This attribute controls the appearance of an annotated coordinate grid (drawn with the AST_GRID routine) by determining whether textual labels should be drawn to describe the quantity being represented on each axis of a Plot. It takes a separate value for each physical axis of a Plot so that, for instance, the setting " TextLab(2)=1" specifies that descriptive labels should be drawn for the second axis.

If the TextLab value of a Plot axis is non-zero, then descriptive labels will be drawn for that axis, otherwise they will be omitted. The default behaviour is to draw descriptive labels if tick marks and numerical labels are being drawn around the edges of the plotting area (see the Labelling attribute), but to omit them otherwise.

Plot

• The text used for the descriptive labels is derived from the Plot’ s Label(axis) attribute, together with its Unit(axis) attribute if appropriate (see the LabelUnits(axis) attribute).

• The drawing of numerical axis labels for a Plot (which indicate values on the axis) is controlled by the NumLab(axis) attribute.

• If no axis is specified, (e.g. " TextLab" instead of " TextLab(2)" ), then a " set" or " clear" operation will affect the attribute value of all the Plot axes, while a " get" or " test" operation will use just the TextLab(1) value.