Tom Coulter - 2012-06-06

Hello,

I'm a GNUplot newbie.  I simply want to make color 2D contour plots of X/Y/Z data.

I searched this forum for posts on this and mainly fond posts on 3D plots.

I have ever-so-briefly perused the GNUplot Manual and do not find much help there.  In the FAQs, I see:
<b>3.12 How to draw black contour plots …</b>

And unfortunately too, I checked the list of "<b>Demo Samples</b>" and do not find any such guidance under "<b>Basic 2D Plot Styles</b>" (nothing on contours).

I'm interested in (to start with) a simple script that directs a read (from a location I provide) of a 3-column ASCII text file of Polar coordinates and renders to the screen a color plot.  As for color, I gather that color fills are not possible with GNUplot, however, it allows contour lines to be colored (which would be the next best thing).

I'd like to figure out how, presumably in the script, to control "bin" limits for the Z-data, which of course governs the resolution of the contour plot.  A way to label axes and post a legend of contour intervals would be even better!

Is this a tall order?

Any help is appreciated.