Ask HN: What do you use to draw graphs?

7 points·ColinWright··6 comments

In this case I mean plots, not vertex-edge type graphs.

I don't often have to draw plots, and when I do they don't usually have to be very complication. Sometimes I just drop into Excel (or the LibreOffice equivalent) and plot things there[0], sometimes I use python to generate ppm files "by hand" and then use "convert" to convert them into png files[1].

What do you use?

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I use Seaborn [-> 0, 1] for both purposes from iPython notebook. I found it makes for good publishable graphics that can be fine-tuned. I usually use my own color palette.

[0, 1] http://stanford.edu/~mwaskom/software/seaborn/

Ploticus[1].

SVG examples: http://backup.frottage.org/rjp/owngoals.svg http://backup.frottage.org/rjp/tmp/gryntemp.svg http://backup.frottage.org/rjp/tmp/sunrisesunset.svg

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploticus

I see http://www.highcharts.com/ come up now and then.

D3.js is a great tool for data visualization, but that might be an overkill if your needs are simple.

There is also dimple.js [0] that is built on top of d3 and very easy to use, or TauChart [0], that was submitted 3 weeks ago on HN. I never used TauChart but I will give it a shot next time I need to do some graph because it looks really great.

[0] http://dimplejs.org/

[1] http://blog.taucharts.com/taucharts-data-focused-charting-li...

For web, d3.js[0] is a great choice. It's used widely and nicely documented. [0]http://d3js.org/

Examples:

[0] http://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/SpamGraphs.html

[1] http://www.solipsys.co.uk/new/TalksInSpaceTime.html?HN_20150...

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