PGPLOT Graphics Subroutine Library

Introduction

The PGPLOT Graphics Subroutine Library is a Fortran- or C-callable, device-independent graphics package for making simple scientific graphs. It is intended for making graphical images of publication quality with minimum effort on the part of the user. For most applications, the program can be device-independent, and the output can be directed to the appropriate device at run time.

The PGPLOT library consists of two major parts: a device-independent part and a set of device-dependent ``device handler'' subroutines for output on various terminals, image displays, dot-matrix printers, laser printers, and pen plotters. Common file formats supported include PostScript and GIF.

PGPLOT itself is written mostly in standard Fortran-77, with a few non-standard, system-dependent subroutines. PGPLOT subroutines can be called directly from a Fortran-77 or Fortran-90 program. A C binding library (cpgplot) and header file (cpgplot.h) are provided that allow PGPLOT to be called from a C or C++ program; the binding library handles conversion between C and Fortran argument-passing conventions.

PGPLOT has been tested with UNIX (most varieties, including Linux, SunOS, Solaris, HPUX, AIX, and Irix) and OpenVMS operating systems. I am unable to provide support for DOS, Windows, Windows/NT, or MacOS, but I do distribute code provided by users for use with these operating systems.

Examples

Some example graphs showing some of the capabilities of PGPLOT, and source code in Fortran and C for a simple example, can be found in the PGPLOT Portfolio. Caution: this page contains several large graphics files.

Copyright

PGPLOT is not public-domain software. However, it is freely available for non-commercial use. The source code and documentation are copyrighted by California Institute of Technology, and may not be redistributed or placed on public Web servers without permission. The software is provided ``as is'' with no warranty.

Status

The current version of PGPLOT is 5.2.0.

Changes in Version 5.0.0 Released 1994-12-30.
Changes in Version 5.0.1 Released 1995-02-16.
Changes in Version 5.0.2 Released 1995-06-14.
Changes in Version 5.0.3 Released 1995-12-29; sys_mac directory updated 1996-01-23; sys_arc directory updated 1996-03-27.
Changes in Version 5.1.0 Released 1996-05-10.
Changes in Version 5.1.1 Released 1996-11-04; sys_arc directory updated 1996-11-06.
Changes in Version 5.2.0 Released 1997-06-16.
Known problems in PGPLOT version 5.2.0.
Wish-list for future improvements.
Some frequently asked questions.

Installation

For instructions for obtaining PGPLOT from my ftp site and for details of supported operating systems, read the installation instructions.

If you cannot use ftp, PGPLOT is available on tape for a fee. Consult tjp·astro.caltech.edu.

Documentation

The manual PGPLOT Graphics Subroutine Library by T. J. Pearson is being updated for version 5.2 of PGPLOT. A draft of the manual is available: see the Table of Contents.

A PostScript file of the manual will be made available when it is completed. A PostScript file of the old manual (version 4.9, 0.27 Mbyte, gzipped) is still available, but it does not include the many changes made in version 5.0.

Calling PGPLOT From Other Languages

PGPLOT is distributed with subroutine interfaces for C and Fortran-77; these interfaces can also be used with C++ and Fortran-90.

Several users have contributed bindings for PGPLOT that allow the PGPLOT functions to be called from other languages. Several of these bindings allow PGPLOT to be used interactively.

ADA

Martin Stift has both an ADA interface and an ADA95 interface to PGPLOT.

GLISH

A PGPLOT binding for GLISH has been developed as part of the aips++ project by a consortium led by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory; it is currently in beta release.. For details, see the aips++ web page.

OCTAVE

PGPLOT may be called from the Octave language for numerical computations via Matwrap from Gary Holt.

PERL

PGPERL by Karl Glazebrook provides an interface between the Perl language and the PGPLOT FORTRAN library. For further information, see the WWW page http://www.aao.gov.au/local/www/kgb/pgperl/.

PYTHON

Nick Patavalis (npat@ariadne.di.uoa.gr) of the University of Athens has developed an interface between PGPLOT and the Python and NumPy languages. See http://ariadne.di.uoa.gr/ppgplot. Scott Ransom (ransom@cfa.harvard.edu) has written another wrapper layer that simplifies use of this interface. See ftp://cfa0.harvard.edu/pub/ransom/Pgplot.py.

TCL

Tcl interfaces for PGPLOT have been developed by two groups:

Nick Elias of the US Naval Observatory has released ptcl, a package that registers PGPLOT functions as Tcl commands. Information is available at ftp://fornax.usno.navy.mil/dist/ptcl/ptcl.html. ptcl has been ported to OpenVMS by Gilles Ratel.
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey project has developed a Tcl interface to PGPLOT as part of its DERVISH package. See the Dervish Home Page for a description of the interface (under ``Plotting''). For more information contact Eileen Berman.

YORICK

A PGPLOT interface to the Yorick language has been written by Alexey Goldin (alexey@oddjob.uchicago.edu). See http://flight.uchicago.edu/goldin/yorick-pgplot/.

Interactive Drawing Programs and Other PGPLOT Extensions

The following list does not include the many application-specific programs that have been written using PGPLOT.

BUTTON by N. Cardiel and J. Gorgas of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid is a package of subroutines to facilitate the creation of interactive Fortran programs using graphics buttons. For further information, see the WWW page http://www.ucm.es/OTROS/Astrof/button/button.html.
GENPLOT by Dale Gary.
PGXTAL. Devinder Sivia has written some 3D plotting routines for use with PGPLOT. For details, see http://www.isis.rl.ac.uk/dataanalysis/dsplot/. This package makes use of undocumented internal features of PGPLOT (something I strongly counsel against) and may not work with all versions of PGPLOT.
PONGO by Paul Harrison. This is supported by Starlink: see http://star-www.rl.ac.uk/. Starlink also maintains a version of PGPLOT layered on the GKS library.
QDP/PLT by Allyn Tennant. PLT is an interactive plotting and fitting subroutine layered on PGPLOT, and QDP provides a command interface to this routine. QDP/PLT is used by some tasks within the FTOOLS package available from the NASA Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics.
STAP by Mingsheng Han. STAP is an interactive command driven statistic and plotting program: for information, see http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~han/stap/stap.html.
TVB by Georges GONCZI (Observatoire de Nice, France) is a semi-interactive tool which gives access to the whole graphic possibilities of PGPLOT without having to learn it and without having to know any special language. See http://www.obs-nice.fr/tvb/tvb.html.
WIP by James Morgan. WIP is an interactive package with a simple to use interface designed to produce high quality graphical output. WIP was developed as part of the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association (BIMA) project. For further information, see the WWW page http://bima.astro.umd.edu/bima/wip/wip.html.

Reporting problems

If you have questions about PGPLOT, please send them to Tim Pearson, preferably by e-mail to tjp·astro.caltech.edu (use @ in place of ·), or by FAX to +1 (626) 568-9352. If you have a problem with installation, please include information about your operating system version, Fortran and C compilers, and the version of PGPLOT you are trying to install. If you think you have found a bug in PGPLOT, a simple test program in Fortran or C that demonstrates the problem is very helpful. I maintain a mailing list for announcements about PGPLOT, and I will add your name to the list if you send me your e-mail address.