Origin is a proprietary computer program for interactive scientific graphing and

data analysis Data analysis is the process of inspecting, Data cleansing, cleansing, Data transformation, transforming, and Data modeling, modeling data with the goal of discovering useful information, informing conclusions, and supporting decision-making. Da ...

. It is produced by OriginLab Corporation, and runs on

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. It has inspired several platform-independent

open-source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

clones and alternatives like

LabPlot LabPlot is a free and open-source, cross-platform computer program for interactive scientific plotting, curve fitting, nonlinear regression, data processing and data analysis. LabPlot is available, under the GPL-2.0-or-later license, for Win ...

and SciDAVis. Graphing support in Origin includes various 2D/3D plot types. Data analyses in Origin include

statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, Scalar potential, potential fields, Seismic tomograph ...

curve fitting Curve fitting is the process of constructing a curve, or mathematical function, that has the best fit to a series of data points, possibly subject to constraints. Curve fitting can involve either interpolation, where an exact fit to the data is ...

and peak analysis. Origin's curve fitting is performed by a nonlinear least squares fitter which is based on the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. Origin imports data files in various formats such as ASCII text, Excel, NI TDM, DIADem,

NetCDF NetCDF (Network Common Data Form) is a set of software libraries and self-describing, machine-independent data formats that support the creation, access, and sharing of array-oriented scientific data. The project homepage is hosted by the Unidat ...

, SPC, etc. It also exports the graph to various image file formats such as

JPEG JPEG ( , short for Joint Photographic Experts Group and sometimes retroactively referred to as JPEG 1) is a commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images, particularly for those images produced by digital photography. The degr ...

GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , ) is a Raster graphics, bitmap Image file formats, image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released ...

EPS An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

TIFF Tag Image File Format or Tagged Image File Format, commonly known by the abbreviations TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is w ...

, etc. There is also a built-in query tool for accessing database data via ADO.

Features

Origin is primarily a GUI software with 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 c ...

front end. Unlike popular spreadsheets like Excel, Origin's worksheet is column oriented. Each column has associated attributes like name, units and other user definable labels. Instead of cell formula, Origin uses column formula for calculations. Recent versions of Origin have introduced and expanded on batch capabilities, with the goal of eliminating the need to program many routine operations. Instead the user relies on customizable graph templates, analysis dialog box Themes which save a particular suite of operations, auto recalculation on changes to data or analysis parameters, and Analysis Templates™ which save a collection of operations within the workbook. Origin also has a

scripting language In computing, a script is a relatively short and simple set of instructions that typically automation, automate an otherwise manual process. The act of writing a script is called scripting. A scripting language or script language is a programming ...

(LabTalk) for controlling the software, which can be extended using a built-in C/ C++-based

compiled language Compiled language categorizes a programming language as used with a compiler and generally implies not used with an interpreter. But, since any language can theoretically be compiled or interpreted the term lacks clarity. In practice, for some lan ...

(Origin C). Other programming options include an embedded Python environment, and an R Console plus support for Rserve. Origin can be also used as a COM server for programs which may be written in Visual Basic .NET, C#, LabVIEW, etc. Older (.OPJ), but not newer (.OPJU), Origin project files can be read by the open-source

or SciDAVis software. The files can also be read by QtiPlot but only with a paid "Pro" version. Finally the liborigin library can also read .OPJ files such as by using the opj2dat script, which exports the data tables contained in the file. There is also a free component (Orglab) maintained by Originlab that can be used to create (or read) OPJ files. A free Viewer application is also available.

Editions and support

Origin is available in two editions, the regular version Origin and the pricier OriginPro. The latter adds additional data analysis features like surface fitting, short-time Fourier Transform, and more advanced statistics. Technical support is available to registered users via e-mail, online chat, and telephone. A user forum is also available. There are a few version types that have been offered from Origin and OriginPro as personal, academic, government and student versions. However, the student version is not available for Southeast Asian countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Laos. There is an origin file viewer to see data and charts made with origin. The actual software is Version 9.6.5. This software can convert newer OPJU files to older OPJ files for older versions of Origin.

History

Origin was first created for use solely with microcalorimeters manufactured by MicroCal Inc. (acquired by Malvern Instruments in 2014) The software was used to graph the instruments data, and perform nonlinear curve fitting and parameter calculation. The software was first published for the public in 1992 by Microcal Software, which later was renamed to OriginLab Corporation, located in

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Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

Release history

* 2024/11/21 Origin 2025: Slicer, Recent Origin Files browser, Time Series Pivot, Save local opju to cloud, connect to google sheet, Report Style, Graph Style, Notes window preview, New Dialog to build Summary Sheet * 2024/5/15 Origin 2024b: New Redo (Ctrl+Y) and improved Undo(Ctrl+Z), Unstack time series data by time interval, Time series explorer graph and analysis app, Open & save project to cloud(SharePoint/OneDrive/Google Drive), Plot from image window, ROI-based data extraction gadget, Remove operations for sheet/layer, window, folder or whole project. * 2023/11/21 Origin 2024: Dark Mode Support, Drag to Change Axis Scale, Added Binary Column which Auto Scale in Plot, Range (max-min) added to Selection Stats, Sheet Browser Graph, Substitution notation support in LaTeX, Export and Copy Image with highlight effect, SPC (statistical process control) app, etc. * 2023/04/27 Origin 2023b: built-in LaTeX, Floating windows, Keep pinned windows when switching folders, Export to PDF via MS Print, Scale opju files properly on different resolutions, Duplicate Sheet with New Files, Browser Graph with gadgets, Set external image in graph as linked file, SVG drag & drop to graph, rotate, resize, etc. * 2022/11/3 Origin 2023: Folder Notes, Seesaw Folders, Pin window, Banded Rows, Hide & Protect sheet, Better inserted sheet/table on graph, Graph export with internal preview, clickable export link, Improved Script window with Unicode support, auto fill and syntax coloring, * 2022/5/12 Origin 2022b: Export SVG, GeoTIFF support, rich text in notes window, simpler symbol map, remove formula and links, customize gadget ROI label, distance annotation, arrange & snap windows, high resolution icons on 4K monitor, etc. * 2021/11/16 Origin 2022: Add Notes to Cells, Named Range, Image on Graph as Linked Files, Mini Toolbars on Object Manager, Connect to OneDrive and Google Drive for data. * 2021/4/30 Origin 2021b: Mini toolbar for 3D graph, built-in Shapefile support, insert maps to graphs, NetCDF climate data, SQLite import export * 2020/10/27 Origin 2021. Fully integrated Python support with new originpro package. New formula bar, color manager, chord diagram. New Apps including TDMS Connector, Import PDF Tables. * 2020/4/30 Origin 2020b. Mini toolbar for worksheet & matrix, data connector navigator panel, browser graphs. Worksheet cells no longer showing ####. New Apps such as Canonical Correlation Analysis, Correlation plot etc. * 2019/10/25 Origin 2020. Only provides 64 bit Origin & OriginPro. Mini toolbars, much faster import and plotting of large dataset. Density dots, color dots, sankey diagram, improved pie and doughnut charts. Copy and Paste plot, Copy and Paste HTML or EMF table. * 2019/04/24 Origin 2019b. HTML and

Markdown Markdown is a lightweight markup language for creating formatted text using a plain-text editor. John Gruber created Markdown in 2004 as an easy-to-read markup language. Markdown is widely used for blogging and instant messaging, and also used ...

reports. Web Data Connectors for CSV,

JSON JSON (JavaScript Object Notation, pronounced or ) is an open standard file format and electronic data interchange, data interchange format that uses Human-readable medium and data, human-readable text to store and transmit data objects consi ...

, Excel,

MATLAB MATLAB (an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementat ...

. Rug Plots, Split Heatmap Plot. Validation Reports using

NIST The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical s ...

data. New Apps for Quantile Regression, 2D Correlation, Isosurface Plot, etc. *2018/10/26 Origin 2019. Data Highlighter for data exploration, Windows-like search from Start menu, Conditional formatting of data cells, Violin plot, New apps like Stats Advisor, Image Object Counter,

Design of Experiments The design of experiments (DOE), also known as experiment design or experimental design, is the design of any task that aims to describe and explain the variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. ...

, etc. * 2018/4/24 Origin 2018b. Matrices embedded in workbook, Worksheet/matrix data preview, Dynamic graph preview in analysis, Distributed batch processing on multi-core CPU (app). * 2017/11/9 Origin 2018. Cell formula,

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

, Bridge chart, changed to a more compact file format (OPJU). * 2016/11/10 Origin 2017. Trellis Plot, Geology fill patterns,

JavaScript JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language and core technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. Ninety-nine percent of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior. Web browsers have ...

support from Origin C. * 2015/10/23 Origin 2016. First version to support Apps in Origin, also added R support. * 2014/10 Origin 2015 added graph

thumbnail Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures or videos, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words. In the age of digital images, visual search engines and image-o ...

previews, project search,

heat map A heat map (or heatmap) is a 2-dimensional data visualization technique that represents the magnitude of individual values within a dataset as a color. The variation in color may be by hue or intensity. In some applications such as crime analy ...

, 2D kernel density plot and Python support. * 2013/10 Origin 9.1 SR0 added support for

Piper diagram A Piper diagram is a graphic procedure proposed by Arthur Maine Piper, Arthur M. Piper in 1944 for presenting water chemistry data to help in understanding the sources of the dissolved constituent salts in water. This procedure is based on the pre ...

, Ternary surface plot etc. * 2012/10 Origin 9 with high performance

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a Language-independent specification, cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D computer graphics, 2D and 3D computer graphics, 3D vector graphics. The API is typic ...

3D Graphing, orthogonal regression for implicit/explicit functions * 2011/11 Origin 8.6, first version in 64bit * 2011/04 Origin 8.5.1 * 2010/09 Origin 8.5.0 * 2009/10 Origin 8.1 * 2009/08 Origin 8 SR6 * 2007/12 Origin 8 SR1 * 2007/10 Origin 8 * 2006/01 Origin 7.5 SR6 * 2003/10 Origin 7.5 * 2002/02 Origin 7.0 * 2000/09 Origin 6.1 * 1999/06 Origin 6.0 * 1997/08 Origin 5.0 * 1995/02 Origin 4.1 * 1994/07 Origin 3.5 * 1993/08 Origin 2.9 * 1993/?? Origin 2J. Am. Chem. Soc., Vol. 115. No. 8, 1993, p. 3396
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References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.originlab.com 1992 software Data analysis software Earth sciences graphics software Plotting software Regression and curve fitting software Windows software