: What are some free software packages for producing attractive scientific plots? The plotting capabilities of MATLAB leave much to be desired. Right now the python matplotlib library has my

@Murray976

I agree that R and gnuplot are good tools. If you are looking only for programatic interface to svg output, they are likely some of the better choices (along with matplotlib). Depending on your source data and desired final format, however, I would suggest looking into:


xfig - usually operated with a GUI, but you can write the files directly
inkscape - also usually operated with GUI, but provides many program interfaces
sagemath - one of my favorites for analytic data, but requires nix-like environment (uses Matplotlib as output)
pgfplots - oriented more for the graphic designer than the mathematician but it does give a lot of power to a LaTeX writer


All of these programs work together in various ways but all of them are as large and intimidating as scipy/matplotlib.

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@Rambettina927

Try R -- it is a full array programming language for doing data science, with a powerful plotting capabilities. It easily exports to PDF and SVG (among other formats) and those files import nice and are made in way they can be reasonably edited. Also there are usually numerous options to control the plot.

And there is a package called ade4 which does ternary plots like this:

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@Angela777

there's a pretty old command line tool called gnuplot, check that one out.

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