Veusz is a scientific plotting package. Veusz is a Qt application written in Python

Python (programming language)

Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...

, PyQt

PyQt

PyQt is a Python binding of the cross-platform GUI toolkit Qt. It is one of the alternatives for GUI programming in Python to Tkinter, which is bundled with Python. Other popular alternatives are PySide, PyGTK, and wxPython. Like Qt, PyQt is free software. PyQt is implemented as a Python...

 and NumPy. It is freely

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

 available for anyone to distribute under the terms of the GPL

GNU General Public License

The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....

. It is designed to produce publication-quality plots. The name should be pronounced as "views".

This program produces plots in popular vector formats, including PDF, PostScript

PostScript

PostScript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language created by John Warnock and Charles Geschke in 1982. It is best known for its use as a page description language in the electronic and desktop publishing areas. Adobe PostScript 3 is also the worldwide printing and imaging...

 and SVG. It is cross-platform, working under Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

 and Unix

Unix

Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...

/Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

.

Plots are built up from a set of graphing widgets in a self-consistent way. Widgets include X-Y plots, functions, contours

Contour line

A contour line of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value. In cartography, a contour line joins points of equal elevation above a given level, such as mean sea level...

, box plots

Box plot

In descriptive statistics, a box plot or boxplot is a convenient way of graphically depicting groups of numerical data through their five-number summaries: the smallest observation , lower quartile , median , upper quartile , and largest observation...

, polar plots, ternary plots

Ternary plot

A ternary plot, ternary graph, triangle plot, simplex plot, or de Finetti diagram is a barycentric plot on three variables which sum to a constant. It graphically depicts the ratios of the three variables as positions in an equilateral triangle...

, data images, labels and a variety of shapes. Data can be read using standard formats such as CSV

Comma-separated values

A comma-separated values file stores tabular data in plain-text form. As a result, such a file is easily human-readable ....

 or FITS

FITS

Flexible Image Transport System is a digital file format used to store, transmit, and manipulate scientific and other images. FITS is the most commonly used digital file format in astronomy...

. Data can be manipulated within the program. Functions can also be fitted to data within the program.

Veusz is extensible with Python plugins. Plugins can be added for importing data in other formats, automating operations and creating different kinds of mathematical relationships between datasets. The program also provides a command line and scripting interface (based on Python) to its plotting facilities. The saved file format is a simple Python text script, which makes it easy to create plots from other programs.

Veusz was reviewed by Linux Format magazine, saying that "There's plenty of scope for creating colourful, engaging graphics". It was also included in their "Hot Pics" selection on their cover disc. The program was also featured in the September edition of Hi-Fi News. Veusz can also be used as a drawing backend for the SciTools Easyviz package.

External links

• Official site of Veusz http://home.gna.org/veusz/
• Veusz wiki http://barmag.net/veusz-wiki/
• Review by The e-Astronomer
• Fedora package
• Debian package
• FreeBSD port
• Gentoo package