Circles

The circles style plots a circle with an explicit radius at each data point. The radius is always interpreted in the units of the plot's horizontal axis (x or x2). The scale on y and the aspect ratio of the plot are both ignored. If the radius is not given in a separate column for each point it is taken from set style circle. In this case the radius may use graph or screen coordinates.

Many combinations of per-point and previously set properties are possible. For 2D plots these include

using x:y
using x:y:radius
using x:y:color
using x:y:radius:color
using x:y:radius:arc_begin:arc_end
using x:y:radius:arc_begin:arc_end:color

By default a full circle will be drawn. It is possible to instead plot arc segments by specifying a start and end angle (in degrees) in columns 4 and 5.

A per-circle color may be provided in the last column of the using specifier. In this case the plot command must include a corresponding variable color term such as lc variable or fillcolor rgb variable.

For 3D plots the using specifier must contain

splot DATA using x:y:z:radius:color

where the variable color column is options. See set style circle and set style fill.

Examples:

# draws circles whose area is proportional to the value in column 3
set style fill transparent solid 0.2 noborder
plot 'data' using 1:2:(sqrt($3)) with circles, \
     'data' using 1:2 with linespoints

# draws Pac-men instead of circles
plot 'data' using 1:2:(10):(40):(320) with circles

# draw a pie chart with inline data
set xrange [-15:15]
set style fill transparent solid 0.9 noborder
plot '-' using 1:2:3:4:5:6 with circles lc var
0    0    5    0    30    1
0    0    5   30    70    2
0    0    5   70   120    3
0    0    5  120   230    4
0    0    5  230   360    5
e

The result is similar to using a points plot with variable size points and pointstyle 7, except that the circles will scale with the x axis range. See also set object circle and fillstyle.