More info and a complete overview of the features here: magic plot website.
Magic plot seems to be a rising star in the firmament of the data analysis and plotting softwares.
In this review I will show why you should use it and why you should support it.
First it's multi platform, maybe i will sound a tad obsessed, but in my view it's a very big plus.
Then it's very lightweight , very fast and very easy.
a)interface:
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| Default interface |
minimalistic one of igor pro!
In the bottom status bar you see some details of what you are working on. (e.g the data you are hovering with the cursor, the x and y values, and the state of your project.
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| status bar |
A minor glitch is that you can assign a label to a point, in wich the x,y values are shown unless you copy and paste the values manually. But the developer says that he's working on it.
b)the fit interface:
As much as I love igor pro it is sometimes over complicated.
Magic plot offers instead a very simple, clean and easy fit interface.
But don't be fooled it's also a very capable fitting tool.
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| Fitting with a custom function. |
And lastly you have the tool to do a visual peak fitting adjustment.
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| Base line subtracted, manually adjusted gaussian peak fit. |
And a report window, that offers a clear view of the fitting results.
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| Fitting report |
c)data import
Importing data files is easy and fast even with big amounts of records.
From the import text table you can also set names, and preview your data plots.
I'm very surprised by how well the auto detecting of both the column delimiter and decimal separator works. In my test, it never failed. NEVER.
Batch data processing is also on board, it worked very well in my tests.
For an overview look on magiclplot site http://magicplot.com/wiki/batch
All sort of manipulation of data is possible, differentiating, integrating or setting persona formulae.
d)plotting
Plotting data is easy and straightforward, you can have multiple y over a single x, or multiple x,y.
Multiples axes are also available, as well as table-like axes and inset axes.
You can also save style templates, which is a super useful feature!
Plots can then be previewed and exported in the most common and useful formats.
The anti aliasing and the vector quality of the graphs are very high, higher than origin lab and on par with igorpro!
Conclusions.
Magicplot has some incredibly nice features, yet one may assert that in comparison with origin lab or igor pro it's underpowered. This assumption holds true only if one must do 3d plots, or over complicated things which require scripting or automating or if you have to use real time acquisition of data.
But in my opinion magic plot wins first for its balanced simplicity, it can do mostly everything and it can do it very fast.
First time I write something about price, but in this case it is a very important part of the review.
Magicplot exist in a free fashion(but it has some limitation) or in a commercial version which is 149$.
Origin lab or igor pro cost from 3 to 5 times more. And most of the times the support or the help files aren't even that nice or well put together.
Considering all of the above, magicplot gets 5 stars out of 5. I really suggest it to anyone!
