LabPlot/FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

This page attempts to answer the most common questions asked about LabPlot. If you have a question regarding LabPlot, check below first. Then, if you cannot find an answer for your specific question, go to the "Support" section.

What is the aim of the project?

The aim of this project is to develop a free, open source and cross-platform Data Visualization and Analysis software accessible to everyone.

What are key features of LabPlot?

Key features of LabPlot include:

• High-quality interactive Data Visualization and Plotting with the support for Scientific Color Maps, plot templates and themes
• Support for LaTeX and Markdown syntax
• Reliable, easy and fast Data Analysis and Statistics for quantitative and categorical data types
• Extensive Data Generation, Manipulation and Sampling tools
• Linear and non-linear regression analysis, probability distributions and curve fitting
• Baseline Subtraction, numerical differentiation and integration
• Fourier Transform, Fourier Filter and Hilbert Transform
• Intuitive and fast Computing with Interactive Notebooks for multiple programming and statistical languages with an integrated help
• Effortless Data Extraction from plots (plot digitization) and support for Live Data
• Smooth Data Import and Export to and from multiple formats (e.g. from CSV, Origin, SAS, Stata, SPSS, MATLAB, SQL, JSON, binary, Excel and more)
• Available for Windows, macOS, Linux and FreeBSD

The detailed list of features is available here: "Features".

Is LabPlot an open-source project?

LabPlot is an open-source project. It can be easily accessible by anyone to use, modify and distribute according to their need. The source code is available at this link: "Source code".

What is the cost of LabPlot?

LabPlot as an open-source software is available for zero price. And it is free not only to use, both for persoonal or commercial use, but also to distribute, modify, or even use in a closed-source application.

Under what license is LabPlot released?

LabPlot is licensed under "GNU General Public License, version 2.0" or later.

Can I use it for commercial purposes?

Yes. Software released under the GPL-2.0-or-later may be run for all purposes, including commercial purposes.

How can I contribute to the project?

We welcome more people to contribute to the project to continuously improve LabPlot. There are many different ways to contribute, even if you are not a programmer. Here are some things you can do apart from contributing code:

• Share feedback from using LabPlot
• Help writing documentation
• Promote LabPlot to new users
• Assist new users with basic questions such as how to install, how to import or export data, how to make a plot, etc.
• Cite and reference LabPlot in your publications
• Write user guides, manuals, tutorials or publish video tutorials
• Translate the documentation into your own language
• Translate LabPlot's interface into your own language
• Share your examples, templates and themes
• Create proper bugs reports or submit new feature requests
• Like, comment, share and subscribe to our posts on social media channels
• "Donate money"

If you have any further questions, please visit the "Contribution" section to contact the team.

Can I donate money to LabPlot team?

Yes. We provide LabPlot as free software for zero price. If you productively use LabPlot and want to financially support its development in future, please consider "Donating money" to the LabPlot team.

How can I get support?

Please use the "KDE Bugtracking System" to report problems and feature requests or use the integrated function “Report Bug” in the application for this.

How can I contact developers?

LabPlot team offers multiple channels of communication. You can ask your questions in "LabPlot room on Matrix". For general support related inquiries please send an E-Mail to: [email protected]. You can also follow LabPlot Team on social media:

• "YouTube"
• "Twitter"
• "Mastodon"
• "PeerTube"

How can I cite and reference LabPlot in my work?

We have invested a lot of time and effort in creating this project. Please consider citing LabPlot when using it for data analysis or visualization.

To cite LabPlot in publications use:

LabPlot Team (2023), LabPlot: A FREE, open source and cross-platform Data Visualization and Analysis software accessible to everyone, (Version 2.10.1) [Computer software]. https://labplot.kde.org.

Is there any documentation for LabPlot?

Yes. We offer a User Guide and multiple tutorials to assist you in your work with LabPlot. Visit the "Documentation" section on LabPlot's website to learn more.

We also offer dozens of short video tutorials to speed up your exploration of LabPlot's features. You can watch them on "YouTube" or "PeerTube".

What is the maximum limit of data set size?

LabPlot has no practical limits on data size other than the physical constraints of your computer.

Do you support the visualization of large data sets?

Yes, we put much effort to ensure that LabPlot is very fast at real-time viewing and plotting large data sets.

Do you support live data?

Yes, LabPlot has been designed to read, visualize and analyze Live Data with the support for Unix/UDP/TCP sockets and a serial port.

Is it possible to use LabPlot in my own language, not English?

The interface is translated into multiple languages by "KDE localization teams". If you want to help out, join the team for your language!

Is scripting possible?

Scripting, i.e. controlling LabPlot via APIs, is not possible at the moment but we plan to add this functionality in future. To automate workflows and computations in LabPlot, the notebook interface with the preferred underlying computer algebra system or programming languages has to be used.

Can I use multiple different Python installations with Computational Notebooks?

It is not possible to work with multiple different Python installations and switch between them at runtime yet. LabPlot's notebook interface to Python will only work with the version of Python that was used during the build step of LabPlot. On Linux distributions it usually means it only works with the system version of Python. For Windows, the installer was created with Python 3.10 and you'll need to install this version on your computer and add python's executable to PATH. For macOS the notebook interface is not available yet.