Plots can be created for various output devices.  A list of all supported devices is given below in the Devices section.  Help pages that describe Maple's plotting features assume that plots will be displayed in the Standard Worksheet interface.  If you are using a different interface, see plot/interface.

To specify a particular output device and to provide plotting options for this device, use the plotsetup command.  This command also allows you to specify an output file for drivers that require a file.  When creating more than one plot, be sure to change the plotoutput file name before writing each plot, so that you do not write over your previous plot.

Maple recognizes the following devices.

bmp: Windows BMP (True color RGB bitmap).

char: Produces a drawing using ASCII characters to create the lines and points in the image. This driver is used primarily for testing and for reporting bugs. This driver is limited to simple line drawing plots and does not support color or font control.

colorchar: Draws using ASCII characters and extended ANSI escape sequences to produce a color image on terminals supporting 256-color mode. Like the char driver, this driver is limited to line drawings and does not support font control. It does however support the color and thickness plot options (colors are mapped to a 216-color palette).

cps: Equivalent to ps with plotoptions=color.

default: Restores the plotdevice setting to the default for the platform.

dxf: AutoCAD's DXF file format (for 3-D plots only - outputs 3DFACE entities to make a surface).  If plotoptions contains the keyword {hideedges}, then the object edges are hidden.

gdi: Device-independent graphics driver for plotting.

Note: gdi is not available in the Standard Worksheet interface.

gif: Produces a GIF/ANIMATED-GIF image file. You can set the GIF image to be transparent (the default is non-transparent) by specifying "transparent=true" in plotoptions. The height and width of the drawing area can also be specified in plotoptions as height=???,width=??? where the height and width are specified in pixels. The number of colors in the GIF palette can be controlled by placing colors=??? in plotoptions. The image defaults to 512x512 with 256 colors.  Note that font control is not available in this driver. Since gif export has a maximum number of colors that it can cope with, it should not, in general, be used for plots where shading or transparency are used. This includes most 3-D plots. In these cases, JPEG is a good alternative.

hpgl: Standard file format for HP (and compatible) plotters. This is an open language vector graphics file format.

inline: For in-line plots in a worksheet. The plot appears in the current worksheet window.

jpeg: Produces a 24-bit color JPEG rendering of the image. The JPEG driver allows you to specify the height and width of the canvas using the plotoptions string (for example, plotoptions="height=200,width=320"). The default height is 360 and the default width is 480. On 64-bit platforms, much larger plots can be produced, but this is a very memory-intensive operation. The amount of memory required (in bytes) can be calculated by multiplying 3 x width x height.

The plotoptions string can also be used to set the JPEG quality level, an integer value from 0 to 100 (inclusive), for example, plotoptions="quality=75". The default value is 95. Settings greater than 95 generally have negligible visible effect.

Notes: Font control is not available in this driver. The Maple JPEG driver is based in part on software provided by the Independent JPEG Group. JPEG is designed for photographs of natural scenes, which unlike plots, do not have sharp edges and abrupt color changes. GIF is a superior file format for plots; JPEG will make sharp edges blurry.

maplet: The plot appears in a separate window as a Maplet application, but not as an independently executable Maplet file.

pcx: Produces PCX image file with images ranging up to 256 colors and can also record truecolor(24-bit). GIF, PNG, and JPEG are more advanced alternatives to this.

png: Produces a truecolor (16 million colors) lossless compressed raster image. PNG supports transparency (the default is non-transparent) by specifying transparency between 0 and 1 (where 0 means "not transparent" and 1 means "completely transparent"). The height and width of the canvas can be specified using the plotoptions string (plotoptions="height=600,width=400").

postscript, ps: Produces an encapsulated PostScript rendering of the image in the file specified by the interface variable plotoutput. By default, the ps driver uses monochrome PostScript and a landscape orientation. For information on controlling PostScript plotting, see the plot/ps help page.

pov: Persistence of Vision Raytracer (POVRay) scene file format (for 3-D plots only - outputs smooth triangles to make a surface). The POV driver allows you to specify the rotation angles (in polar coordinates) by using the plotoptions string (for example, plotoptions="phi=20,theta=30").  The defaults phi and theta are both 0.

window: The plot appears in a separate plot window.

wmf: Windows Metafile (wrapping a Windows BMP).

x11: For plots on X11 systems. The plot appears in a separate window on the workstation display. Note that this is not the same as the window setting because the x11 option produces the plot window as a separate process from the Maple process that launched it. Note that the x11 driver is not supported on Mac or from the Standard worksheet interface. For more information, see the plot/x11 help page.