# Best graphing libraries?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-graphing-libraries/111419>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 7, 2007, 5:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-graphing-libraries/111419 "2007-08-07T05:18:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Kenneth_McDonald)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2007, 5:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-graphing-libraries/111419/1 "2007-08-07T05:18:52Z")

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There are, of course, a plethora of choices for doing graphing in Ruby  
and for JRuby, in Java. I’d be grateful for opinions on the “best” ones,  
and why people think they are the best.

Thanks,  
Ken

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**Author:** ![Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Kenneth_McDonald)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2007, 3:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-graphing-libraries/111419/2 "2007-08-09T03:55:59Z")

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gruff is all right–the killer app doesn’t seem to quite exist. Google  
for it, maybe it does now 🙂  
You can also call gnuplot, if you desire.  
-Roger  
Kenneth McDonald wrote:

> There are, of course, a plethora of choices for doing graphing in Ruby  
> and for JRuby, in Java. I’d be grateful for opinions on the “best” ones,  
> and why people think they are the best.
> 
> Thanks,  
> Ken

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**Author:** ![Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Kenneth_McDonald)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2007, 11:18am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-graphing-libraries/111419/3 "2007-08-07T11:18:56Z")

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Kenneth McDonald wrote:

> There are, of course, a plethora of choices for doing graphing in Ruby  
> and for JRuby, in Java. I’d be grateful for opinions on the “best” ones,  
> and why people think they are the best.

I don’t know if it is the best, as I’ve not tried too many other  
libraries, but the ruby interface to the R-language, rsruby (  
[http://rubyforge.org/projects/rsruby/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/rsruby/) ) is very powerful.

You can get an idea of some of the capabilities of the R plotting engine  
here:  
[R:](http://www.r-project.org/screenshots/screenshots.html)

I think the large number of users and maturity of the R project makes it  
one of the “best” packages for producing statistical/mathematical type  
charts, but of course they tend to look a bit more “scientific” than  
those produced by Gruff ( [http://nubyonrails.com/pages/gruff](http://nubyonrails.com/pages/gruff) ) for  
example.

Hope this helps,

Chris

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**Author:** ![Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kenneth\_McDonald](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Kenneth_McDonald)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 2:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/best-graphing-libraries/111419/4 "2007-08-13T02:54:51Z")

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On Aug 6, 8:17 pm, Kenneth McDonald [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> There are, of course, a plethora of choices for doing graphing in Ruby  
> and for JRuby, in Java. I’d be grateful for opinions on the “best” ones,  
> and why people think they are the best.
> 
> Thanks,  
> Ken

I really like gnuplot. It’s not particularly tight integration, with  
the bindings usually  
connecting via a pipe, but gnuplot itself is very mature; generates  
clean plots  
with lots of options to get it looking just right. Finally, it has a  
multitude of output formats  
including SVG - which is nice if you have needs for post-plot  
beatutification, or other  
enhancement.

- alan