# The QtiPlot Handbook

### Ion Vasilief

`<ion_vasilief@yahoo.fr>`

### Stephen Besch

Copyright © 2004 - 2011 Ion Vasilief

Copyright © 2010 Stephen Besch

Copyright © 2006 - june 2007 Roger Gadiou and Knut Franke

This document is a handbook for using QtiPlot, a program for two- and three-dimensional graphical presentation of data sets and for data analysis.

This manual is organized in several chapters:

-The first chapter describes the main concepts and terms which are used in QtiPlot.

-The second chapter is a tutorial on how to obtain plots from different data sets. It is the one you need to read first to understand the basics of QtiPlot and to be able to draw plots.

-The three following chapters are descriptions of all the commands, buttons and dialogs used in QtiPlot. These chapters are the reference manual of QtiPlot.

- The two following chapters describe more deeply some specific possibilities of QtiPlot, that is the statistical and mathematical analysis of data, and the scripting.

Legal notice: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.

List of Tables
4-1. Edit toolbar commands.
4-2. File toolbar commands.
4-3. Plot toolbar commands
4-4. Plot Toolbar Zoom Commands
4-5. Table toolbar commands.
4-6. Line Plots
4-7. Scatter Plots
4-8. Line & Symbol Plots
4-9. Bar Chart Plots
4-10. Statistical Plots
4-11. Vector Plots
4-12. Special Line/Symbol Plots
4-13. 3D Plots
4-14. Column toolbar commands.
4-15. 3D Plot toolbar commands.
7-1. muParser: Predefined Fundamental Physical Constants
7-2. muParser: Supported Mathematical Operators
7-3. muParser: Mathematical Functions
7-4. muParser: Non-Mathematical Functions
7-5. Python: Supported Mathematical Functions

List of Figures
1-1. A typical QtiPlot session
1-2. The QtiPlot table
1-3. The QtiPlot matrix
1-4. An example of QtiPlot 2D graph
1-5. The QtiPlot Note Window
1-6. The QtiPlot Log window
1-7. The QtiPlot Project Explorer
2-1. A simple 2D plot: the table.
2-2. A simple 2D plot: the default plot.
2-3. A simple 2D plot: the plot finished.
2-4. A 2D plot with two Y axes.
2-5. Direct plot of a function.
2-6. Function plot: filling of the X column.
2-7. Function plot: filling of the Y column.
2-8. Example of a 3D Plots.
2-9. Definition of a new surface 3D plot
2-10. The 3D surface plot created using defaults
2-11. The 3D surface plot after customization.
3-1. The Smooth -> Savitsky-Golay... dialog.
3-2. The Smooth -> Moving Window Average... dialog.
3-3. The Smooth -> Lowess... dialog.
3-4. The FFT Filter -> Low Pass... dialog.
3-5. The FFT Filter -> High Pass... dialog.
3-6. The FFT Filter -> Band Pass... dialog.
3-7. The FFT Filter -> Band Block... dialog.
3-8. The Interpolate... dialog.
4-1. The QtiPlot Edit Toolbar
4-2. The QtiPlot File Toolbar
4-3. The QtiPlot Plot Toolbar
4-4. The QtiPlot Table Toolbar
4-5. The QtiPlot Column Toolbar
4-6. The QtiPlot Plot 3D Toolbar
5-1. The Add Custom Script Action... dialog box.
5-2. The Add Error Bars... dialog.
5-3. Example of a plot with both X and Y Error Bars.
5-4. The Add Function... dialog box: Cartesian Coordinates.
5-5. The Add Function... Dialog Box: Automatic Detection of Constants.
5-6. The Add Function... dialog box: Parametric Coordinates.
5-7. The Add Function... dialog box: Polar Coordinates.
5-8. The Add Layer Dialog Box.
5-9. The Add/Remove Curves... Dialog Box.
5-10. The Arrange Layers dialog: the Geometry Tab
5-11. Example of a vertical arrangement for two plots.
5-12. The Arrow Options Dialog: First Tab
5-13. The Arrow Options Dialog: Second Tab
5-14. The Geometry Dialog: Third Tab
5-15. The Column Options... Dialog.
5-16. The Values tab.
5-17. The Colors Tab.
5-18. The Contour Lines tab.
5-19. The Labels tab.
5-20. The Plot Details Dialog: Layer properties.
5-21. The Plot Details Dialog: Canvas with a solid background color.
5-22. The Plot Details Dialog: Canvas with a background image.
5-23. The Plot Details Dialog: Layer geometry.
5-24. The Plot Details Dialog: Layer Speed Mode.
5-25. The Plot Details Dialog: Plot Associations.
5-26. The Plot Details Dialog: Assign Axes.
5-27. The Plot Details Dialog: Line formatting.
5-28. The Plot Details Dialog: Symbol formatting.
5-29. The Plot Details Dialog: Labels formatting.
5-30. The Plot Details Dialog for formatting error bars.
5-31. The Plot Details Dialog for pies: Pie Segment Formatting.
5-32. The Plot Details Dialog for pies: Pie Geometry.
5-33. The Plot Details Dialog for pies: Pie Labels Formatting.
5-34. The Plot Details Dialog for box: Pattern Formatting.
5-35. The Plot Details Dialog for box: Whiskers Formatting.
5-36. The Plot Details Dialog for box: Percentile Formatting.
5-37. The Plot Details Dialog for histogram: Pattern Formatting.
5-38. The Plot Details Dialog for histogram: Spacing Formatting.
5-39. The Plot Details Dialog for histogram: Data Formatting.
5-40. The New -> New Surface 3D Plot dialog box.
5-41. The New -> New Surface 3D Plot dialog box.
5-42. Export of a selection from a table to an ASCII file.
5-43. The FFT... dialog box for a curve.
5-44. The FFT... dialog box for a table.
5-45. The Integrate Function... dialog box.
5-46. The first step of the Fit Wizard... dialog box.
5-47. The second step of the Fit Wizard... dialog box.
5-48. The third step of the Fit Wizard... dialog box.
5-49. General plot options dialog: The Scale Tab.
5-50. General plot options dialog: The Grid Tab.
5-51. General plot options dialog: The Axis Tab.
5-52. General plot options dialog: General Settings.
5-53. The plot wizard dialog box.
5-54. The project explorer panel.
5-55. The preferences dialog: general parameters for the application.
5-56.
5-57.
5-58. The preferences dialog: table options.
5-59. The preferences dialog: 2D plot options.
5-60. The preferences dialog: 3D plot options.
5-61. The preferences dialog: note options.
5-62. The preferences dialog: fitting options.
5-63. The Print dialog.
5-64. The Set Column Values... dialog.
5-65. The Set Dimensions... dialog for matrix.
5-66. The dialog box.
5-67. The Set Properties... dialog for matrices.
5-68. The Set Values... dialog for matrix.
5-69. The surface plot options dialog box.
5-70. The general plot options tab.
5-71. The 3D plot print options.
5-72. The axis title options dialog.
5-73. The legend/text options dialog.
6-1. An example of the FFT.
6-2. An example of a correlation between two sine functions.
6-3. The results of the Fit Wizard....
6-4. The results of a Fit Linear.
6-5. The results of a Fit Polynomial..., showing the initial data, the curve added to the plot, and the results in the log panel.
6-6. The results of a Fit Boltzmann (sigmoidal).
6-7. The results of a Fit Gaussian.
6-8. The results of a Fit Lorentzian.
6-9. The results of a Fit Multi-peak ->Gaussian....
6-10. Signal after a FFT low pass filter
6-11. Signal after a FFT high pass filter
6-12. Signal after a FFT band pass filter
6-13. Signal after a FFT block band filter
6-14. Comparison of the three methods of interpolation

List of Equations
6-1. Fourier equation
6-2. Covariance function of two signals x(t) and y(t)
6-3. Boltzmann equation
6-4. Logistic dose response equation
6-5. Gauss equation
6-6. Lorentz equation

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