How to make xtics label color variable in box plot in GNUPlot?

Question

This is my attempt at making the xtics label color match the line color in a box plot in gnuplot:

$DATA << EOD
1 1
2 2
3 3
EOD

set linetype 1 linecolor rgb "red"
set linetype 2 linecolor rgb "green"
set linetype 3 linecolor rgb "blue"

set key off

set boxwidth 0.5
set style fill solid 0.5

set xrange [0:4]
set yrange [0:4]

set xtics     ("1" 1) textcolor rgb "red"
set xtics add ("2" 2) textcolor rgb "green"
set xtics add ("3" 3) textcolor rgb "blue"

plot $DATA using 1:2:1 with boxes linecolor variable

But it does not work:

Any idea? Thanks!

Answer 1

I'm not sure whether you can set xtics individually in different colors. So, the following solution sets the xtics as empty lines and you plot your xtics with labels with a certain offset. The disadvantage is that you have to set the y-position here: (0) with offset 0,-1. I hope there are better solutions.

Code:

### "xtic labels" in different colors
reset session

$Data << EOD
1 1
2 2
3 3
EOD

set linetype 1 lc "red"
set linetype 2 lc "green"
set linetype 3 lc "blue"

set key off
set boxwidth 0.5
set style fill solid 0.5

set xrange [0:4]
set yrange [0:4]
set format x "\n"     # xtic label empty line

plot $Data u 1:2:1 w boxes lc var, \
        '' u 1:(0):1:1 w labels tc var offset 0,-1 
### end of code

Alternatively, you could use an offset relative to the graph:

plot $Data u 1:2:1 w boxes lc var, \
        '' u 1:(0):1:1 w labels tc var offset 0, graph -0.05 

Result: