Style examples

This page will show you how to use effectively styles and the likes. ctioga automatically changes style for every new curve, as can be seen in

ctioga --xpdf --math 'x**2' '1 - x**2' '30 * cos(x)'

We can easily add markers and change the linestyle:

ctioga --xpdf --math --math-samples 50 \
    --marker auto --line-style Line_Type_Dots \
    'x**2' '1 - x**2' '30 * cos(x)'

Note that we need to lower the number of points in the curves with --math-samples so that markers don’t overlap.

Lines can be taken out completely using --line-style no. Along with choosing a smaller marker size, we can get a ‘dot cloud’ effect:

ctioga --xpdf --math --line-style no --marker auto \
    --marker-scale 0.2 'x**2' '1 - x**2' '30 * cos(x)'

Using themes and sets

There are two different (though connected) ways to change completely the styles used in a graph. You can first use sets:

ctioga --xpdf --math --color-set colorblind \
    'x**2' '1 - x**2' '30 * cos(x)'

The list of available sets is given in ctioga --help. You can also use themes which can extend well beyond the style of the curves:

ctioga --xpdf --math --theme pastel \
    'x**2' '1 - x**2' '30 * cos(x)'

Note that in the latter case, the background color is slightly different.

Special sets

Gradients are special sets beginning with the gradient: keyword, followed by the colors and the number of steps. In the following example, we go smoothly from Red to Green in 30 steps.

ctioga --xpdf --math -N -t 'Gradients' \
    --color-set 'gradient:Red--Green,30' \
    'sin(x) + 0.1 * 1##30'

From ctioga version 1.8, it is possible to specify a single color, marker or line style as a set, or a list of elements separated by |:

ctioga --xpdf --math -N -t 'Special sets' \
    --color-set 'Red|Blue' --line-style-set Dashes \
    'sin(x) + 0.1 * 1##20'

Note the quotes around the | signs, to avoid the shell to interpret them as the beginning of a pipe.

Style manipulations

It is sometimes useful to have curves sharing the same style, or at least some bits of it. You can achieve this either by using --same-style (for the last style used) or a combination of --save-style and --use-style (tip: look at the legend):

ctioga --xpdf --color-set colorblind \
    --math 'cos(x) + 0##2' \
    --save-style biniou 'sin(x) + 0##1' \
    --same-style 'sin(x) - 1' \
    --use-style biniou 'sin(x) - 2'

Style brought this way can be overridden. If you want a curve to have the same color and markers as another one, but with a different line style, it is fairly easy to do:

ctioga --xpdf --math --math-samples 30 \
    --marker auto 'x**2' --save-style a \
    '1 - x**2' '30 * cos(x)' \
    --use-style a --line-style Line_Type_Dots \
    'x**2 + 10'

Style overrides

Style in ctioga is based on two different mechanisms: themes provide a basic style that is overridden by command-line options, such as --color, or --marker. The latter are called overrides, and starting from version 1.6.1, ctioga provides some small commands to manipulate them:

ctioga -N -t 'Override manipulations' --math \
    --marker auto --marker-scale 0.2 --line-style no 'x**2' \
    --save-override cloud --reset-override \
    '1 - x**2' '10 - x**2' --use-override cloud 'x**2 - 10'

This example creates a first curve with small markers and no line, saves that override under the name cloud, and uses it afterwards on the last curve.