LabPlot is a

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

and

cross-platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...

computer program for interactive scientific graphing and

data analysis Data analysis is a process of inspecting, cleansing, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making. Data analysis has multiple facets and approaches, enco ...

, written for the

KDE KDE is an international Free software movement, free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-know ...

desktop. It is similar to

Origin Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * Origin (comics), ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * The Origin (Buffy comic), ''The Origin'' (Bu ...

and is able to import Origin's data files.

History and perspective

LabPlot was initiated by Stefan Gerlach, a scientist and IT administrator at the

University of Konstanz The University of Konstanz (german: Universität Konstanz) is a university in the city of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Its main campus was opened on the Gießberg in 1972 after being founded in 1966. The university is Germany's ...

. He separately publishe
liborigin
a library for reading OriginLab OPJ project files. In 2008, developers of LabPlot and

SciDAVis SciDAVis (''Scientific Data Analysis and Visualization'') is an open-source cross-platform computer program for interactive scientific graphing and data analysis. Development started in 2007 as fork of QtiPlot, which in turn is a clone of the ...

(another Origin clone, forked from

QtiPlot QtiPlot is a cross-platform computer program for interactive Plot (graphics), scientific graphing and data analysis. It is similar to the proprietary programs Origin (data analysis software), Origin or SigmaPlot. QtiPlot can be used to present 2 ...

) "found their project goals to be very similar" and "decided to start a close cooperation" with the aim of merging their code into a common backend, while maintaining "two frontends, one with full KDE4 integration (called LabPlot 2.x) and one with no KDE dependencies (pure Qt) for easier cross-platform use (called SciDAVis)". In September 2016, LabPlot moved its website fro
labplot.sourceforge.net
t
labplot.kde.org

Features

It is scriptable using Qt Script for Applications (QSA). 2D and 3D plots of data can be rendered in a "worksheet", either by directly reading datafiles or from a

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in cel ...

, which LabPlot supports. It has interfaces to several libraries, including GSL for data analysis, the Qwt3d libraries for 3D plotting using

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve hardwa ...

FFTW The Fastest Fourier Transform in the West (FFTW) is a software library for computing discrete Fourier transforms (DFTs) developed by Matteo Frigo and Steven G. Johnson at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. FFTW is one of the fastest fre ...

for

fast Fourier transform A fast Fourier transform (FFT) is an algorithm that computes the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of a sequence, or its inverse (IDFT). Fourier analysis converts a signal from its original domain (often time or space) to a representation in th ...

s and supports exporting to 80 image formats and raw

PostScript PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...

. Other key features include live data plotting, support for the

FITS Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) is an open standard defining a digital file format useful for storage, transmission and processing of data: formatted as multi-dimensional arrays (for example a 2D image), or tables. FITS is the most com ...

format, for

LaTeX Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...

and

Rich Text Rich may refer to: Common uses * Rich, an entity possessing wealth * Rich, an intense flavor, color, sound, texture, or feeling ** Rich (wine), a descriptor in wine tasting Places United States * Rich, Mississippi, an unincorporated commun ...

labels, data masking, data picking from images, multiple plots in the same worksheet, pie charts, bar charts/

histogram A histogram is an approximate representation of the distribution of numerical data. The term was first introduced by Karl Pearson. To construct a histogram, the first step is to " bin" (or "bucket") the range of values—that is, divide the ent ...

interpolation In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points. In engineering and science, one often has a n ...

, data smoothing, peak fitting, nonlinear curve fitting,

regression Regression or regressions may refer to: Science * Marine regression, coastal advance due to falling sea level, the opposite of marine transgression * Regression (medicine), a characteristic of diseases to express lighter symptoms or less extent ( ...

, deconvolution,

integral transforms In mathematics, an integral transform maps a function from its original function space into another function space via integration, where some of the properties of the original function might be more easily characterized and manipulated than in t ...

, and others (see developers website listed below for details). The interface is translated in various languages. LabPlot uses the Qt widget set for its graphical interface. Under Linux it is integrated with the

desktop and has drag and drop support with KDE's applications. Since version 2.5 LabPlot is also available for Windows.

References

Free educational software Free plotting software Free software programmed in C Free software programmed in C++ KDE software Plotting software Regression and curve fitting software Software that uses Qt {{KDE-stub

History and perspective

Features

See also

References