diff --git a/TimeSeries.pm b/TimeSeries.pm
index 691b6c1..1206403 100644
--- a/TimeSeries.pm
+++ b/TimeSeries.pm
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ use Time::Local;
 use Data::Dumper;
 use HTTP::Date qw(parse_date);
 use Time::Local qw(timegm_nocheck);
-use POSIX qw(strftime);
+use POSIX qw(floor strftime);
 
 our $VERSION = do { my @r=(q$Revision: 1.24 $=~/\d+/g);sprintf "%d."."%02d"x$#r,@r};
 
@@ -404,8 +404,10 @@ sub plot {
 
     my @tics = get_ticks($firsttime, $lasttime);
 
+    # force tick values to look like fp numbers to avoid warnings about
+    # exceeding the int range from gnuplot
     print $ctlfh "set xtics rotate (",
-	    join(", ", map sprintf(qq|"%s" %d|, $_->[1], $_->[0]), @tics),
+	    join(", ", map sprintf(qq|"%s" %.16e|, $_->[1], $_->[0]), @tics),
 	    ")\n";
 
     # what to plot
@@ -450,9 +452,10 @@ sub plot {
 	if ($self->{gsresolution} != $self->{finalresolution}) {
 	    $pipe .= "pnmscale " . ($self->{finalresolution} / $self->{gsresolution}) . " |";
 	}
-	$pipe .= 
-	    "pnmflip -cw |" .
-	    "pnmcrop 2> /dev/null |";
+	$pipe .= "pnmflip -cw |";
+	if ($self->{crop}) {
+	    $pipe .= "pnmcrop 2> /dev/null |";
+	}
     }
 
     if ($self->{output_format} eq "png") {
@@ -498,7 +501,32 @@ sub get_ticks {
     my $label;
     my $nexttime;
 
-    if ($lasttime - $firsttime > 3 * 365 * 24 * 3600) {
+    if ($lasttime - $firsttime > 50 * 365 * 24 * 3600) {
+	# more than 50 years: 1 tick/5 years
+
+	my ($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime($firsttime);
+	$sec = $min = $hour = 0;
+	$mday = 1;
+	$mon = 0;
+        $year = floor($year / 5) * 5;
+	$firsttime = timelocal($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year);
+
+	$label = '%Y-%m-%d';
+
+	$nexttime = sub { return add_years($_[0], 5) };
+    } elsif ($lasttime - $firsttime > 10 * 365 * 24 * 3600) {
+	# more than 10 years: 1 tick/year
+
+	my ($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime($firsttime);
+	$sec = $min = $hour = 0;
+	$mday = 1;
+	$mon = 0;
+	$firsttime = timelocal($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year);
+
+	$label = '%Y-%m-%d';
+
+	$nexttime = sub { return add_years($_[0], 1) };
+    } elsif ($lasttime - $firsttime > 3 * 365 * 24 * 3600) {
 	# more than 3 years: 4 ticks/year
 
 	my ($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst) = localtime($firsttime);
@@ -600,11 +628,21 @@ sub add_months {
     my ($time, $d_mon) = @_;
     my ($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst)
 	= localtime($time);
+    $year += 1900; # localtime/timelocal mismatch
     $mon += $d_mon;
     if ($mon >= 12) {
 	$mon -= 12; $year++;
     }
     $time = timelocal($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year);
-};
+}
+
+sub add_years {
+    my ($time, $d_year) = @_;
+    my ($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year,$wday,$yday,$isdst)
+	= localtime($time);
+    $year += 1900; # localtime/timelocal mismatch
+    $year += $d_year;
+    $time = timelocal($sec,$min,$hour,$mday,$mon,$year);
+}
 
 1;
diff --git a/tsplotv b/tsplotv
index f87fd7f..6f28d1a 100755
--- a/tsplotv
+++ b/tsplotv
@@ -13,6 +13,9 @@ tsplotv
 [--output-format format ]
 [--stacked]
 [--style style]
+[--time_t]
+[--colors rgb-list]
+[--configfile yaml]
 [file ...]
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
@@ -40,6 +43,7 @@ use strict;
 use TimeSeries;
 use Getopt::Long;
 use Pod::Usage;
+use YAML qw(LoadFile);
 
 my $help;
 my $legend_position = 'top right';
@@ -50,6 +54,7 @@ my $log_y = 0;
 my $finalresolution;
 my $time_t = 0;
 my $colors;
+my $configfile;
 
 GetOptions('help|?' => \$help,
 	   'legend_position|legend-position=s'	=> \$legend_position,
@@ -60,33 +65,46 @@ GetOptions('help|?' => \$help,
 	   'finalresolution'		        => \$finalresolution,
 	   'time_t'			        => \$time_t,
            'colors=s'                           => \$colors,
+           'configfile=s'                       => \$configfile,
 	  ) or pod2usage(2);
 pod2usage(1) if $help;
 
+my $config = LoadFile($configfile) if $configfile;
 
 binmode STDOUT, ':raw';
 
-my %series;
-my $ns;
+my $ns = 0;
 my %data;
 
-my $ts = TimeSeries->new(output_format => $output_format);
+$config->{timeseries} //= {};
+for (keys $config->{timeseries}) {
+    $ns = $config->{timeseries}{$_}{order} if ($config->{timeseries}{$_}{order} // 0) > $ns;
+}
+
 while (<>) {
     chomp;
     my ($timestamp, $series, $value) = split(/\t/);
-    $series{$series} = ++$ns unless ($series{$series});
+    $config->{timeseries}{$series}{order} = ++$ns unless ($config->{timeseries}{$series}{order});
     $data{$timestamp}{$series} = $value;
 }
-my @series = sort { $series{$a} <=> $series{$b} } keys %series;
+my @series = sort { $config->{timeseries}{$a}{order} <=> $config->{timeseries}{$b}{order} }
+                  keys $config->{timeseries};
+if ($colors) {
+    my @colors = split(/,/, $colors);
+    while (my ($i, $c) = each(@colors)) {
+	$config->{timeseries}{$series[$i]}{color} = $c;
+    }
+}
+
+
+my $ts = TimeSeries->new(output_format => $output_format);
 $ts->legend(@series);
 $ts->legend_position($legend_position);
 $ts->stacked($stacked);
 $ts->style($style);
 $ts->log_y($log_y);
 $ts->finalresolution($finalresolution) if $finalresolution;
-if ($colors) {
-    $ts->colors(split(/,/, $colors));
-}
+$ts->colors(map $config->{timeseries}{$_}{color}, @series);
 
 for my $timestamp (sort keys %data) {
     my %d = %{$data{$timestamp}};