../Figures/"#1".tex;
	}
}

% Command to run gnuplot code and insert the result as picture (tight)
\newcommand\gnuplot[3]{ % First argument: caption. Second argument: name of file (and figure). Third
% argument: code
	% (all the commands are sent as a single line)
	\gnuplotcmd{#2}{#3}
	%% Make picture tight with epstool:
	%\exec{epstool --bbox --quiet --copy "#3".eps "#3".eps.mod}
	%\exec{mv "#3".eps.mod "../Figures/""#3".eps}
	\centering
	\includegraphics{../Figures/#2.eps}
	\caption{#1\label{fig:#2}}
}

% Command to run gnuplot code and insert the result as picture (tight)
\newcommand{\gnuplotfile}[3]{ % arg 1: caption; arg 2: name of eps file (and label);
% arg 3: file with gnuplot code
	\exec{echo 'load "#3";
		set terminal epslatex color colortext standalone;
		set output "#2.tex";
		replot;
		set output;' | gnuplot}
	\exec{latex "#2.tex" &&
		dvips "#2.dvi" &&
		ps2eps -f -q "#2.ps" && mv "#2.eps" "../Figures/#2.eps";
		rm -f #2.tex #2.dvi;
	}
	% Add picture with caption and label
	\centering
	\includegraphics{../Figures/#2.eps}
	\caption{#1\label{fig:#3}}
}

% Define command for maxima
%% Documentation:
%% tex.stackexchange.com/ questions/ 87095/ is-it-possible-to-write-all-mathematical-formulas-in-a-separate-file- and-add-the

\newcommand\maxima[1]{ %%$ \displaystyle\maxima{diff(f(x),x)} $

	\exec{
		maxima --very-quiet -r ' % read and remove headings from maxima
		display2d: false'\$' % no fancy notation
		tex(#1)'\$ |  % convert to tex in maxima
		tr -d \$ | % remove dollar signs
		sed '/^'\$'/{d}' > /tmp/maxima.aux % dump output to file
	}
	\input{/tmp/maxima.aux} % read file
}

\begin{document}
% Create a dedicated folder for the Figures
\exec{[ ! -d ../Figures ] && mkdir ../Figures}

Write here

\end{document}

Then run the following:

 latex --synctex=1 --shell-escape --file-line-error-style YOURFILE && dvips YOURFILE && ps2pdf YOURFILE.ps 

It is possible that the references are not there the first time. You may need to run the latex command two times. Also don't forget to save the document something like LatexDocument.tex (YOURFILE=LatexDocument, without extension)

The following is an example (replace "Write here" in the above code

% Normal LaTeX equation (it will look nice, but not always make sense)
\begin{equation} \label{eq:GeneralVolumeIntegral}
	V=\int {\int {f\left(x , y , z\right)}{\;z}}{\;dA\left(x , y
	\right)}
\end{equation}


% example to use maxima notation:
\begin{subequations} \label{ChgEllipCoord}
	\begin{align}
		\maxima{r^2 = (x/a)^2 + (y/b)^2} \\
		\maxima{x = a*r*cos(\theta)} \label{ChgEllipCoord1}\\
		\maxima{y = b*r*sin(\theta)} \label{ChgEllipCoord2}
	\end{align}
\end{subequations}

This is a derivative with maxima code: $\displaystyle \maxima{diff(f(x),x))}$

% Example gnuplot code (finish every line with semicolon):
\begin{figure}[htb!]
	\gnuplot{Caption}{test}{
		set term epslatex color; %comentario
		set output "tmp2.eps";
		splot tan(x), sin(x);
	}
\end{figure}
The figure depicted in \Cref{fig:test} is made with Gnuplot


%% Uncomment and change path to code to test loading from file:
%\begin{figure}[htb!]
%	\gnuplotfile{Caption
%	}{EllipticalFrustum}{path/file.gp}
%\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[htb!]
	\centering
	\gnuplotcmd{FileGnuplot}{
		% Example from the documentation demo_4.4/contours.1.gnu
		set samples 20, 20
		set isosamples 21, 21
		set contour base
		set title "3D gnuplot demo - contour plot" 
		set xlabel "X axis" 
		set ylabel "Y axis" 
		set zlabel "Z axis" 
		set zlabel  offset character 1, 0, 0 font "" textcolor lt -1 norotate
		splot x*y
	}
	\includegraphics[]{../Figures/.eps}
	\caption{ \label{}}
\end{figure}

Revisions

08/22/2013 - 19:53

nuccigiorgio