gnuplot is a versatile program which can generate two- and three dimensional plotting. The program runs on all major computers and operating systems and can produce output either on screen or as graphics file in many formats.

The program is distributed under a free software license which permits the copying and modification of the source code. Modified versions are only allowed to be distributed as Patch (computing) files. The program has no connection to the GNU project and does not use the GPL copyleft license.[http://www.gnuplot.info/faq/faq.html#SECTION00037000000000000000] (The title was chosen to avoid conflicts with a program called newplot , and was originally a compromise between llamaplot and nplot .[http://www.gnuplot.info/faq/faq.html#SECTION00032000000000000000])

The program can be used interactively and comes with extensive online help. The user issues text commands in order to produce the plot. It is also possible to write gnuplot .

gnuplot is used as the plotting engine of GNU Octave.

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