lines

lines(positions)
lines(x, y)
lines(x, y, z)

Creates a connected line plot for each element in (x, y, z), (x, y) or positions.

NaN values are displayed as gaps in the line.

Plot type

The plot type alias for the lines function is Lines.

Attributes

alpha = 1.0 — The alpha value of the colormap or color attribute. Multiple alphas like in plot(alpha=0.2, color=(:red, 0.5), will get multiplied.

color = @inherit linecolor — The color of the line.

colormap = @inherit colormap :viridis — Sets the colormap that is sampled for numeric colors. PlotUtils.cgrad(...), Makie.Reverse(any_colormap) can be used as well, or any symbol from ColorBrewer or PlotUtils. To see all available color gradients, you can call Makie.available_gradients().

colorrange = automatic — The values representing the start and end points of colormap.

colorscale = identity — The color transform function. Can be any function, but only works well together with Colorbar for identity, log, log2, log10, sqrt, logit, Makie.pseudolog10 and Makie.Symlog10.

cycle = [:color] — Sets which attributes to cycle when creating multiple plots.

depth_shift = 0.0 — adjusts the depth value of a plot after all other transformations, i.e. in clip space, where 0 <= depth <= 1. This only applies to GLMakie and WGLMakie and can be used to adjust render order (like a tunable overdraw).

fxaa = false — adjusts whether the plot is rendered with fxaa (anti-aliasing, GLMakie only).

highclip = automatic — The color for any value above the colorrange.

inspectable = true — sets whether this plot should be seen by DataInspector.

inspector_clear = automatic — Sets a callback function (inspector, plot) -> ... for cleaning up custom indicators in DataInspector.

inspector_hover = automatic — Sets a callback function (inspector, plot, index) -> ... which replaces the default show_data methods.

inspector_label = automatic — Sets a callback function (plot, index, position) -> string which replaces the default label generated by DataInspector.

joinstyle = @inherit joinstyle — Controls whether line joints are rounded (:round) or not (:miter).

linecap = @inherit linecap — Sets the type of linecap used, i.e. :butt (flat with no extrusion), :square (flat with 0.5 linewidth extrusion) or :round.

linestyle = nothing — Sets the pattern of the line e.g. :solid, :dot, :dashdot. For custom patterns look at Linestyle(Number[...])

linewidth = @inherit linewidth — Sets the width of the line in screen units

lowclip = automatic — The color for any value below the colorrange.

miter_limit = @inherit miter_limit — Sets the minimum inner joint angle below which miter joints truncate. See also Makie.miter_distance_to_angle()

model = automatic — Sets a model matrix for the plot. This overrides adjustments made with translate!, rotate! and scale!.

nan_color = :transparent — The color for NaN values.

overdraw = false — Controls if the plot will draw over other plots. This specifically means ignoring depth checks in GL backends

space = :data — sets the transformation space for box encompassing the plot. See Makie.spaces() for possible inputs.

ssao = false — Adjusts whether the plot is rendered with ssao (screen space ambient occlusion). Note that this only makes sense in 3D plots and is only applicable with fxaa = true.

transformation = automaticNo docs available.

transparency = false — Adjusts how the plot deals with transparency. In GLMakie transparency = true results in using Order Independent Transparency.

visible = true — Controls whether the plot will be rendered or not.

Examples

using CairoMakie


f = Figure()
Axis(f[1, 1])

xs = 0:0.01:10
ys = 0.5 .* sin.(xs)

lines!(xs, ys)
lines!(xs, ys .- 1, linewidth = 5)
lines!(xs, ys .- 2, linewidth = 5, color = ys)
lines!(xs, ys .- 3, linestyle = :dash)

f

Linestyles

using CairoMakie


f = Figure()
Axis(f[1, 1])

xs = 0:0.01:10
ys = 0.5 .* sin.(xs)

for (i, lw) in enumerate([1, 2, 3])
    lines!(xs, ys .- i/6, linestyle = nothing, linewidth = lw)
    lines!(xs, ys .- i/6 .- 1, linestyle = :dash, linewidth = lw)
    lines!(xs, ys .- i/6 .- 2, linestyle = :dot, linewidth = lw)
    lines!(xs, ys .- i/6 .- 3, linestyle = :dashdot, linewidth = lw)
    lines!(xs, ys .- i/6 .- 4, linestyle = :dashdotdot, linewidth = lw)
    lines!(xs, ys .- i/6 .- 5, linestyle = Linestyle([0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.5]), linewidth = lw)
end

f

Linecaps and Joinstyles

using CairoMakie

f = Figure()
Axis(f[1, 1])

ps = 0.8 .* Point2f[(-0.2, -0.5), (0.5, -0.5), (0.5, 0.5), (-0.5, 0.5), (-0.5, -0.2)]

for i in 1:3, j in 1:3
    lines!(
        ps .+ Point2f(i, -j), linewidth = 20,
        linecap = (:butt, :square, :round)[i],
        joinstyle = (:miter, :bevel, :round)[j]
    )
    scatterlines!(ps .+ Point2f(i, -j), color = :gray)
end

f

Dealing with outline artifacts in GLMakie

In GLMakie 3D line plots can generate outline artifacts depending on the order line segments are rendered in. Currently there are a few ways to mitigate this problem, but they all come at a cost:

  • fxaa = true will disable the native anti-aliasing of line segments and use fxaa instead. This results in less detailed lines.

  • transparency = true will disable depth testing to a degree, resulting in all lines being rendered without artifacts. However with this lines will always have some level of transparency.

  • overdraw = true will disable depth testing entirely (read and write) for the plot, removing artifacts. This will however change the z-order of line segments and allow plots rendered later to show up on top of the lines plot.

using GLMakie

ps = rand(Point3f, 500)
cs = rand(500)
f = Figure(size = (600, 650))
Label(f[1, 1], "base", tellwidth = false)
lines(f[2, 1], ps, color = cs, fxaa = false)
Label(f[1, 2], "fxaa = true", tellwidth = false)
lines(f[2, 2], ps, color = cs, fxaa = true)
Label(f[3, 1], "transparency = true", tellwidth = false)
lines(f[4, 1], ps, color = cs, transparency = true)
Label(f[3, 2], "overdraw = true", tellwidth = false)
lines(f[4, 2], ps, color = cs, overdraw = true)
f