SPIKE COLOR

SPIKE COLOR

Plot Control Command

Specifies the colors used to draw spikes on subsequent plots.

A spike is a vertical line from the plot point to the spike base (most typically the x axis). Dataplot defines the points on a plot by "traces". A trace is a set of points that are drawn with the same attributes. For example,
PLOT Y1 X1 AND
PLOT Y2 X2


has two traces. The first is the points defined by Y1 and X1 and the second is the points defined by Y2 and X2. Attributes can be set for up to 100 traces.

Dataplot provides two methods for specifying colors.

1. Colors can be defined by name (or by the corresponding index). Dataplot adopted it's named colors from the X11 project. Currently, 162 named colors and 100 levels of grayscale are supported. Grayscale can be specified with either G0, G1, ..., G100 (or -1, -2, ..., -100). Many older devices support only a limited number of colors. For these devices, unsupported colors will be mapped to one of the available colors. To specify a named color, see Syntax 1.

2. Most modern graphics devices support full RGB (RedBlueGreen) color. You can alternatively specify RGB colors by entering three integer values to represent the Red, Green and Blue components, respectively. These values should be in the range 0 to 255.

When setting the spike color, Dataplot first checks if the device supports RGB colors. If not, the named color will be used. If the device does support RGB color, Dataplot will check if an RGB color has been specified. If yes, then that RGB color is used. If not, the named color will be used.

To see the list of supported named colors (with the associated index number), see

https://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/software/dataplot/refman1/ch11/homepage.htm

SPIKE COLORS <color 1> <color 2> ... <color n>
where <color 1>, ..., <color n> specify the desired spike colors.

Up to 100 such spike colors may be specified.

SPIKE RGB COLORS <red-1> <green-1> <blue-1> ...
                        <red-n> <green-n> <red-n>
where <red-1>, <green-1>, <blue-1>, ..., <red-n>, <green-n>, <blue-n> is a list of integer values that specify the desired RGB spike colors.

Up to 100 such triplets of color values can be specified.

To turn off the RGB color, set the values to -1 (any negative value will work). Values greater than 255 will be set to 255.

SPIKE COLOR RED BLUE GREEN
SPIKE COLORS BLACK ALL
SPIKE COLORS ALL RED
SPIKE COLORS
SPIKE RGB COLORS 220 109 88 240 220 160
SPIKE RGB COLORS 220 109 88 ALL
SPIKE RGB COLORS 220 109 88 240 220 160
SPIKE RGB COLORS 220 109 88 ALL

The SPIKE COLOR command with no arguments sets the spike color to default for all traces. The SPIKE COLOR command with the word ALL before or after the specified type assigns that color to all traces; thus SPIKE COLOR RED ALL or SPIKE LINE ALL RED plots spikes with red lines for all traces.

All spikes are drawn with black lines and RGB colors are off.

SPIKE PATTERN

PLOT	=	Generates a data or function plot.
SPIKE	=	Sets the on/off switches for plot spikes.
SPIKE BASE	=	Sets the base locations for plot spikes.
SPIKE DIRECTION	=	Sets the directions for plot spikes.
SPIKE LINE	=	Sets the line types for plot spikes.
SPIKE THICKNESS	=	Sets the line thicknesses for plot spikes.
LINE COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot lines.
CHARACTER COLORS	=	Sets the colors for plot characters.
BAR FILL COLORS	=	Sets the colors for plot bar fills.
BAR PATTERN COLORS	=	Sets the colors for plot bar patterns.
BAR BORDER COLORS	=	Sets the colors for plot bar borders.
TITLE COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot title.
LABEL COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot labels.
LEGEND COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot legends.
BOX COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot boxes.
ARROW COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot arrows.
SEGMENT COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot segments.
FRAME COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot frame.
GRID COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot grids.
TIC COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot tics.
TIC LABEL COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot tic labels.
BACKGROUND COLOR	=	Sets the color for plot background.

William S. Cleveland (1985), "Elements of Graphing Data," Wadsworth Advanced Books and Software.

William S. Cleveland (1993), "Visualizing Data," Hobart Press.

Presentation Graphics

Pre-1987
2020/11: Support for RGB colors

 
LET CARTER = DATA 66 30 11 43 44 41 35 82 54 36
LET REAGAN = DATA 26 54 84 47 51 51 52 14 36 55
LET X = DATA 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 10 11 12
.
LET CART2 = -CARTER
LET XJUNK = DATA 0.5 12.5; LET YJUNK = DATA 0 0
.
TIC MARK LABEL FORMAT ALPHA
YLIMITS 1 12
YTIC OFFSET 1 1
Y1TIC LABEL CONTENT DEMOCRATS INDEPENDENTS REPUBLICANS SP() ...
      EAST SOUTH MIDWEST WEST SP() BLACKS HISPANICS WHITES SP()
MINOR Y1TIC MARK NUMBER 0
X1LABEL PERCENT
XLIMITS -100 100
MAJOR XTIC MARK NUMBER 11
MINOR XTIC MARK NUMBER 1
XTIC MARK LABEL CONTENT 100 80 60 40 20 0 20 40 60 80 100
.
LINE BLANK BLANK SOLID
SPIKE ON ON OFF
SPIKE THICKNESS 0.5 ALL
SPIKE DIRECTION H ALL
.
SPIKE COLOR G25 G75
TITLE DEMONSTRATE GRAYSCALE SPIKE COLOR COMMAND
PLOT X VS REAGAN AND
PLOT X VS CART2 AND
PLOT XJUNK YJUNK
.
    

.
SPIKE COLOR RED BLUE
TITLE DEMONSTRATE SPIKE COLOR COMMAND
PLOT X VS REAGAN AND
PLOT X VS CART2 AND
PLOT XJUNK YJUNK
.
    

.
SPIKE RGB COLORS 220 109 88 240 220 160
TITLE DEMONSTRATE SPIKE RGB COLOR COMMAND
PLOT X VS REAGAN AND
PLOT X VS CART2 AND
PLOT XJUNK YJUNK