How can I blank out the background of the key in gnuplot?

Question

My plot is covering up my key in gnuplot. What I'm plotting oscillates a lot, so there's nowhere on my plot I can go and not interfere with something. How can I give the key an opaque background so that the items inside aren't covered up by lines?

Answer 1

My version of gnuplot supports opaque keys via:

 set key opaque

Try out the following:

 set key box opaque
 plot sin(x)

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Another option in cases like these is to move the key outside the plotting area:

set key outside
plot sin(x)

This way you don't obscure any of your valuable data.