PLplot is a scientific plotting package. It is relatively small, portable, freely distributable, and is rich enough to satisfy most users.
It has a wide range of plot types including line (linear, log), contour, 3D, fill, and almost 1000 characters (including Greek and mathematical) in its extended font set. The package is designed to make it easy to quickly get graphical output; only a handful of function calls is typically required.
PLplot can also be used interactively by interpreted languages such as Octave, Python, Perl and Tcl.
For more advanced use, virtually all aspects of plotting are configurable. The PLplot library is written in C, enabling it to run on many platforms practically without modification.
Key Features
- Tcl-based interpreter (pltcl) – allows interactive plotting using the Tcl script language with plotting extensions.
- Support for plot symbols and text specified by the user in the UTF-8 encoding of Unicod
- Language bindings:
- Ada.
- C/C++.
- D.
- Fortran 77/90.
- Java.
- Lisp.
- Lua.
- OCaml.
- Octave.
- Perl/PDL.
- Python.
- Tcl/Tk.
- Output file formats:
- CGM, GIF, JPEG, LaTeX, PBM, PDF, PNG, PostScript, SVG, Xfig.
- Supports a number of interactive platforms
- GDI, Gtk+, PyQt, Qt, Tcl/Tk, wxWidgets, and X.
- Any language that is supported by Unicode and installed system fonts can be used to label plots.
- Cross-platform support:
- Linux, Mac OS X, and other Unices.
- MSVC IDE on the Microsoft version of Windows (Windows 2000 and later).
- Cygwin on the Microsoft version of Windows.
- MinGW-w64/MSYS2 on the Microsoft version of Windows.
Website: plplot.sourceforge.net
Support: Documentation, Mailing Lists
Developer: Joao Cardoso, Vince Darley, Geoffrey Furnish, Alan W. Irwin, Rafael Laboissiere, Maurice LeBrun, Arjen Markus, Andrew Roach, David Schleef, Andrew Ross, Thomas J. Duck
License: GNU Lesser General Public License
PLplot is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Plotting Tools | |
|---|---|
| matplotlib | Python based plotting system in a style similar to Matlab |
| ggplot2 | Powerful R package for declaratively creating graphics |
| gnuplot | Command-line driven interactive plotting program |
| ROOT | Solves the data analysis challenges of high-energy physics |
| Octave | Built-in plotting and visualization tools |
| DataMelt | Produces professional graphics with libraries for data manipulation |
| Veusz | Scientific plotting and graphing program |
| LabPlot | Data plotting and function analysis tool for KDE |
| PyQtGraph | Scientific Graphics and GUI Library for Python |
| Makie | interactive data visualizations and plotting for Julia |
| GLE | Graphics Layout Engine |
| PyVista | 3D plotting and mesh analysis |
| PLplot | Scientific plotting library |
| AlphaPlot | Fork of SciDAVis |
| SciDAVis | Scientific Data Analysis and Visualization |
| RLPlot | Generate publication quality graphs |
| Genius | Educational tool in mathematics and for research |
| ZeGrapher | 2D math and data plotter |
| Uniplot | Lightweight terminal plotting library for Python |
| Kst | Real-time large dataset viewing and plotting tool |
| Ctioga2 | Command-line plotting utility |
| Plots | Simple graph plotting app for GNOME |
| brplot | Ssmall application and library that plots data |
| SSPlot | Simple plotting utility and numerical simulator |
| Charta | Generate colorful terminal graphs |
| Incplot | Command like tool for drawing great looking plots in the terminal |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |