Back to Joe's Java Index.

qPlot -- A Java quick plotting program

qPlot is a Java program that can read tabulated data in various formats and quickly and easily create interactive plots of that data. The emphasis of this program is on the "quick and easy" part, not on making the prettiest plots or on having a lot of features. qPlot can read ASCII files with tab, comma or space delimited columns of floating point numerical data with an optional header on the 1st line defining the names of the columns and an optional 2nd line defining the units of each column. The table files optionally be gzip compressed. Multiple sets of data containing the same parameters (columns) can be overlaid to make comparisons. When plotting only a single data set, multiple parameters (columns) can be overlaid to make comparisons. Through the use of a "Plot Definitions File", pre-defined plots can be defined with custom unit conversions and labels. Plots can be exported to PNG image files or SVG vector graphics files. The plotted data can be exported to tab-delimited ASCII files or Matlab V4 array files.

Historically, this program was originally written to plot the output from the NASA trajectory analysis codes POST and OTIS. However, it can be used to plot a wide range of data stored in simple tab or comma delimited text files.

I've included the source code for qPlot for you to download below. This program and it's source code are free software protected by the General Public License.

qPlot requires Java 11 or later.

My qPlot program is available as a double-clickable application under MacOS and as a double-clickable JAR file on Windows, Linux & others. Download the one that is appropriate for your platform. The source code for any platform is also availabel below.

MacOS Application
(46.4 MB)

Version 1.3.3

Application that will run under MacOS. You will download a compressed disk image. Should work with MacOS 11.3 or later right out of the box (you do not need to have Java installed).

Windows Application
(8.9 MB)

Version 1.3.3

Double-clickable JAR file that will run on any Windows machine with Java (JRE) 11 or later installed. You will download a ZIP archive that contains a double-clickable JAR archive (that can also be run from the DOS command line).

Linux & Others Application
(9.0 MB)

Version 1.3.3

Application that will run on several different UNIX or Linux based systems with Java (JRE) 11 or later installed. You will download a GZip compressed tape archive file (TGZ). Inside this you will find a double-clickable JAR file that can also be run from the command line.

Source Code
(190 MB)

Version 1.3.3

Full source code for the qPlot program including library dependencies. Also includes the JRE that is bundled with the MacOS version.

Change history.

Need help?

Created: March 11, 2017
Modified: March 28, 2024

MacOS Application (46.4 MB) Version 1.3.3	Application that will run under MacOS. You will download a compressed disk image. Should work with MacOS 11.3 or later right out of the box (you do not need to have Java installed).
Windows Application (8.9 MB) Version 1.3.3	Double-clickable JAR file that will run on any Windows machine with Java (JRE) 11 or later installed. You will download a ZIP archive that contains a double-clickable JAR archive (that can also be run from the DOS command line).
Linux & Others Application (9.0 MB) Version 1.3.3	Application that will run on several different UNIX or Linux based systems with Java (JRE) 11 or later installed. You will download a GZip compressed tape archive file (TGZ). Inside this you will find a double-clickable JAR file that can also be run from the command line.
Source Code (190 MB) Version 1.3.3	Full source code for the qPlot program including library dependencies. Also includes the JRE that is bundled with the MacOS version.