# GNUplot and LaTeX (linestyles)

I've just started using GNUplot to create graphs. I've been using the epslatex terminal and my issue is, when I create my graph in the wxt terminal, and then replot it in the epslatex terminal, the linestyle changes, even if I never explicitly specified a linestyle. Basically, in the wxt terminal, then curve is solid; however, in the epslatex terminal, the curve is dashed.

I read somewhere that changing terminals can give different linestlyes, and that one is supposed to issue the command 'test' to see the various styles; however, when I try to do 'test' in the epslatex terminal, it tells me that "epslatex terminal cannot write to standard output" (which makes sense I guess). I'm just wondering where I can find what the different linestlyes correspond to in the epslatex terminal.

Also, as a bit of a sub-question, I'm wondering if my approach is any good... To create the graphs, I create it the epslatex terminal, then I convert the eps file to a pdf file so that I can use pdflatex. Is there a better way to do this (perhaps GNUplot can create the pdf for me)?

• I would recommend using PGFPlots, which is a LaTeX package that creates plots directly within your document. It can use `gnuplot` as a backend, so you have all the power of `gnuplot`, but you get a much tighter integration with your documents (the same font is used automatically, for example) and a leaner workflow (you don't need to change to a different program to generate your plots). See tex.stackexchange.com/questions/58900/… or tex.stackexchange.com/questions/41666/…, for example – Jake Oct 31 '12 at 8:04

To use the `epslatex` terminal with the `test` command, you first need to specify where to write the output. You can do that by issuing `set out "<filename>.tex`, then `test`, and then `set out` to close the file. You'll then get a `<filename>.tex` and a `<filename>.eps`. By using `\input{<filename>}` in a LaTeX document, you'll get the following output (assuming you used `set terminal epslatex color`):
As you can see, the `epslatex` terminal uses dashed line styles by default. You can change to solid colored lines by using `set terminal epslatex color solid`:
For comparison, here's the `wxt` output: