Learn PGFPlots

PGFPlots is a powerful package for creating publication-quality plots and charts directly in your LaTeX documents.

What is PGFPlots?

PGFPlots is built on top of TikZ and provides a high-level interface for creating 2D and 3D plots. It's widely used in academic papers because it produces consistent, professional-looking visualizations that match your document's typography.

Why Use PGFPlots?

• Publication Quality – Generate plots that meet journal standards out of the box.
• Consistent Styling – Fonts and colors match your document automatically.
• Vector Graphics – Plots scale perfectly at any size.
• Data Integration – Import data from CSV files or compute functions directly.
• Reproducibility – Plots are defined in code, not generated externally.

Getting Started

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.18}  % Use latest features

Your First Plot

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    title={Simple Function Plot},
    xlabel={$x$},
    ylabel={$y$},
]
\addplot[blue, thick, domain=-2:2, samples=100] {x^2};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

Line Plots

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    title={Multiple Functions},
    xlabel={$x$},
    ylabel={$f(x)$},
    legend pos=north west,
    grid=major,
]
\addplot[blue, thick, domain=0:6] {sin(deg(x))};
\addplot[red, thick, domain=0:6] {cos(deg(x))};
\addplot[green!60!black, thick, domain=0:6] {sin(deg(x))*cos(deg(x))};
\legend{$\sin(x)$, $\cos(x)$, $\sin(x)\cos(x)$}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

Scatter Plots

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    title={Data Points},
    xlabel={Time (s)},
    ylabel={Value},
    only marks,
]
\addplot coordinates {
    (0, 0.5)
    (1, 2.1)
    (2, 3.8)
    (3, 6.2)
    (4, 7.9)
    (5, 10.1)
};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

Bar Charts

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    ybar,
    title={Quarterly Sales},
    xlabel={Quarter},
    ylabel={Sales (\$1000)},
    symbolic x coords={Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4},
    xtick=data,
    nodes near coords,
    bar width=20pt,
]
\addplot coordinates {(Q1, 45) (Q2, 62) (Q3, 78) (Q4, 91)};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

Grouped Bar Charts

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    ybar,
    title={Product Comparison},
    xlabel={Category},
    ylabel={Score},
    symbolic x coords={Speed, Quality, Price},
    xtick=data,
    legend style={at={(0.5,-0.15)}, anchor=north},
    bar width=15pt,
]
\addplot coordinates {(Speed, 85) (Quality, 92) (Price, 78)};
\addplot coordinates {(Speed, 72) (Quality, 88) (Price, 95)};
\legend{Product A, Product B}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

Importing Data from CSV

% data.csv:
% x,y
% 0,0
% 1,1
% 2,4
% 3,9

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    title={Data from CSV},
    xlabel={$x$},
    ylabel={$y$},
]
\addplot table[col sep=comma]{data.csv};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

Error Bars

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    title={Measurement with Errors},
    xlabel={Sample},
    ylabel={Value},
]
\addplot+[
    only marks,
    error bars/.cd,
    y dir=both,
    y explicit,
] coordinates {
    (1, 2.5) +- (0, 0.3)
    (2, 3.1) +- (0, 0.4)
    (3, 4.2) +- (0, 0.2)
    (4, 3.8) +- (0, 0.5)
};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

3D Plots

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    title={3D Surface},
    view={60}{30},
    colormap/viridis,
]
\addplot3[
    surf,
    domain=-2:2,
    domain y=-2:2,
    samples=30,
] {exp(-x^2-y^2)};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

Logarithmic Axes

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{semilogyaxis}[  % or loglogaxis, semilogxaxis
    title={Exponential Growth},
    xlabel={Time},
    ylabel={Population},
    grid=major,
]
\addplot[blue, thick, domain=0:10] {exp(x)};
\end{semilogyaxis}
\end{tikzpicture}

Customizing Appearance

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    title style={font=\bfseries\large},
    xlabel style={font=\itshape},
    ylabel style={font=\itshape},
    tick label style={font=\small},
    legend style={font=\footnotesize},
    grid=both,
    grid style={line width=.1pt, draw=gray!20},
    major grid style={line width=.2pt, draw=gray!50},
    width=10cm,
    height=7cm,
]
\addplot[blue, thick] {x^2};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

Useful Options Reference

Next Steps

• Learn TikZ – Create custom diagrams
• Learn LaTeX Basics – Review fundamentals