App for creating and visualizing complex graphs and networks with various layout options and customization capabilities.
Graphviz is a freeware graph visualization app and image editor developed by John Ellson for Windows, it's feature-rich and user friendly.
The download has been tested by an editor here on a PC and a list of features has been compiled; see below.
Creates graphs in several formats including SVG for the web
Graphviz is open source graph visualization software. It has several main graph layout programs. It also has web and interactive graphical interfaces, and auxiliary tools, libraries, and language bindings
The Graphviz layout programs take descriptions of graphs in a simple text language, and make diagrams in several useful formats such as images and SVG for web pages, Postscript for inclusion in PDF or other documents; or display in an interactive graph browser. (Graphviz also supports GXL, an XML dialect.)
The Graphviz application has many useful features for concrete diagrams, such as options for colors, fonts, tabular node layouts, line styles, hyperlinks, and custom shapes.
In practice, graphs are usually generated from an external data sources, but they can also be created and edited manually, either as raw text files or within a graphical editor. (Graphviz was not intended to be a Visio replacement, so it is probably frustrating to try to use it that way.
Features of Graphviz
- Ability to not only generate but also parse Dot code with two options: strict and liberal (in terms of ordering of statements).
- Ability to use a custom node type.
- Create new diagrams from scratch.
- Different layout engines: dot, circo, fdp, neato, nop, nop1, nop2, osage, patchwork or sfdp.
- Export to these formats: PNG, BMP, JPG, EPS, PDF, metafile, PS2, TIFF and more.
- Functions for running a Graphviz layout tool with all specified output types.
- Functions to convert FGL graphs and other graph-like data structures to Dot code.
- Preview diagrams and graphs.
- Round-trip support for passing an FGL graph through Graphviz to augment node and edge labels with positional information, etc.
- Support for specifying clusters.
- User-friendly graphical user interface.
- Visualize and make connections.
Compatibility and License
Graphviz is provided under a freeware license on Windows from graphics editors with no restrictions on usage. Download and installation of this PC software is free and 12.1.0 is the latest version last time we checked.
What version of Windows can Graphviz run on?
Graphviz can be used on a computer running Windows 11 or Windows 10. Previous versions of the OS shouldn't be a problem with Windows 8 and Windows 7 having been tested. It comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit downloads.
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