How to set the 'terminal png size' to '2.5in' (IEEEtran) in gnuplot?

I set the image size as 1024*768 in gnuplot.

set terminal png size 1024,768

In order to put it in IEEEtran latex, I have to scale down.

\begin{figure}[!t]
\centering
\includegraphics[scale=0.3]{myfigure}
\caption{Simulation Results}
\label{fig_sim}
\end{figure}

However, the font size is quite small.

BTW, the format of figures for IEEEtran is: \includegraphics[width=2.5in]{myfigure}.

@Christoph I generate the figure using set terminal pdfcairo size 2.5in,2.5in font ',8' as you mentioned. However, the figure is very ugly.

enter image description here

Solution

Don't use a pixel graphic for a publication, but rather a vector format like pdf!

There you just give the physical size which your final image should have. Then you don't need to scale the image and it will appear exactly like you prepared it:

set terminal pdfcairo size 2.5in,1.875in font ',8'

And then include it with

\includegraphics{myfigure}

Maybe you must tweak the margins a little bit to use as much of the space as possible.