PLPLOT is a library of C functions that are useful for making scientific plots. The PLPLOT library can be used to create standard x-y plots, semilog plots, log-log plots, contour plots, 3D plots, mesh plots, bar charts and pie charts. Multiple graphs (of the same or different sizes) may be placed on a single page with multiple lines in each graph. Different line styles, widths and colors are supported. A virtually infinite number of distinct area fill patterns may be used. There are almost 2000 characters in the extended character set. This includes four different fonts, the Greek alphabet and a host of mathematical, musical, and other symbols. The fonts can be scaled to any size for various effects.
Several output devices are supported and new devices can be easily added by writing a small number of device dependent routines. The C source for PLPLOT was written on an Amiga but has been ported to several other systems.
Many of the underlying concepts used in the PLPLOT subroutine package are based on ideas used in Tim Pearson's PGPLOT package originally written in VAX-specific Fortran-77. Sze Tan of the University of Auckland originally developed PLPLOT on an IBM PC, and subsequently transferred it to a number of other machines. Additional features were added to allow three-dimensional plotting and better access to low-level routines. The C version of PLPLOT was born when I decided to translate the package from Fortran in an attempt to teach myself C. In the process several of the routines were rewritten to improve efficiency and several new features were added that allow mesh plotting and area fills. The program structure was changed somewhat to make it easier to incorporate new devices.
This original version of this manual was written by Sze Tan.