PSRCHIVE documentation: psrplot layout

The layout of any psrplot plot may be customized, including

Viewport position and size

The position and size of the plot window (viewport) are set using the x:view and y:view customization options. These are specified in normalized device coordinates, and the default value for each is (0.15, 0.85). For example, 
psrplot -p flux -c 'x:view=(0.5,0.9),y:view=(0.1,0.5)' 0437n.FF

Overlaying multiple plots

By default, each selected plot is printed on a clean page. However, it is also possible to overlay multiple plots on a single page with the -O command line option. When plotting multiple plots, it may also be necessary to send customization options to a specific plot. This is done by prefixing a plot index between two colons to the customization options and/or style file name, as in 
-c :index:option1[,option2,...]
For example, 
psrplot -O -p Scyl -p stokes -c set=pub \
     -c ':1:x:view=(0.6,0.8),y:view=(0.4,0.6),x:range=(.675,.71)' \
     -c ':1:val=IL,set=blank' 0437n.FF

The same syntax can be used to specify plot-specific preprocessing operations; e.g. 

psrplot -N 2x1 -p time -p freq -j dedisperse -j :0:fscrunch -j :1:tscrunch
will plot a phase-versus-time plot of a copy of the input data that have been dedispersed and integrated over all frequency channels and a phase-versus-frequency plot of a copy of the input data that have been dedispersed and integrated over all sub-integrations.

Multiple plot style files

To avoid long cryptic command lines, it is also possible to create and customize multiple plots using style files. For example, save the following style file as style.txt 
# publication quality 
set=pub

#################################################
# create a phase-vs-frequency plot
plot freq

# set the viewport vertical axis
y:view=0.15:0.55

# don't plot Index on right-hand y-axis
y:alt=0

# but do plot the frequency axis
y:opt=BCITS

#################################################
# create a phase-vs-flux plot
plot flux

# set the viewport vertical axis
y:view=0.55:0.85

# remove label on x axis
x:lab=

# remove numerical labels on x axis
x:opt=BCTS

# plot fscrunched total
chan=I
and run 
psrplot -O -s style.txt 0437n.std
yielding

Note that

  • plot <name> creates a new plot
  • key=value commands encountered before any plot is created apply to all plots
  • key=value commands encountered after a plot is created apply only to the last created plot.