## Welcome

Version 2.32

Manual page for Welcome(PL)

• Prefabs handbook • Scripts handbook
• What's New • Download • Newsgroup • Examples gallery

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What is ploticus?

A free, GPL, non-interactive software package for producing plots, charts, and graphics from data. It was developed in a Unix/C environment and runs on various Unix, Linux, and win32 systems. ploticus is good for automated or just-in-time graph generation, handles date and time data nicely, and has basic statistical capabilities. It allows significant user control over colors, styles, options and details.

Where can I get ploticus? | http://ploticus.sourceforge.net. The site has downloads (source code and pre-compiled binaries), full documentation, and a large gallery of examples. The primary author of ploticus is Steve Grubb. If ploticus has been a useful tool for you or your organization please consider making a donation via this PayPal link.
How do I run ploticus? | From the command line you can run ploticus using the pl command. The `pl` command can also be invoked via CGI. C developers can use libploticus. Other interfaces exist for packages such as Python.
What's the easiest way to get started? | Use prefabs. This is an easy-to-use interface for quickly generating standard data displays and plots. You specify parameters on the command line, like this: `pl -prefab vdist data=data6 y=1` .. everything else is done automatically. Read all about it in the ploticus prefabs handbook, or look at the gallery of prefab examples.
How can I unlock the full power of ploticus? | By coding ploticus scripts. This gives you access to the full range of capabilities and options, and allows you to produce multiple graphs, overlays, manipulate data, and so on. Complete documentation for writing scripts is in the ploticus scripts handbook, and a gallery of script examples is available.

What graphic formats can ploticus produce?

PNG, JPEG, and pseudo-GIF images. PostScript, EPS, SVG and SWF (shockwave-flash) vector formats. X11 for development and interactive applications. Also, server-side or client-side imagemaps can be generated for providing click-thru or mouseover popup text bubbles (tooltips) in web-based applications. Availability of some formats is dependent on configuration. The graphic format may be specified on the command line, eg. `pl -png`

What about input data? | Input data can come from files, commands, or standard input, and should be ascii text with data organized into fields. Fields may be delimited by white-space, tab, or comma. Data types that can be plotted include numeric, category, date, and time.

Other useful information

- FAQ
- Notes on using ploticus for..
  generating web-based graphics
  dynamic content and just-in-time applications
  paper-based reports
  large-sized posters
  pre-press work
- libploticus(3) C language API
- Program limitations
- Download and build instructions
- Troubleshooting & support
- Copyright and permissions

data display engine
Copyright Steve Grubb

Markup created by unroff 1.0, `` `` August 23, 2005.