These programs all perform two-dimensional plots. Most also do some plots
of three-dimensional data. They have strengths for various disciplines, so
you have to investigate their websites.
Free
- Gnuplot - Linux, Windows
- Gnuplot is a very quick scriptable plotter with a command-line interface. It's a
fine workhorse that is easy to connect to from external programs, but the resulting
graphs are not print-quality. It does 2D and 3D graphs.
-
Grace - Linux, Windows
-
The interface to this program is a little confounding at first, but its 2D plots
are print-quality, so everyone uses it. Under Windows, it runs only through X-Windows,
so you would need Exceed or some such to run them.
Commercial
-
SigmaPlot by Systat Software - Windows
- The 2D plots from this program
are lovely. It has a Windows COM interface so you
can call it from a Windows program.
- Origin by OriginLab - Windows
- To
get COM integration, you must upgrade to OriginPro.
- Tecplot
by Tecplot, Inc. - Linux, Windows,
CTC
- It has add-ons
that enhance visualizations of higher-dimensional data.
-
DeltaGraph by Red Rock Software - Windows, Mac
- This is probably the simplest plotting
package.
- Igor Pro by WaveMetrics
- Windows, Mac
- This has always been known for having
a natural language interface.
