gnuplot: unrecognized terminal option

Question

Can anyone tell me why I get the "unrecognized terminal option" when having

set output "out.pdf"

Is there any package that I need to install for gnuplot 4.4?

Answer 1

Have you set the terminal? The command

print GPVAL_TERMINALS

in gnuplot will list all the avialable terminals; if pdfcairo is in the list you should be good to go. In general before setting the output you need to set the terminal, e.g.

set terminal pdf
set output 'out.pdf'

Answer 2

Well, I had the same problem. I fixed this as follows using home-brew.

a) First to check what options are available with gnuplot

brew options gnuplot

This will produce something like :

--with-aquaterm
    Build with AquaTerm support
--with-cairo
    Build the Cairo based terminals
--with-libcerf
    Build with libcerf support
--with-pdflib-lite
    Build with pdflib-lite support
[email protected]
    Build with [email protected] support
--with-test
    Verify the build with make check
--with-wxmac
    Build wxmac support. Need with-cairo to build wxt terminal
--with-x11
    Build with x11 support
--without-gd
    Build without gd based terminals
--without-lua
    Build without the lua/TikZ terminal
--HEAD
    Install HEAD version

b) uninstall gnuplot

brew uninstall gnuplot

c) reinstall with option cairo

brew install gnuplot --with-cairo

That's it. Afterwards, just set the terminal and provide output file. It worked for me.

set term pdf
set output 'myFile.pdf'