Note: the axis label refers to the (normally) textual label offset from the axis; the (normally) numeric labels drawn at major tick marks are referred to as "ticklabels" in ChIPS.

The set_axis, set_xaxis and set_yaxis commands are used to change the appearance of the axis label. In the example below we use set_axis to change the color, size, and font of both axis labels:

chips> set_axis(["label.font", "times", "label.color", "green", "label.size", 18])

The get_xaxis and get_yaxis commands can be used to find the current settings: here we show the Y axis values after the above command has been called:

chips> get_yaxis().label

angle = 90.0
color = green
font = times
fontstyle = normal
halign = 0.5
size = 18
valign = 0.0
visible = True

The halign, valign, and angle attributes above control the position of the label with respect to a control point; this control point is determined by the offset.perpendicular and offset.parallel settings of an axis:

chips> get_yaxis().offset

parallel = 0.0
perpendicular = 40.0

The units are pixels, so to move a label further away from an axis (whether X or Y), increase the offset.perpendicular setting; for instance

chips> set_yaxis(["offset.perpendicular", 60])

The ChIPS GUI

The ChIPS GUI makes it easy to modify a visualization using your mouse, rather than Pythoon functions. New in CIAO 4.5 is the ability to add annotations - such as labels, lines, points and regions - directly from the GUI.