Plotting / Graphing Program

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Hello all!



I'm in the process of writing some articles for technical journals based on some research I have been doing, and I am in need of a good plotting and graphing program. I need a program that can draw functions (like Grapher) and plot multiple data points (like excel) with error bars (unlike Excel, which handles error bars in a very bad way). I'd normally use Excel, but my mentor doesn't like it (he reccomends SigmaPlot, but of course, there's no OS X version) and terefore I'm stuck trying to find a truly remarkable plotting program for OS X. Does such a program exist??? Anybody else out there that has published material, what did you use???



I'd appreciate any suggestions and feedback!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    Kaleidagraph is the only decent mac compatible graphing program. Unfortunately, it still kinda sucks... I am actually angry about this fact.
  • Reply 2 of 10
    I use xmgrace for most things you have to run X11 to use it and can install it with Fink. I've never used error bars with it though. Gnuplot is also free and available through Fink, but it is almost all CLI. Are you looking for a free program or do want to spend some money? Most plotting programs I know of are either free or extremely expensive.
  • Reply 3 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by 4vector

    I use xmgrace for most things you have to run X11 to use it and can install it with Fink. I've never used error bars with it though. Gnuplot is also free and available through Fink, but it is almost all CLI. Are you looking for a free program or do want to spend some money? Most plotting programs I know of are either free or extremely expensive.



    College student so I'm looking for free if I can get it, but my experience so far is that no one program really does a great job at plotting technical data ... even apps that cost a lot of money.



    I don't mind using CLI if the program is good ... I learned TeX so I could typeset equations. It was slow learning, but it looks good so I'm willing to put in the time to learn the program.
  • Reply 4 of 10
    I'd take a look at xmgrace first it has a gui and is free. This is usually what my colleagues and I use when we summit papers for publication.
  • Reply 5 of 10
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hardeeharhar

    Kaleidagraph is the only decent mac compatible graphing program. Unfortunately, it still kinda sucks... I am actually angry about this fact.



    Thanks for the suggestion ... I downloaded the demo and will give it a run. I understand the anger though. I love my Mac and I'm in Engineering, so most of my work involves technical data including forumals, plots, tables, etc and I have yet to find ANY great graphing or plotting software for the Mac.



    Grapher is great at drawing functions, but needs a lot of work (like the ability to name axes something other than x/y/z and the ability to export to a size that actually fits on a piece of paper...) Excel is good at plotting data, but I'm just not fond of the interface and the look of the graphs themselves. It's annoying when the rest of the paper looks great and the graph looks comical and has screwed up error bars, etc.



    [rant]

    The bane of a Mac user in a technical field ... all the software is based in Windows. Oh wait, some of it I can do through UNIX. I can run MCNP codes by SSH-ing into the department's UNIX server through X11 ... but that's a pain in the ass. There's MATLAB, Mathematica and Maple, but the academic liscenses on all of those cost a lot of money and they all have different ways of entering your information.

    [/rant]



    Oh well ... the search will continue, and if someone can develop a truly outstanding plotting / graphing program for OS X, I wopuld gladly pay for it, but I have yet to see it.
  • Reply 6 of 10
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by hardeeharhar

    Kaleidagraph is the only decent mac compatible graphing program. Unfortunately, it still kinda sucks... I am actually angry about this fact.



    KaleidaGraph is a great graphing program, but it is by no means the only "decent Mac-compatible graphing program." Igor Pro, ProFit, and others are superb. That said, KaleidaGraph does not suck--not "kinda" or any other way. This app builds on the easy-to-use paradigm pioneered by the original Cricket Graph to add most of the power that you will ever need without screwing it up. KaleidaGraph does four things that a graphing program should do. It generates data; it transforms data; it curve fits data; and, most importantly, it graphs data. I routinely use KaleidaGraph to generate textbook quality technical graphs. The only app that produces better looking technical graphs is Igor Pro, but at a substantially higher price than KaleidaGraph.



    When Synergy Software released a Windows version, I turned my Windows-using colleagues on to this wonderful app. To a person, they love it. Suffice it to say, I highly recommend KaleidaGraph.
  • Reply 7 of 10
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    I've been using the open-source statistics program R. It's basically a programming language at its core, and so it can do graphics of any kind you want. The learning curve is pretty steep if you just want to do graphics, but it's quite powerful and lots of people have contributed graphics add-on packages for specific tasks.
  • Reply 8 of 10
    jbljbl Posts: 555member
    Nobody else likes Chartsmith? Well I do. It is a Cocoa program; pretty nice interface; easy to use. It doesn't have all the features of Kaleidagraph or DeltaGraph but if I am doing somethign straight forward, it would definitely be my choice.



    http://www.blacksmith.com/products/
  • Reply 9 of 10
    I downloaded the KaleidaGraph and IGOR Pro demo versions and have been playing with them. I actually like both programs ...exactly what I'm looking for! Thanks for the suggestions!
  • Reply 10 of 10
    As a Phd student doing brain research, I'm very dependent on good analysis software that is capable of handling huge datasets and producing scientific journal-grade graphs.

    Unfortunately, my whole lab is windows-based and uses origin, which is a great graphing tool, but windows only. Since last week I am officially a "switcher" and have a new iMac at home. I am thinking of saving for a Macbook as well, but that really depends on whether i can find a good Mac-based replacement for origin so I can access my datafiles on the road as well.

    So i thought to have a look as well. This is what i came up with:





    This:

    MacResearch

    and this: DataTank software

    and this: Aabel software

    and this: Pro fit software
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