Superscript '^' and subscript '_' don't work with gr() backend

[damonturney]

using Plots
gr()
plot(1,xlabel="hi^2")

doesn't produce a superscript.

And since latex doesn't work with gr() backend, see issue here #2005, there is NO way to produce superscripts or subscripts with the gr() backend.

[daschw]

doesn't produce a superscript.

It's not supposed to. You can use unicode symbols like ², or LaTeXStrings, which should work. I'm not sure why it does not for you.

Also, I recommend using ` or ``` around code in github issues. This makes it easier to read for others.

[briochemc]

You can use unicode symbols like ², or LaTeXStrings, which should work.

Not all Unicode symbols work though. For example:

using Plots
scatter(rand(10), rand(10), xlabel="Digits superscripts (⁻¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹⁰)")

produces (Julia v1.1.1, OSX v10.13.6, Plots v0.25.3, GR v0.41.0)

Additionally, while LaTeXStrings provides a solution, IMHO it is not a good one because (i) it produces a different and serif font, and (ii), it doesn't allow to easily mix math and non-math mode AFAIU.

I think it is important for scientific plots to allow for a few superscripts and subscripts (mainly for units, thus the ⁻¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹⁰ of my MWE above, and probably some straight-up greek letters like μ).

For that reason I tend to end up using the PyPlot backend more than the other options:

pyplot()
scatter(rand(10), rand(10), xlabel="Digits superscripts (⁻¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹⁰)") 

which produces (PyCall v1.91.2, PyPlot v2.8.1)

But anyway, this is probably more a GR.jl issue than a Plots.jl one though, right?

[JackDevine]

Indeed this is a GR issue, I don't think that there is anything that can be done here on the Plots side.

[mzechmeister]

Sub- and superscripts works at least when using 10 as base and curly brackets

plot(1, xlabel="10^{-0123456789abc}_{-0123456789abc}")