# Make a smoother plot of functions with pgfplots

The following code gives me a plot which is not very smooth. It looks like several points (with spacing 0.5 in the horizontal direction) are drawn first and then connected by straight lines. What options do I have to modify to make it smoother? Thanks.

\documentclass[]{standalone}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
scale=0.8,
axis lines=middle,
grid=major,
xmin=-5,
xmax=5,
ymin=-5,
ymax=5,
xlabel=$x$,
ylabel=$y$,
xtick={-4,-3,...,5},
ytick={-4,-3,...,4},
tick style={very thick}
]
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


• Set the option samples=<number> – Paul Gessler May 25 '16 at 2:42
• @PaulGessler (initially 25) Also it is advantageous to use an odd number of samples for a symmetric domain to have 0 included. – Henri Menke May 25 '16 at 17:36
• Since you are using only the domain [-2,2] you can set it so to use more samples in that domain – percusse May 26 '16 at 15:15

You can use the option smooth:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
scale=0.8,
axis lines=middle,
grid=major,
xmin=-5,
xmax=5,
ymin=-5,
ymax=5,
xlabel=$x$,
ylabel=$y$,
xtick={-4,-3,...,5},
ytick={-4,-3,...,4},
tick style={very thick},
smooth
]
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


I find easier the macros in the tkz-fct package in order to plot graphs

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tkz-fct}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\tkzInit[xmin=-5,xmax=5,ymin=-5,ymax=5]
\tkzGrid[color=gray!40,line width=0.2pt]
\tkzDrawX[color=black,label={$x$},above left=5pt]
\tkzLabelX[color=black]
\tkzDrawY[color=black,label={$y$},below right=5pt]
\tkzLabelY[color=black,orig=false]
\tkzFct[domain=-2:2,color=red,line width=1.5pt]{x**3-x}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}