NAME

       PDL::Graphics - Introduction to the PDL::Graphics modules

DESCRIPTION

       PDL has full-featured plotting abilities. Unlike MATLAB, PDL relies more on third-party
       libraries  for its plotting features: Prima, Gnuplot, OpenGL, PLplot and PGplot. PDL has
       several plotting modules that you can choose from, each of them with their particular
       strength and weaknesses. In this page, you will find a short review of each of the main
       PDL::Graphics::* modules.

GRAPHIC MODULES REVIEWS

   The newest generation of PDL::Graphics modules
       PDL::Graphics::Simple

       Best for: backend-independent output: you get the same plots, whichever of the graphical
       module you manage to install.

       A unified backend-independent plotting interface for PDL. It implements all the
       functionality used in the PDL::Book examples, and it will probably be the easiest
       PDL::Graphics module for you to install, as it relies on any of the other ones.  Because
       it is backend-independent, the plot you get will always be what you asked for, regardless
       of which plotting engine you have installed on your system.

       Only a small subset of PDL's complete graphics functionality is supported -- each
       individual plotting module has unique advantages and functionality that are beyond what
       PDL::Graphics::Simple can do.

       PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot

       Best for: publication-quality 2D and 3D plots

       Gnuplot is widely used and produces publication-quality plots. It is also interactive: you
       can pan, scale, and rotate both 2-D and 3-D plots. And its API is powerful, simple and
       intuitive.

       A video tutorial <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUXDQL3rZ_0> is available.

       Notice: you must install gnuplot on your computer first.

       PDL::Graphics::Prima

       Best for: Integration of your plots into your application GUI.  Possibility to create a
       dedicated GUI to let your application users interact with the plotted data.

       Lets you focus on what you want to visualize rather than the details of how you would draw
       it. Its killer feature is that it belongs to the the Prima GUI environment (an alternative
       to Tk, Gtk, Wx, etc). Prima provides an array of useful interactive widgets and a simple
       but powerful event-based programming model. These tools allow you to build interactive
       data visualization and analysis applications with sophisticated plotting and intuitive
       user interaction in only a few hundred lines of code. Or more simply, to include a plot
       into an application.

       For this reason, PDL::Graphics::Prima's API is more complex than PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot's.
       It is advised to start with PDL::Graphics::Prima::Simple, which focuses on the plotting
       functions and does not mess with Widgets. A tutorial is available here:
       http://search.cpan.org/~chm/PDL-2.006/Demos/Prima.pm As well as a video tutorial
       <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WILd2XTz3F4>.

       PDL::Graphics::TriD

       Best for: Plotting heavy 3D images, fast.

       The native PDL 3D graphics library using OpenGL as a backend for 3D plots and data
       visualization. With OpenGL, it is easy to manipulate the resulting 3D objects with the
       mouse in real time.

       OpenGL makes PDL::Graphics::TriD a lot faster than Gnuplot to manipulate 3D images. But
       Gnuplot's output is publication quality, and Gnuplot is in general easier to manipulate.
       If you manipulate heavy images, PDL::Graphics::TriD might be the thing for you.

   Good old PDL::Graphics modules
       Still well maintained, documented, and widely used.

       PDL::Graphics::PLplot

       Best for: Plotting 2D functions as well as 2D and 3D data sets.

       This is an interface to the PLplot plotting library. PLplot is a modern, open source
       library for making scientific plots. It supports plots of both 2D and 3D data sets. PLplot
       is best supported for unix/linux/macosx platforms. It has an active developers community
       and support for win32 platforms is improving.

       PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT

       Best for: Plotting 2D functions. More widely used in the scientific community

       This is an interface to the venerable PGPLOT library. PGPLOT has been widely used in the
       academic and scientific communities for many years.  In part because of its age, PGPLOT
       has some limitations compared to newer packages such as PLplot (e.g. no RGB graphics). But
       it has many features that still make it popular in the scientific community.

SEE ALSO

       PDL::Graphics::Simple

       PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot

       PDL::Graphics::Prima

       PDL::Graphics::TriD

       PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT

       PDL::Graphics::PLplot

AUTHOR

       Pierre Masci, 2013