What is the plotting mode of drawing with text symbols in Gnuplot?

Question

I can recall in plotting by text (like textual symbols) in gnuplot. I wonder what are the flags for it in gnuplot. I am doing visual selection tool similar to bless but for pictures. For implementation is based on textual pictures. I have an intuition that the view can be changed by set terminal [something]. I want this kind of format

I got recommendations about LaTeX. LaTeX is functional but I do not know well it can fit such an interactive task. Of course, the target is to get smooth view with colors later but first only black and white with text is enough. Please, add explanations why LaTeX would be better in such a task.

How can you plot with textual symbols in Gnuplot?

Answer 1

If I understand well, what you want is:

set terminal dumb

here is an example:

$ gnuplot

    G N U P L O T
    Version 5.2 patchlevel 2    last modified 2017-11-01 

    Copyright (C) 1986-1993, 1998, 2004, 2007-2017
    Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley and many others

    gnuplot home:     http://www.gnuplot.info
    faq, bugs, etc:   type "help FAQ"
    immediate help:   type "help"  (plot window: hit 'h')

Terminal type is now 'qt'
gnuplot> set terminal dumb

Terminal type is now 'dumb'
Options are 'feed  size 79, 24 aspect 2, 1 mono'
gnuplot> plot sin(x)


    1 +--------------------------------------------------------------------+   
      |                *  *              +  *  **         +       *  *     |   
  0.8 |-+             *   *                 *    *          sin(x* *******-|   
      |              *     *                *    *               *    *    |   
  0.6 |-+            *      *              *     *               *     * +-|   
      |              *      *             *       *             *       *  |   
  0.4 |*+            *      *             *       *             *       *+-|   
      |*            *        *            *        *           *        *  |   
  0.2 |*+           *        *            *        *           *        *+-|   
      | *          *          *          *         *          *          * |   
    0 |-*          *          *          *         *          *          *-|   
      |  *         *          *         *           *         *           *|   
 -0.2 |-+*         *          *         *           *         *          +*|   
      |  *        *            *       *             *       *            *|   
 -0.4 |-+*        *            *       *             *       *           +*|   
      |   *      *              *      *             *      *              |   
 -0.6 |-+ *     *               *     *              *      *            +-|   
      |    *    *               *     *               *     *              |   
 -0.8 |-+   *   *                *   *                 *   *             +-|   
      |     *  *       +         **  *   +             *  *                |   
   -1 +--------------------------------------------------------------------+   
     -10              -5                 0                5                10  

gnuplot>

Answer 2

You need to install gnuplot with the specific terminal to get the output. It is something about textual.