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Graphical Representations of Data = Graphical Representations of Data =
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   The problem of how to display data in graphs and other visual representations is
   one of the most difficult ones, because of the wide variety of requirements from
   each user. As a result, no one solution has emerged, but many different packages
   are available. There are interfaces to existing plotting libraries, as well as
   Python-centered solutions.
Over the years many different plotting modules and packages have been developed for Python. For most of that time there was no clear favorite package, but recently matplotlib has become the most widely used. Nevertheless, many of the others are still available and may suit your tastes or needs better. Some of these are interfaces to existing plotting libraries while others are Python-centered new implementations.
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Image Processing and Analysis == Image Processing and Analysis ==
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Plotting Tools == Plotting Tools ==
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     * [http://www.scipy.org/site_content/chaco Chaco] is a device-independent 2D plotting package based on the DisplayPDF API
     being developed for Python by [http://www.enthought.com/ Enthought] with support from the [http://www.stsci.edu/resources/ Space Science Telescope Institute].
     * Konrad Hinsen has some plotting support in his [http://starship.python.net/~hinsen/ScientificPython/ ScientificPython] package, for
     example TkPlotCanvas.
     * Michael Haggerty has [http://monsoon.harvard.edu/~mhagger/download/ a Gnuplot module] which interfaces with [http://www.gnuplot.info the GNUPLOT package].
     * [http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net Matplotlib] is an Open Source plotting library designed to support interactive and publication quality plotting with a syntax familiar to Matlab users. Its interactive mode supports multiple windowing toolkits (currently: GTK, Tkinter, Qt, and wxWindows) as well as multiple noninteractive backends (PDF, postscript, SVG, antigrain geometry, and Cairo). Plots can be embedded within GUI applications or for non-interactive uses without any available display in batch mode. Matplotlib provides both a Matlab-like functional interface as well as an object oriented interface. [http://ipython.scipy.org IPython] has a "pylab" mode which is specifically designed for interactive plotting with matplotlib.
     * [http://home.gna.org/veusz/ Veusz] is a GPL scientific plotting package written in Python and PyQt, designed to create publication-quality output. Graphs are built up from simple components, and the program features an integrated command-line, GUI and scripting interface. Veusz can also be embedded in other Python programs, even those not using PyQt.
     * [http://code.enthought.com/chaco/ Chaco] is a device-independent 2D plotting package based on the DisplayPDF API being developed for Python by [http://www.enthought.com/ Enthought]
     * KonradHinsen has some plotting support in his ScientificPython package, for
     example Tk``Plot``Canvas.
     * Michael Haggerty has [http://gnuplot-py.sourceforge.net/ a Gnuplot module] that interfaces with [http://www.gnuplot.info the GNUPLOT package].
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     the creation of megawidgets building on top of Tkinter.      the creation of megawidgets built on top of Tkinter.
     * [http://pyqwt.sourceforge.net/ PyQwt] is a set of Python bindings for the
     Qwt C++ class library which extends the Qt framework with widgets
     for scientific and engineering applications.
     * [http://www.linmpi.mpg.de/dislin/ DISLIN]
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     DISLIN is a high-level and easy to use graphics library for
     displaying data as curves, bar graphs, pie charts, 3D-color plots,
     surfaces, contours and maps. The software is available for several
     C, Fortran 77 and Fortran 90 compilers. For some operation systems,
     the programming languages Python and Perl are also supported by
     DISLIN.

     DISLIN is free for the Linux and FreeBSD operating systems and for
     the MS-DOS and Windows 95/NT compilers GCC, G77 and ELF90. Other
     DISLIN versions are available at low prices and can be tested free
     of charge.

     * [http://newcenturycomputers.net/projects/gdmodule.html gdmodule]

     GD is a graphics library for the creation of GIF pictures, written
     by Thomas Boutell. gdmodule is an Python extension for this
     library. It can do lines, arcs, fills, fonts and can also manipulate
     other GIF pictures. Included in the gdmodule is a graphing module,
     which can produce line plots from data.

     * [ftp://ftp-icf.llnl.gov/pub/python Gist]

     Extension to the gist graphics library, which is part of another
     numeric environment named [ftp://ftp-icf.llnl.gov/pub/Yorick
     yorick]. It can produce line, contour, surface plots on
     quadrilateral meshes. On top of the low-level interface the people
     from LLNL have build an object-oriented interface which can also do
     isosurface and 3D slicing plots together with light and script based
     animation. The interface is well documented. The package is now
     part of the LLNL Python distribution. Gist originally ran only
     under Unix-like operating systems. The latest source and a Windows
     installer are available from the
     [http://bonsai.ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~mdehoon/software/python/ University of Tokyo].

     * [http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~tjp/pgplot/ pgplot]

     Extension to the pgplot graphics library, a portable, device
     independent graphics package for making simple scientific
     graphs. The library is intended for making graphical images of
     publication quality with minimum effort on the part of the user. All
     functions are directly callable from Python, through the use of SWIG
     for wrapper code generation. Pgplot has drivers for many different
     graphics formats and devices, although there are problems with the
     MS-Windows driver.

     * [http://people.freebsd.org/~rhh/py-opendx/index.html Py-OpenDX]

     OpenDX is the open-source version of the IBM Data Explorer (DX). DX
     is a visualization system providing a full set of tools for
     manipulating, rendering and animating data, especially 3D data from
     simulations or acquired from observations. It provides a GUI, a
     scripting interface and the API C libraries. Py-OpenDX is a Python
     binding for the OpenDX API. Currently only the DXLink library is
     wrapped. That wrapper allows one to start up a DX executive and
     communicate with it via the DXL API.

     * [http://public.kitware.com/VTK/ VTK]

     VTK is an OO-framework for visualisation, written in C++ with
     bindings to TCL, Python and Java. It's not really a plotting
     package, but a visualisation system, where one needs to program to
     get a picture. It's very huge and resource demanding and best used
     on hardware with good graphics performance. It uses mainly OpenGL
     for rendering, so it can not produce vector graphics or high quality
     postscript output. Besides of that VTK is very powerful and can
     produce really great views of your data.

     * [http://rpy.sourceforge.net/ RPy] -- a Python interface to
     [http://www.r-project.org the R programming language].

     R is a large, robust package for doing math and statistics; it
     includes many, many graphing options.

     * [http://www.omegahat.org/RSPython/ R/SPlus Python Interface].

     Another R interface. Currently it allows Python code to call
     [http://www.r-project.org/ R] functions, and
     write R code to create Python objects and call Python functions and
     methods. This allows Python programmers unfamiliar with the syntax of R
     to easily use its functionality.

     * [http://pyx.sourceforge.net PyX] is a library for
     creating figures in Postscript and PDF, which uses TeX/LaTeX for the text output.

     * [http://biggles.sourceforge.net/ Biggles] is another plotting
     library that supports multiple output formats, as is
     [http://piddle.sourceforge.net/ Piddle].

     * [http://home.gna.org/pychart/ Pychart]
     is a library for creating EPS, PDF, PNG, and SVG charts. It supports
     line plots, bar plots, range-fill plots, and pie charts.

    * [http://www.pyngl.ucar.edu/ PyNGL] is a Python interface to the
    high quality 2D scientific visualizations in the
    [http://www.ncl.ucar.edu NCAR Command Language] (NCL).


== Also of Note ==

     * Janko Hauser maintains a list similar to this one of [http://starship.python.net/crew/jhauser/plot-res.html "Plotting with Python"]
     tools, from which much of the above was taken (with permission).
     * There is an interface to the OpenGL library called [http://starship.python.net/~da/PyOpenGL/ PyOpenGL] that can be
     used to write sophisticated visualization tools from scratch.
     * The [http://fxpy.sourceforge.net/ FXPy] bindings to [http://www.cfdrc.com/FOX/fox.html the FOX GUI library] support OpenGL, so might be a good
     starting point for new applications.

Graphical Representations of Data

Over the years many different plotting modules and packages have been developed for Python. For most of that time there was no clear favorite package, but recently matplotlib has become the most widely used. Nevertheless, many of the others are still available and may suit your tastes or needs better. Some of these are interfaces to existing plotting libraries while others are Python-centered new implementations.

Image Processing and Analysis

Plotting Tools

  • [http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net Matplotlib] is an Open Source plotting library designed to support interactive and publication quality plotting with a syntax familiar to Matlab users. Its interactive mode supports multiple windowing toolkits (currently: GTK, Tkinter, Qt, and wxWindows) as well as multiple noninteractive backends (PDF, postscript, SVG, antigrain geometry, and Cairo). Plots can be embedded within GUI applications or for non-interactive uses without any available display in batch mode. Matplotlib provides both a Matlab-like functional interface as well as an object oriented interface. [http://ipython.scipy.org IPython] has a "pylab" mode which is specifically designed for interactive plotting with matplotlib.

  • [http://home.gna.org/veusz/ Veusz] is a GPL scientific plotting package written in Python and PyQt, designed to create publication-quality output. Graphs are built up from simple components, and the program features an integrated command-line, GUI and scripting interface. Veusz can also be embedded in other Python programs, even those not using PyQt.

  • [http://code.enthought.com/chaco/ Chaco] is a device-independent 2D plotting package based on the DisplayPDF API being developed for Python by [http://www.enthought.com/ Enthought]

  • KonradHinsen has some plotting support in his ScientificPython package, for example TkPlotCanvas.

  • Michael Haggerty has [http://gnuplot-py.sourceforge.net/ a Gnuplot module] that interfaces with [http://www.gnuplot.info the GNUPLOT package].

  • [http://php.iupui.edu/~mmiller3/python/#plotwrap plot_wrap] A module by Mike Miller which wraps the functions in [http://www.gnu.org/software/plotutils/plotutils.html the GNU plotutils] package.

  • [http://www.tcltk.com/blt/ BLT] BLT is an extension to the tk widgets that can produce X/Y plots and bar charts. The BLT package can be used through [http://pmw.sourceforge.net/ the Pmw package], a framework for the creation of megawidgets built on top of Tkinter.

  • [http://pyqwt.sourceforge.net/ PyQwt] is a set of Python bindings for the Qwt C++ class library which extends the Qt framework with widgets for scientific and engineering applications.

  • [http://www.linmpi.mpg.de/dislin/ DISLIN] DISLIN is a high-level and easy to use graphics library for displaying data as curves, bar graphs, pie charts, 3D-color plots, surfaces, contours and maps. The software is available for several C, Fortran 77 and Fortran 90 compilers. For some operation systems, the programming languages Python and Perl are also supported by DISLIN. DISLIN is free for the Linux and FreeBSD operating systems and for the MS-DOS and Windows 95/NT compilers GCC, G77 and ELF90. Other DISLIN versions are available at low prices and can be tested free of charge.

  • [http://newcenturycomputers.net/projects/gdmodule.html gdmodule] GD is a graphics library for the creation of GIF pictures, written by Thomas Boutell. gdmodule is an Python extension for this library. It can do lines, arcs, fills, fonts and can also manipulate other GIF pictures. Included in the gdmodule is a graphing module, which can produce line plots from data.

  • [ftp://ftp-icf.llnl.gov/pub/python Gist] Extension to the gist graphics library, which is part of another

    numeric environment named [ftp://ftp-icf.llnl.gov/pub/Yorick yorick]. It can produce line, contour, surface plots on quadrilateral meshes. On top of the low-level interface the people from LLNL have build an object-oriented interface which can also do isosurface and 3D slicing plots together with light and script based animation. The interface is well documented. The package is now part of the LLNL Python distribution. Gist originally ran only under Unix-like operating systems. The latest source and a Windows installer are available from the [http://bonsai.ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~mdehoon/software/python/ University of Tokyo].

  • [http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~tjp/pgplot/ pgplot] Extension to the pgplot graphics library, a portable, device independent graphics package for making simple scientific graphs. The library is intended for making graphical images of publication quality with minimum effort on the part of the user. All functions are directly callable from Python, through the use of SWIG for wrapper code generation. Pgplot has drivers for many different graphics formats and devices, although there are problems with the MS-Windows driver.

  • [http://people.freebsd.org/~rhh/py-opendx/index.html Py-OpenDX] OpenDX is the open-source version of the IBM Data Explorer (DX). DX is a visualization system providing a full set of tools for manipulating, rendering and animating data, especially 3D data from simulations or acquired from observations. It provides a GUI, a scripting interface and the API C libraries. Py-OpenDX is a Python binding for the OpenDX API. Currently only the DXLink library is wrapped. That wrapper allows one to start up a DX executive and communicate with it via the DXL API.

  • [http://public.kitware.com/VTK/ VTK] VTK is an OO-framework for visualisation, written in C++ with bindings to TCL, Python and Java. It's not really a plotting package, but a visualisation system, where one needs to program to get a picture. It's very huge and resource demanding and best used on hardware with good graphics performance. It uses mainly OpenGL for rendering, so it can not produce vector graphics or high quality postscript output. Besides of that VTK is very powerful and can produce really great views of your data.

  • [http://rpy.sourceforge.net/ RPy] -- a Python interface to [http://www.r-project.org the R programming language]. R is a large, robust package for doing math and statistics; it includes many, many graphing options.

  • [http://www.omegahat.org/RSPython/ R/SPlus Python Interface]. Another R interface. Currently it allows Python code to call

    [http://www.r-project.org/ R] functions, and write R code to create Python objects and call Python functions and methods. This allows Python programmers unfamiliar with the syntax of R to easily use its functionality.

  • [http://pyx.sourceforge.net PyX] is a library for creating figures in Postscript and PDF, which uses TeX/LaTeX for the text output.

  • [http://biggles.sourceforge.net/ Biggles] is another plotting library that supports multiple output formats, as is [http://piddle.sourceforge.net/ Piddle].

  • [http://home.gna.org/pychart/ Pychart] is a library for creating EPS, PDF, PNG, and SVG charts. It supports line plots, bar plots, range-fill plots, and pie charts.

Also of Note

NumericAndScientific/Plotting (last edited 2016-08-16 22:37:55 by BryanVandeven)

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