1 To install from sources:
2 ========================
4 Installation instructions are found in the file INSTALL in this
5 directory after going through this file. In a very small nutshell:
7 - Under Unix, use configure and make
9 - Under DOS, if you are using bash and DJGPP,
10 you can just run config/djconfig.sh
12 - Other platforms, copy the relevant makefile from config/
13 to src, cd to src and make. See config/README for what
14 each of those files is for. Note: some of those files
15 haven't been updated in ages, so they may no longer be
19 An important about the PDFlib Lite library:
20 ===========================================
22 The 'pdf' terminal driver uses an external library provided by
23 PDFlib GmbH, Germany ( http://www.pdflib.de/ ). This library
24 is available under two strictly separate licencing models.
25 Depending on the environment you use gnuplot in, you may have to
26 purchase a commercial licence for PDFlib even though gnuplot itself
29 There's a special version of PDFlib, called ``PDFlib Lite'', which
30 is freely redistrutable, but programs linked to that are strictly for
31 non-commercial usage only. *You* are liable for whatever violations
32 of this licence occur in a gnuplot binary built by you.
35 IMPORTANT NOTE ON GIF, PNG and JPEG SUPPORT
36 ===========================================
38 The gd library from http://www.boutell.com/gd/ is used to generate
39 GIF, PNG and JPEG outputs.
41 Old versions of the Boutell gd library (versions 1.2 to 1.4) produced only
42 GIF output. This means you cannot obtain a PNG or a JPEG output from
43 gnuplot 4.2 with these versions. (Note that gnuplot's old minimalistic but
44 standalone PNG driver driver has now been removed).
46 Versions of the the Boutell gd library between 1.6 and 2.0.27 do not
47 support GIF output because of patent concerns (see Note 1 below). This
48 means that with these versions, you cannot generate a GIF output directly
49 from gnuplot. However versions 1.6 and newer support PNG outputs, and 1.7
50 and newer support JPEG outputs. Versions 1.6.2 and newer also support
53 Version 2.0.28 of the Boutell gd library restored GIF functionality.
54 Version 2.0.29 added support for GIF animation. We recommend using
55 version 2.0.29 or newer for use with gnuplot.
57 Note 1 - UNISYS patent (why no more GIF images)
58 -----------------------------------------------
59 The UNISYS patent covers the LZW technology which is used to create
60 gifs. To my knowledge, only gd library version 1.3, and possibly
61 version 1.4 are free of LZW code and should therefore be used with
62 gnuplot. Versions 1.2 and 1.5 should not be used unless you have a
63 license from Unisys to use LZW code or are in a country where the
64 UNISYS patent does not apply.
66 Note 2 - Open source programs for PNG to GIF conversion
67 -------------------------------------------------------
69 ImageMagick ( www.ImageMagick.org )
70 This is an open source package for general image manipulation and file
71 conversion, supported on a wide variety of platforms. For example the
72 command "convert file.png file.gif" will convert a PNG image file to an
73 equivalent GIF image file.
74 On platforms that allow pipes in the "set output" command, you can
75 generate and convert the images at the same time from gnuplot, as in this
78 set terminal png font "arial,12" size 500,300
79 set output '| convert png:- image.tiff'
81 Utah Raster Toolkit ( http://www.cs.utah.edu/gdc/projects/urt/ )
82 A general image file conversion library and associated file conversion
83 utilities. Distributed as C source code.
84 To convert from PNG to GIF, use the commands
85 pngtorle -o temp.rle image.png
86 rletogif -o image.gif temp.rle