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(gnuplot.info)xtics

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 Fine control of the major (labelled) tics on the x axis is possible with the
 `set xtics` command.  The tics may be turned off with the `set noxtics`
 command, and may be turned on (the default state) with `set xtics`.  Similar
 commands control the major tics on the y, z, x2 and y2 axes.

 Syntax:
       set xtics {axis | border} {{no}mirror} {{no}rotate}
                 {  autofreq
                  | <incr>
                  | <start>, <incr> {,<end>}
                  | ({"<label>"} <pos> {,{"<label>"} <pos>}...) }
       set noxtics
       show xtics

 The same syntax applies to `ytics` (Note: ytics ),  `ztics`
 (Note: ztics ),  `x2tics` (Note: x2tics ) and  `y2tics`
 (Note: y2tics ).

 `axis` or `border` (Note: border ) tells  `gnuplot` (Note: gnuplot ) to
 put the tics (both the tics themselves and the accompanying labels) along the
 axis or the border, respectively.  If the axis is very close to the border,
 the `axis` option can result in tic labels overwriting other text written in
 the margin.

 `mirror` tells `gnuplot` to put unlabelled tics at the same positions on the
 opposite border.  `nomirror` does what you think it does.

 `rotate` (Note: rotate ) asks gnuplot to rotate the text through 90 degrees,
 which will be done if the terminal driver in use supports text
 rotation.  `norotate` cancels this.

 The defaults are `border mirror norotate` for tics on the x and y axes, and
 `border nomirror norotate` for tics on the x2 and y2 axes.  For the z axis,
 the the `{axis | border}` option is not available and the default is
 `nomirror`.  If you do want to mirror the z-axis tics, you might want to
 create a bit more room for them with `set border`.

 `set xtics` with no options restores the default border or axis if xtics are
 being displayed;  otherwise it has no effect.  Any previously specified tic
 frequency or position {and labels} are retained.

 Positions of the tics are calculated automatically by default or if the
 `autofreq` option is given; otherwise they may be specified in either of
 two forms:

 The implicit <start>, <incr>, <end> form specifies that a series of tics will
 be plotted on the axis between the values <start> and <end> with an increment
 of <incr>.  If <end> is not given, it is assumed to be infinity.  The
 increment may be negative.  If neither <start> nor <end> is given, <start> is
 assumed to be negative infinity, <end> is assumed to be positive infinity,
 and the tics will be drawn at integral multiples of <step>.  If the axis is
 logarithmic, the increment will be used as a multiplicative factor.

 Examples:

 Make tics at 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, ..., 9.5, 10.
       set xtics 0,.5,10

 Make tics at ..., -10, -5, 0, 5, 10, ...
       set xtics 5

 Make tics at 1, 100, 1e4, 1e6, 1e8.
       set logscale x; set xtics 1,100,10e8

 The explicit ("<label>" <pos>, ...) form allows arbitrary tic positions or
 non-numeric tic labels.  A set of tics is a set of positions, each with its
 own optional label.  Note that the label is a string enclosed by quotes.  It
 may be a constant string, such as "hello", may contain formatting information
 for converting the position into its label, such as "%3f clients", or may be
 empty, "".  See `set format` (Note: format ) for more information.  If no
 string is given, the default label (numerical) is used.  In this form, the
 tics do not need to be listed in numerical order.

 Examples:
       set xtics ("low" 0, "medium" 50, "high" 100)
       set xtics (1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024)
       set ytics ("bottom" 0, "" 10, "top" 20)

 In the second example, all tics are labelled.  In the third, only the end
 tics are labelled.

 However they are specified, tics will only be plotted when in range.

 Format (or omission) of the tic labels is controlled by `set format`, unless
 the explicit text of a labels is included in the `set xtic (`<label>`)` form.

 Minor (unlabelled) tics can be added by the `set mxtics` (Note: mxtics )
 command.

 In case of timeseries data, position values must be given as quoted dates
 or times according to the format `timefmt` (Note: timefmt ).  If the
 <start>, <incr>, <end> form is used, <start> and <end> must be given according
 to `timefmt`, but <incr> must be in seconds.  Times will be written out
 according to the format given on `set format`, however.

 Examples:
       set xdata time
       set timefmt "%d/%m"
       set format x "%b %d"
       set xrange ["01/12":"06/12"]
       set xtics "01/12", 172800, "05/12"

       set xdata time
       set timefmt "%d/%m"
       set format x "%b %d"
       set xrange ["01/12":"06/12"]
       set xtics ("01/12", "" "03/12", "05/12")
 Both of these will produce tics "Dec 1", "Dec 3", and "Dec 5", but in the
 second example the tic at "Dec 3" will be unlabelled.