Pgfplots: how to fill the area under a curve with oblique lines (hatching) as a pattern?

Question

I want to hatch the area under a curve (graph of a function) with oblique lines on an interval (to illustrate the function's integral on that interval). This can be done elegantly in gnuplot...

...but I simply cannot reproduce this with pgfplots. The only solution I managed to find with google is the use of the patterns tikz library, however it is unacceptibly ugly:

I'm not aware of any way to alter the color, line width and - especially - the distance between the hatching lines when patterns library is employed. Is there any way to set it? (So that I can change it to resemble the gnuplot version.)

Or, should I choose a completely different approach to reproduce the gnuplot-style hatching...?

Also note that

• pgfplots changes the color of the x-axis to red on the interval (which is not a critical problem, of course, but not elegant).
• the legend for the filling is much more logical in case of gnuplot. Can I reproduce it with pgfplots?

Here is the code I currently use:

\begin{figure}[ht!]
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[xmin=-4,xmax=4,xlabel={z},ymin=0,ymax=1] 
    \addplot[color=red,domain=-4:4,samples=100] {1/sqrt(2*pi)*exp(-x^2/2)};
    \addlegendentry{z}
    \addplot[color=red,fill=red, pattern=north east lines,  domain=0:1,samples=100] {1/sqrt(2*pi)*exp(-x^2/2)} \closedcycle;
    \addlegendentry{Interval}
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure}

Answer 1

You can define your own pattern that can take optional arguments for setting the distance between the lines and the line thickness.

To make sure the axis line stays black, you can set axis on top, which will draw the axis lines last.

And to get the hatch pattern in the legend as well, add the key area legend to the plot:

 \documentclass{article}
    \usepackage{tikz}
    \usetikzlibrary{patterns}
    \usepackage{pgfplots}
    \begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
    \tikzset{
        hatch distance/.store in=\hatchdistance,
        hatch distance=10pt,
        hatch thickness/.store in=\hatchthickness,
        hatch thickness=2pt
    }

    \makeatletter
    \pgfdeclarepatternformonly[\hatchdistance,\hatchthickness]{flexible hatch}
    {\pgfqpoint{0pt}{0pt}}
    {\pgfqpoint{\hatchdistance}{\hatchdistance}}
    {\pgfpoint{\hatchdistance-1pt}{\hatchdistance-1pt}}%
    {
        \pgfsetcolor{\tikz@pattern@color}
        \pgfsetlinewidth{\hatchthickness}
        \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfqpoint{0pt}{0pt}}
        \pgfpathlineto{\pgfqpoint{\hatchdistance}{\hatchdistance}}
        \pgfusepath{stroke}
    }

    \begin{axis}[
        xmin=-4,xmax=4,
        xlabel={z},
        ymin=0,ymax=1,
        axis on top,
        legend style={legend cell align=right,legend plot pos=right}] 
    \addplot[color=red,domain=-4:4,samples=100] {1/sqrt(2*pi)*exp(-x^2/2)};
    \addlegendentry{z}
    \addplot+[mark=none,
        domain=0:1,
        samples=100,
        pattern=flexible hatch,
        area legend,
        pattern color=red]{1/sqrt(2*pi)*exp(-x^2/2)} \closedcycle;
    \addlegendentry{Interval 1}
    \addplot+[mark=none,
        domain=-2:-0.5,
        samples=100,
        pattern=flexible hatch,
        hatch distance=5pt,
        hatch thickness=0.5pt,
        draw=blue,
        pattern color=cyan,
        area legend]{1/sqrt(2*pi)*exp(-x^2/2)} \closedcycle;    
        \addlegendentry{Interval 2}
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 2

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{patterns}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\pgfdeclarepatternformonly{north east lines wide}%
   {\pgfqpoint{-1pt}{-1pt}}%
   {\pgfqpoint{10pt}{10pt}}%
   {\pgfqpoint{9pt}{9pt}}%
   {
     \pgfsetlinewidth{0.4pt}
     \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfqpoint{0pt}{0pt}}
     \pgfpathlineto{\pgfqpoint{9.1pt}{9.1pt}}
     \pgfusepath{stroke}
    }

    \begin{axis}[xmin=-4,xmax=4,xlabel={z},ymin=0,ymax=1] 
    \addplot[color=red,domain=-4:4,samples=100] {1/sqrt(2*pi)*exp(-x^2/2)};
    \addlegendentry{z}
    \addplot+[mark=none,domain=0:1,samples=100,%
              pattern=north east lines wide,%
              pattern color=red!50!yellow]%
              {1/sqrt(2*pi)*exp(-x^2/2)}
              \closedcycle;
    \addlegendentry{Interval}
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}