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What software is best for creating scientific graphs?

The problem

You need to generate graphs to illustrate scientific data, but MS Excel appears insufficient.

The solution

Excel is relatively limited in its support of scientific graphing:
  • graphing features are generally hard to use
  • its options provide limited control over output
  • limited selection of graph types
Instead, specialized yet reasonably easy to use softwares are preferable when it comes to outputing publication-quality graphs.

Based on user feedback from the Stanford community and other factors, for generic plotting we recommend the following tools for high quality scientific graphing:
  • GraphPad Prism : More than a graphing tool: one of the best tools for curve fitting.
  • DeltaGraph . A more sophisticated program than GraphPad, but perhaps easier/simpler than SigmaPlot. As with SigmaPlot, can output high quality graphs suitable for publication.
Statistical analysis packages also provide their own plotting features, although they are more complex and obviously organized around statistical analysis. More on statistical software software at Lane.

Where to get it?

  • All software listed above are available from Stanford's CMGM.
  • Selected public computers at the Lane library (see this list for specifics).

Key references

Source

Lane Librarian

Record created 7/9/2007.

ypouliot, October 7, 2009

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