Welcome


Version 2.41 Mar2009


Manual page for Welcome(PL)
• Prefabs handbook         • Scripts handbook
pie graphs   curve fitting       distributions

• What's New         • Download         • Newsgroup         • Examples gallery

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What is ploticus? A free, GPL, non-interactive software package for producing plots, charts, and graphics from data. It was developed in a Unix/C environment and runs on various Unix, Linux, and win32 systems. ploticus is good for automated or just-in-time graph generation, handles date and time data nicely, and has basic statistical capabilities. It allows significant user control over colors, styles, options and details. Ploticus is a mature package, available since 1999, and version 2.40 has more than 12,000 downloads to date.
 
Where can I get ploticus? http://ploticus.sourceforge.net. The site has downloads (source code and pre-compiled binaries), full documentation, and a large gallery of examples. The primary author of ploticus is Steve Grubb.
 
How do I run ploticus? From the command line you can run ploticus using the pl command. The pl command can also be invoked via CGI. C developers can use libploticus. Other interfaces exist for packages such as Python.
 
What's the easiest way to get started? Use ploticus prefabs to quickly generate various types of data displays and plots from the OS command line. You specify parameters on the command line, like this: pl -prefab vdist data=data6 y=1 ... everything else is done automatically. Covered in the ploticus prefabs handbook, or look at the gallery of prefab examples. Prefabs are designed to handle common basic requirements but flexibility and robustness are limited... for more involved projects use ploticus scripts (see below).
 
How can I unlock the full power of ploticus? By coding ploticus scripts. As opposed to prefabs which are quick but less flexible and robust, by writing scripts you get access to the full range of capabilities and options. Scripts can be invoked using a command such as pl -png myscript.pl -o myout.png ... Complete documentation for writing scripts is in the ploticus scripts handbook, and a gallery of script examples is available.
 
What graphic formats can ploticus produce? PNG, GIF, and JPEG images. PostScript, EPS, SVG and SWF (shockwave-flash) vector formats. X11 for development and interactive applications. Also, server-side or client-side imagemaps can be generated for providing click-thru or mouseover popup text bubbles (tooltips) in web-based applications. Availability of some formats is dependent on configuration. The graphic format may be specified on the command line, eg. pl -png
 
What about input data? Input data can come from files, commands, or standard input, and should be ascii text with data organized into fields. Fields may be delimited by white-space, tab, or comma. Data types that can be plotted include numeric, category, date, and time.
 
Other useful information
  • FAQ
  • Notes on using ploticus for..
            generating web-based graphics
            dynamic content and just-in-time applications
            paper-based reports
            large-sized posters
            pre-press work
  • libploticus(3) C language API
  • Program limitations
  • Download and build instructions
  • Troubleshooting & support
  • Copyright and permissions



  • data display engine  
    Copyright Steve Grubb


    Ploticus is hosted at http://ploticus.sourceforge.net   Get ploticus data display engine at SourceForge.net. Fast, secure and Free Open Source software downloads


    Markup created by unroff 1.0,    March 16, 2009.