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scatterplot, regression, correlation, pie, histogram">
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  <table cellpadding=2 width=550><tr>
  <td><br><h2>Welcome</h2></td>
  <td align=right>
  <small>
  <a href="../doc/Welcome.html"><img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br>
  <a href="../gallery/index.html">Gallery</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
  <a href="../doc/Contents.html">Handbook</a> 
  &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="../">SGPR Home</a> 
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.TH Welcome PL "14-SEP-2001   PL www.sgpr.net"

.ig >>
<font size=+1>    
<a href="../doc/Versions.html">What's new</a> - Version 2.00 
released on 20 Sep '01. 
&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="../doc/Download.html">Download</a>
<br>
<br>
Many types of data displays can now be
created quickly from the command line using these <a href="../doc/prefabs">prefabs</a>:
<br>
<table cellpadding=2 border=1><tr>
<td><a href="prefab_chron.html"><img src="../prefabs/chron1thm.gif" border=0></a><br>
<a href="prefab_chron.html">chron</a> - chronological data (dates, times, etc); tabulate by week, month, etc.
</td>
<td><a href="prefab_dist.html"><img src="../prefabs/dist1thm.gif" border=0></a><br>
<a href="prefab_dist.html">dist</a> - frequency distribution histogram on a data field
</td>
<td><a href="prefab_lines.html"><img src="../prefabs/lines1thm.gif" border=0></a><br>
<a href="prefab_lines.html">lines</a> - line plots with optional data points and error bars, up to 4 groups
</td>
<td><a href="prefab_pie.html"> <img src="../prefabs/pie1thm.gif" border=0> </a><br>
<a href="prefab_pie.html">pie</a> - pie graphs
</td>
</tr>
<td><a href="prefab_stack.html"><img src="../prefabs/stack1thm.gif" border=0></a><br>
<a href="prefab_stack.html">stack</a> - stacked bar graphs, up to 4 levels</td>
</td>
<td><a href="prefab_scat.html"><img src="../prefabs/scat2thm.gif" border=0></a><br>
<a href="prefab_scat.html">scat</a> - scatterplots 
</td>
<td><a href="prefab_vbars.html"><img src="../prefabs/vbars2thm.gif" border=0></a><br>
<a href="prefab_vbars.html">vbars</a> - bar graph of 1 or 2 groups with error bars
</td>
<td><a href="prefab_vbars.html"><img src="../prefabs/vbars3thm.gif" border=0></a><br>
<a href="prefab_vbars.html">vbars</a> - with error bars only
</td>
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<br>
<br>
<br>
Or, you can write custom ploticus scripts for maximum power and flexibility:
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<table cellpadding=2 border=1><tr>
<td valign=center><a href="../gallery/stock.htm"><img src="../thumbnails/stock.gif" border=0></a></td>
<td valign=center><a href="../gallery/propbars1.htm"><img src="../thumbnails/propbars1.gif" border=0></a></td>
<td valign=center><a href="../gallery/mouse.htm"><img src="../thumbnails/mouse.gif" border=0></a></td></tr>
<td align=center colspan=3>
<a href="../gallery/Listall.html">Index of script examples</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="../thumbpng/Viewall.html">PNG thumbnails of script examples</a> &nbsp; &nbsp;
<a href="../thumbnails/Viewall.html">GIF thumbnails</a>
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<br>
<br>
<br>
<img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0 alt=ploticus>
<font size=+1>
is free <a href="../doc/Copyright.html"><img src="../doc/gpl.gif" border=0></a>
software that generates plots and graphs from data.
The primary component is the <a href="../doc/pl.1.html">pl</a> program.  
Create basic plots quickly from the command line using
<a href="../doc/prefabs.html">ploticus prefabs</a>, 
or write <a href="../doc/scripts.html">customized scripts</a> for maximum power and flexibility.
You can invoke it manually, or automatically from other programs, 
or even as a <a href="../doc/cgi.html">CGI program</a>.
Produce image graphics (PNG, GIF, JPEG) for <a href="../doc/web.html">web pages</a>
and <a href="../doc/slides.html">slide presentations</a>.
PostScript and EPS is supported for <a href="../doc/paper.html">paper reports</a> and
<a href="../doc/posters.html">posters</a>; graphs can also be viewed
<a href="../doc/interactive.html">interactively</a> on X11 displays.
Accepts <a href="../doc/dataformat.html">tabular ascii data input</a>.
Numerics, alphanumeric categories, <a href="../doc/dates.html">dates</a> and
<a href="../doc/times.html">times</a> 
(in a variety of notations) can be plotted directly.
You can also compute frequency distributions, correlation coefficients,
curves, regression lines, medians, quartiles, etc.
Developed on Solaris / unix, it is available for <a href="../doc/Download.html">a number of platforms</a>.
<ul>
<li><a href="../doc/Contents.html">Handbook</a>, the complete user's guide for Ploticus.
<br>
<br>
<li><a href="../gallery/index.html">Gallery</a> of examples organized by type, with brief tutorial.
<br>
<br>
<li><a href="../doc/Versions.html">What's new</a> 
<br>
<br>
<li><a href="../doc/Faq.html">Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</a>
<br>
<br>
<li><a href="../gallery/gall.real.html">Sampler of web sites using ploticus</a>
<br>
<br>
<li><a href="../doc/Feedback.html">User Feedback Page</a>
<br>
<br>
<li><a href="http://www.sgpr.net/doc/Download.html">Download</a>
<br>
<br>
<li><a href="../doc/Problems.html">Correspondence and how to report problems & bugs</a>
<br>
<br>
<li><a href="http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/visual/ploticus">Central Europe mirror site (Austria)</a>
<br>
<br>
<li> 
<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ploticus">
Ploticus news group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ploticus</a> .
<small>
Anyone can post or read messages via the Yahoo groups web site.
There's no need to join the group unless you want to receive all messages by email.
</small>
<br>
<br>
<li><a href="http://www.cafepress.com/seawallgroup">2001 ploticus T shirt</a>
</ul>
<br>
<br>
<b>Getting started:</b>
The easiest way to get started is to use one of the 
<a href="../doc/prefabs.html">available prefabs</a>, and just supply certain key parameters
on the command line.
For example, suppose you want a pie graph, and you have a tab-delimited data file 
called <tt>mydata</tt>
with labels in field 1 and values in field 2.
You could generate the pie graph in PNG format by issuing this command,
which uses the <a href="../doc/prefab_pie.html">pie prefab</a>:
<br>
<br>
<center>
<small>
<tt>pl  -prefab pie  -png  data=mydata  delim=tab  labels=1  values=2</tt>
</small>
<br>
<br>
<a href="../doc/prefab_pie.html"><img src="../prefabs/pie1.gif" border=0></a>
</center>
<br>
The PNG result would be in the file <tt>pie.png</tt>.
<br>
<br>
If you eventually need more customized graphs, you can code your own scripts.
One way to proceed is to look at the <a href="../thumbnails/Viewall.html">gallery of
example scripts</a>, find one that is similar to what you want, download it, and 
modify it to suit.  For example, suppose you have downloaded and modified a script 
called <tt>bars4.htm</tt>; you could
generate your result in EPS format using this command:
<br>
<br>
<center>
pl bars4.htm -eps
</center>
<br>
The EPS result would be in the file <tt>bars4.eps</tt>. 
<br>
<br>
<br>
The author and maintainer is <a href="../doc/Problems.html">Stephen C. Grubb</a>.
&nbsp; 
I now have some
<a href="http://www.sgpr.net">other free software tools</a> available, too.
<br>
<br>
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<a href="Welcome.html">
<img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br><small>data display engine &nbsp; <br>
<a href="../doc/Copyright.html">Copyright Steve Grubb</a>
<br>
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