I am looking for a qualified volunteer to take over the updating and
maintenance of this web site.
Since I created this site, I have
changed the focus of my work and I no longer use scientific plotting software.
(And I'm maintaining too many other websites!)
I am looking for someone who has experience with
website maintanance and, more importantly, who is actively using
scientific plotting software, preferably more than one package. You
must provide your own web server (I'll put a link to the new site
here). You must be completely independent -- having no affiliation or
conflict of interest regarding any vendor of plotting software. This
is a long-term (indefinite) commitment. There is no other equivalent
web site in existence to my knowledge (Dylan Bulseco having taken down
his truly excellent one, and seeming to have no immediate plans to
reestablish it). This site has been consistently visited by about 100 people
per week since it was created.
-Eric Martz, October 26, 1997 |
This site is provided by Eric Martz of the
Department of Microbiology
in the
College of Food and Natural Resources
using
a server provided by the
Office of Information Technologies of the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
This site was created early in 1996 and is in its infancy. As you will see,
I am depending on colleagues to contribute information and opinions to
make the site more useful. Please contribute! Send contributions to
emartz@microbio.umass.edu.
This site is provided to help professional scientists and students find
the available general purpose scientific data plotting software for Windows,
published reviews of such software, and to help in choosing which
package to purchase. It is limited to software packages which have
extensive specialized scientific capabilities, such as error bars,
axis breaks, exponential ("log") axes, and fitting of data to nonlinear
equations which may be specified by the user. This is why you will not
see here popular presentation packages or spreadsheet packages which
have limited plotting capabilities. This site is also limited to
general purpose scientific plotting software, so there are many
packages designed for specialized scientific applications which are
not included here. Finally, I have also excluded programming
libraries and tools designed for building graphics packages -- this
site is limited to completed packages ready for the end-user. Please
direct corrections and additions to
emartz@microbio.umass.edu.
Packages for the Macintosh are beyond the scope of this site.
I hope someone else will create a web site for general purpose scientific
plotting software for the Mac, in which case I'd like to link it here.
I know of none at the present time.
BULLETIN:Dylan Bulseco moved and his site was discontinued early in 1997.
Unfortunately, he evidently has no immediate plans to reestablish
his excellent site. If you would like to see his site reestablished,
contact
Dr. Bulseco
at the Worcester
Foundation for Biological Research.
The only other site I know about with a similar purpose is the
excellent
Data
Analysis in Windows [SITE DISCONTINUED] site by Dylan Bulseco at Oregon State
University, highly recommended. If you find others, please inform me
so we can provide mutual links.
I would be happy to include shareware or freeware packages. Unfortunately,
the ones I've evaluated are cumbersome to use, full of bugs, and simply
not competitive with the commercial packages listed below. If you have
one to recommend from personal experience, please inform me about it!
I'm 100% in favor of freeware and shareware -- my favorites are
RasMol for molecular visualization and
WinMDI for
flow cytometry, and I've written a fairly extensive freeware package
MFI also
for flow cytometry. However, these are not general purpose data
plotting software.
Packages are listed alphabetically by package name. I have done my
best to make this information accurate and up to date, but its
accuracy is not guaranteed. Please check with the individual
vendors for current capabilities, pricing and policies. Geographic
locations are given to indicate the time zone for telephone calls.
The term "demo" below indicates a full-featured version of the program
with which the user can create graphs from their own data. Typically,
demo versions do not allow work to be saved to disk (indicated below
as "omits saves"). If the only "demo" software offered by a vendor
simply plays a canned show, but does not allow the user to test-drive
the actual program, this will be designated below as "no demo".
Communicate corrections and additions to
emartz@microbio.umass.edu.
Return to Contents at the top of this page.
Axum, Mathematica, Matlab, Origin, Prism, SigmaPlot, S-Plus,
SPSS, Statistica, Statgraphics Plus, Statview, Systat. "Scientists
have many choices for math, stat, and graphing software" by Robert
Finn, The Scientist November 25, 1996, pages 18-19.
This
is worth a look because it quotes extensively from users of software
as well as vendors; hence, it gives an overview. It provides neither
in-depth review nor testing, nor (unfortunately) contact information
(so search the web for the vendors not linked here).
Axum 4.1, Deltagraph 3.5, Grapher 1.30, Surfer 6.04, Prism 2.0,
Harvard Chart XL 2.0, Kaleida Graph 3.06, Origin 4.0, PlotIT 3.2,
PsiPlot 4.55, SigmaPlot 3.02.
"Data on display: Windows graphing programs" by Barry Simon,
Desktop Engineering 2(Issue 1, September 1966):18-39.
This extensive review has great depth and is must-reading for anyone
planning to purchase. Extensive comments are provided for each
package, and a two-page table compares prices and features. Benchmark
tests were run. Related types of software (statistics, data
visualization, geographic mapping, mathematical) are listed but not
reviewed. The author concludes
Axum 4.0, Origin 3.5 "Technical graphics and data
analysis for Windows PCs" by Eric Adler, Scientific Computing
World June 1995, p. 23.
This review has considerable depth and is well worth
reading. Here are some quotes:
"Is it reasonable to expect a package intended to be used by
laboratory-based physicists to be as easy to use as a package intended
for use by other, less technically proficient, professionals?" "If
the aim was to make a recommendation for general academic use or for
desk top publishing, I would recommend Axum 4.0 [over Origin 3.5].
However, where the likely environment is a laboratory, maybe with data
being generated in real time, and the aim is data acquisition in
addition to full technical analysis, then the choice could well go the
other way."
Return to Contents at the top of this page.
Dylan Bulseco recommends Prism or Origin after thoroughly reviewing
a group including SigmaPlot, Scientist, DeltaGraph, and PSI-Plot.
March, 1996.
Axum preferred to Sigma Plot or PSI-Plot
by Howard Evans, February, 1996.
Origin preferred to Slidewrite by Stephen
Yip, February, 1996.
A vote for Prism after a comparison of four
packages, by Eric Martz, Ph.D. January, 1996.
SlideWrite preferred to Prism by
Benny Leshem, Ph.D. February, 1996.
Return to Contents at the top of this page.
Contents:
Listing of General Purpose Scientific Plotting Software Packages for Windows
See above for Macintosh info.
Published Reviews
Reviews are listed most recent first.
Only reviews which include detailed test results or compare two or
more packages will be included here.
Product announcements and
"Reviews" which simply reiterate the program's capabilities, or make
recommendations without documented in-depth critical evaluation will
not be listed. If you wish to have a review added to this list,
please snail-mail a paper copy of the complete review to Eric Martz,
Dept. Microbiology, Univ. Massachusetts, Amherst MA 01003-5720. Be
sure the copy includes the complete publication reference.
"When it comes to choosing the program that will best meet the needs of
the bulk of the scientific and engineering users, it isn't close: it's
SigmaPlot by a mile. The program's intelligent use of
tabbed dialogs, context menus, and wizards makes for an interface that
is easy and pleasant to use. Its notebooks help in organizing
projects, and its use of OLE means you can easily use SigmaPlot graphs
in Word or PowerPoint. ...the program has considerable power to customize
graphs in effective ways."
Two products earned honorable mention. Surfer for its
eye-popping 3D output, and Kaleida Graph for those on
a tight budget.
Opinions & Personal Experiences
The opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors, who are
entirely responsible for their contents. These opinions are not
endorsed by Eric Martz (except for his own opinion!), nor by the
University of Massachusetts, nor by the institutions with which the
authors are affiliated. The institutions are given for purposes of
identification only. This site is only for independent user opinions
from persons not affiliated in any way with any company selling
scientific plotting/graphing software. Submit opinions to
emartz@microbio.umass.edu.
Let's hear from you!
This site is maintained by
emartz@microbio.umass.edu.