Graph Visualization Software (Graphviz)

For a long time already I have wanted to post about this cool tool. If you haven't hear of it yet, you maybe should. Graph Visualization Software (short graphviz) is an open-source software package that visualizes graphs, structures, networks, and dependency diagrams.

In order to show how neat, simple, and useful it is, two examples:

An Undirected Graph
Write a text file "graph.dot". We'll define two nodes in our graph: n1 and n2. They are connected.
graph G {
n1 -- n2 ;
}

We compile the file:
neato -Tpdf graph.dot -o undirgraph.pdf



A Directed Graph
Now, we try a directed graph. N1 connects to n2. N2 doesn't connect back to n1.
digraph G {
n1 -> n2 ;
}


Again: compiling:
neato -Tpdf graph.dot -o dirgraph.pdf



You might want to try out the different rendering algorithms provided with dot, neato, twopi, circo, and fdp.

BTW, you might want to try inkscape to edit the pdf. You can move network nodes around, changes fonts, etc. See my other blog post about how to produce high quality figures in linux for latex using scalable vector graphics.

Enjoy. Please leave a comment for questions or suggestions.