Save this parameter to a file, say myPlot.par. So, initiate the program and adjust the settings to get your plot the way you would like it to appear for every frame in the resulting animation. Let's take a look at how this might play out:įirst, you'll need an xmgrace parameter file for loading.

When used in combination with ImageMagick's suite of command line image processing tools, such as convert, one can achieve an automated method for creating a series of high quality plots and rendering them into a movie or animated gif. Since xmgrace can be called from the command line, the creative user will pass other options when executing the program, namely disable graphical interaction, automatically save the plot to an image file, and others (see man xmgrace). This can then be loaded at a later time to instantaneously display other datasets with the same look and feel without the need to manually alter the plot fonts/styles/settings, achieving uniformity. One key feature of this tool is the ability to write parameter files, which outputs the current plot-state to a file. Grace ('xmgrace' on the command line) is 2D plotting software widely used in the scientific community for creating publication quality plots. Should you find yourself in a situation where you have, for example, some time series data (or any other data that can be thought of as such) and would like to quickly and easily depict it graphically as an animation, consider the powerful tools available via Grace and ImageMagick.

Xmgrace for mac