In addition to placing plots on the multiplot page, text labels may also be inserted independently of any plots, using the text command. This has the following syntax:
text 'This is some text' at x,y
In this case, the string “This is some text” would be rendered at position on the multiplot. As with the set label command, a rotation angle may optionally be specified to rotate text labels through any given angle, measured in degrees counter-clockwise, for example:
text 'This is some text' at x,y rotate r
The commands set textcolour, set texthalign and set textvalign, which have already been described in the context in the set label command, can also be used to set the colour and alignment of text produced with the text command.. A useful application of this is to produce centred headings at the top of multiplots.
As with plots, each text item has a unique identification number, and can be moved around, deleted or undeleted with the delete, undelete and move commands.
It should be noted that the text command can also be used outside of the multiplot environment, to render a single piece of short text instead of a graph. One obvious application is to produce equations rendered as graphical files for inclusion in talks.
Arrows may also be placed on multiplot pages, independently of any plots, using the arrow command, which has syntax:
arrow from x,y to x,y
As above, arrows receive unique identification numbers, and can be deleted and undeleted.
The arrow command may be followed by the ‘with’ keyword to specify to style of the arrow. The style keywords which are accepted are identical to those accepted by the set arrow command (see Section 3.4.1). For example:
arrow from x1,y1 to x2,y2 \ with twohead colour red
Bitmap images in jpeg form may be placed on the multiplot using the jpeg command. This has syntax:
jpeg 'filename' at x,y width w
As an alternative to the width modifier the height of the image can be specified, using the analogous height modifier. An optional angle can also be specified using the rotate modifier; this causes the included image to be rotated counter-clockwise by a specified angle (in degrees).
Vector graphic images in eps format may be placed on to a multiplot using the eps command, which has a syntax analogous to the jpeg command. However neither height nor width need be specified; in this case the image will be included at its native size. For example:
eps 'filename' at 3,2 rotate 5
will place the eps file with its bottom-left corner at position cm from the origin, rotated counter-clockwise through 5 degrees.