Grafix

Grafix is a simple, portable tool for creating high-quality scientific diagrams (in the present stage: Cartesian diagrams only).

• The diagram content is defined by an XML file. If an XML-capable text editor is used (e.g., XEmacs), the user obtains guidance by menus. But it is also possible to work with a simple ASCII editor (e.g., vi); the XML tags are more or less self-explaining.
• Data can be transformed by arbitrary, user-defined functions prior to plotting (e.g., adding an offset, taking the logarithm, but also more complicated operations, like converting from degree Fahrenheit to degree Kelvin).
• It is possible to plot arbitrary, user-defined functions.
• Data can be fitted to arbitrary, user-defined functions, and the result plotted.
• Data can be interpolated by several methods (cubic splines, parametric cubic splines, Akima polynomials)
• Texts may contain subscripts, supercripts, italic, bold, or Greek portions
• Output is PostScript (EPS) code—scalable to any size without loss of quality.

System requirements

Grafix requires the following:

• an ANSI C compiler (GNU gcc and HP-UX cc are known to work)
• the make command (a standard feature of UNIX and Linux)
• Emacs or XEmacs (with the PSGML module included)
  [optional—but this provides menu guidance]
• a PostScript viewing program, e.g., gv
• the mathC library
• the Grafix source

Examples and other information

• diagram and corresponding XML source showing a simple data plot, using transformation of the input data: here
• curve fitting and function plotting: here
• manual: Using Grafix (PDF file)