You must add the plplot_octave script installation directory to Octave path *before* the standard Octave path if you want to use plplot graphics by default. The best way to do this is to create a .octaverc file in your home directory. With octave 2.1 or earlier you can use LOADPATH, e.g. LOADPATH = [ ":/share/plplot_octave//", LOADPATH ] With octave 2.9 and later, LOADPATH has been deprecated and you need to use addpath instead. You also need to explicitly add in any subdirectories you wish to search, e.g. addpath("/share/plplot_octave", ... "/share/plplot_octave/support") If you also want to use Octave's standard plotting package, gnuplot, you can use the command "toggle_plplot_use" to switch between the two plot packages. Read the INSTALL file for more details. Then, invoke Octave and create a vector, say octave:1> x=-pi:0.1:pi; and plot it plot(x,sin(x)) change the legend: plot(x,sin(x),';Sin(x);') set the title and plot data points title "My first plot"; plot(x,sin(x),'-o;Sin(x);') change the legend position legend ("opaque",0.8,0.5); plot(x,sin(x),';Sin(x);'); save you plot in color postscript save_fig ("~/sin.ps","psc") and see the result system("gv ~/sin.ps") create a new plot window using the tk driver fig(1,"tk") Use uper an subscript in captions title("Sin(x#u2#d)") plot(x,sin(x),'-o;Sin(x#u2#d);',x,cos(x),'y'); close the previous window closefig(0) read the online help help plot help __pl_opt and try it! Bellow is a short description of the available commands. You also have access to the PLplot API, help plfill plfill(x, y) Original PLplot call documentation: plfill(n, x, y) ... NOTES: - You don't need to specify vector or matrix dimensions. - When setting the plplot variable "pl_automatic_replot = 1", changes take effect immediately, otherwise they only take effect at the next plot. --- Plot window control fig, figure -- Set the current plot window or creates a new one. closefig -- Close a plot window. closeallfig -- Close all plot windows. free_fig -- Return the number of an unused plot figure. save_fig -- Save or prints the current plot figure. lp_setup -- Set printer command and options for use with `save_fig'. --- 2D Plots loglog, semilogx, semilogy, -- Make 2D plots in log scales. plot -- Plot scalar, vector or matrices in various point and line styles. mplot -- Plot multiple plots per figure. polar -- Make a 2D polar plot. contour -- Draws a contour plot. shade -- Shaded/contour plot of matrix. label_plot -- Plot data with point style, marking each point with a number or label. fill -- Draw filled 2-D polygons. arrows -- Plot an array of arrows. --- 3D plots mesh -- Mesh surface plot. meshc -- mesh() with contour at base xy plane. meshz -- mesh() with a courtain. plot3 -- Three-dimensional analogue of plot. surf -- Surface plot surfc -- surf() with contour at base xy plane. surfl -- surf() with lighting. shading -- Specifies how the surface in the surf plots is done. --- Plot control and decorations top_title, bottom_title -- don't work in PLplot! title -- Defines a title for the next plot. ylabel, xlabel, zlabel -- Defines a label for the x/y/z-axis of the next plot. xticks, yticks -- set the x/yticks interval. plot_border -- Don't work in PLplot. plot_margin -- Set/return the status of the plot margin around the plot. autostyle -- If set increases line style after each plot. legend -- Sets the legend position and mode. grid -- Turn on/off grid lines at major/minor ticks. axis -- Sets the axis limits, plot scales and axis decoration. axis_set -- Return current axis status. plclg, plclearplot -- Clear the plot window. fig_state -- save/restore current figure axis and hold state. shg -- Show the graph window. stopdraw -- Stop drawing plots, but still store them. drawnow -- Plot all stored plots. --- Interative plots stripc, stripc_add, stripc_del, -- creates/plot/delete a four pen stripchart. comet -- Displays an animated comet plot of one the vector. plrb -- Iteractively selects a rectangular region of the plot. --- Interative utilities text -- Place text on a 2-D graph at x y positions. set_view -- Set up the altitude and azimute in degrees for posterior 3d plots. arrow -- Plot one arrow. zoom -- Select left botton and right top area for setting axis. --- Multiple plots multiplot -- Sets and resets multiplot mode. oneplot -- Switches from multiplot to single plot mode. subplot -- Sets plot in multiplot mode. subwindow -- Sets subwindow position in multiplot mode for next plot. --- Colormaps and color utilities blue, bone, cool, green, hot, copper, pink, prism, red, hsv, bgr -- Several colormaps. colormap -- Set colormap1. hls2rgb -- Hue-lightness-saturation to red-green-blue conversion. rgb2hls -- red-green-blue to hue-lightness-saturation conversion. rgbplot -- Plot color map. --- Interative mouse usage ginput -- Return the current mouse position in plot. gtext -- Place text on a 2-D graph using a mouse. --- Utilities clip -- Clip values outside the range to the value at the boundary of the range. tdeblank -- Remove trailing amd leading blanks from string. --- Misc pldef -- set your defaults. plsetopt -- set/view/reset/aplly plplot options. plimage -- display octave images. plimagefr -- display octave images with transformation. griddata -- grid irregularly sampled data toggle_plplot_use -- use plplot or gnuplot. plplot_octave_path -- set or return octave_plplot scripts directory path. plplot_stub -- Definition of all implemented plplot API functions.