How to color points with a color declared in a data column with format `#aabbcc` in Gnuplot?

Question

I'm using Gnuplot to make a scatterplot from my data that consists of 5 items:

index, name, x value, y value, color (#12e335)

The color is different for each entry. Is there a way to make the color of my datapoint (x,y) get the color that is listed in the data?

Is it possible in this format for color (#aabb12), or do I need to change to format for gnuplot specific? It is very important that the point color is the same as the color specified in the data, since I use the same colors for a pie-chart later on (not gnuplot).

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I found the answer myself, after a good hard look.

This line should be at the beginning of your file, right under reset or somewhere around there

 rgb(r,g,b) = int(r)*65536 + int(g)*256 + int(b)

And this is your plotting command

 plot "output.txt" using 4:5:(rgb($9,$10,$11)) \
       with points pt 7 ps 2 lc rgb variable notitle

So basically, you make a new variable rgb with 3 variables, the red, the green and the blue component. For my problem, i had to add 3 columns to my data files that described my color. So if my color was #5535cf (i calculate the colors randomly) my rgb value would be (85, 53, 207) I would then add 3 columns to my output.txt data file with 85, 53 and 207.

These numbers are in column 9, 10 and 11 from my output file, which explains the $9 $10 and $11. There should be the columnnumbers where your r g and b values are.

If you add lc rgb variable notitle to your plot command, the points should take the color you assigned them in your data-file.

Hope this helps a lot of people!