Axis: add support for image labels

[Liwr9537]

Recently, I am using scottplot for scientific drawing. When I need to set the unit for the label and legend, I have to use superscript and subscript. I know that some special unicode can be used. But if the content is more complicated, I have no idea what to do. Besides, I need to add some Latex formula into the plot. For example, I want to add -x^{-rho} into the plot.
So, I want to know if there are some ways for me to do so? Will scottplot add this kind of function in the future?

ScottPlot Version: 5.0.43.0

[bforl]

I don't have a direct answer for you I'm afraid.

But as work around, could you render the latex to a bitmap and display that? (assuming its not constantly changing)

[Liwr9537]

Do you mean that I can turn the latex into the graph and use this graph as the label text or legend? It seams OK in scottplot4, but I do not find this kind of method in scottplot5.

[swharden]

Note that superscript and subscript numbers are possible now using unicode:

formsPlot1.Plot.YLabel("PSI²");
formsPlot1.Plot.XLabel("H₂CO₃");

Do you mean that I can turn the latex into the graph and use this graph as the label text or legend?

This should work, but I don't recall whether images are supported in the common places (axis labels, legend items, etc.). I'll modify this issue to track adding (or documenting) how this may be achieved.

Related:

• SP5: Implement rich text panels #3222
• New plot type for draggable rich text  #2905

[swharden]

I'm merging #4517 now and this feature will be available in the next release!

If you use a third party package to render rich text as a bitmap, you can consume it with ScottPlot and display it anywhere a label is typically displayed

myPlot.Add.Signal(Generate.Sin(51));
myPlot.Add.Signal(Generate.Cos(51));

// This array holds the bytes of a bitmap. Here it's generated,
// but it could be a byte array read from a bitmap file on disk.
byte[] bytes1 = SampleImages.NoisyText("Horiz", 150, 50).GetImageBytes();
byte[] bytes2 = SampleImages.NoisyText("Vert", 150, 50).GetImageBytes();

// Create a ScottPlot.Image from the bitmap bytes
ScottPlot.Image img1 = new(bytes1);
ScottPlot.Image img2 = new(bytes2);

// Display the image for the bottom axis label
myPlot.Axes.Bottom.Label.Image = img1;
myPlot.Axes.Left.Label.Image = img2;

[King-Taz]

Note that superscript and subscript numbers are possible now using unicode:

formsPlot1.Plot.YLabel("PSI²");
formsPlot1.Plot.XLabel("H₂CO₃");

While I can get a capital omega as a label, unicode doesn't work in general in Maui. I would appreciate knowing how to get this to work though.

Using this code

            var dl1 = MauiPlot1.Plot.Add.Text("  H₂CO₃  ", arrow1Tip);

As a (funny) sidenote, ChatGPT thinks ScottPlot supports Latex formatted labels. I suspect that's an hallucination from the above discussion 😆