Trying to use Octave to substute Matlab/Scilab. Its manual can be found here . Here are some tips: 0. Add my m files to current path use path to display the current searching path copy my m file directory to /usr/share/octave/3.0.0/m/, where it will automatically load once octave is started. 1. Change text size: text(10, 2, '{\fontsize {18} Whatever }') legend('{\fontsize {24} legend item 1}') 2. Change text style xlabel( '{ \bf label name for x}'), where \bf stands for bold fonts \it stands for italic font \sl stands for oblique font \rm stands for normal font 3. Output option: print ("print_this.png", "-dpng", "-landscape") print ("print_this.ps", "-dpsc", "-landscape")