Graphviz 1.13 (v16) review

Graphviz produces graphs and diagrams like the well-known commercial app OmniGraffle.

License: Freeware OS: Mac OS X File size: 1389K Developer: Pixelglow Software Price: $0.00 Updated: 14 Feb 2006

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Graphviz produces graphs and diagrams like the well-known commercial app OmniGraffle. However, diagrams aren't created by drawing, they are created by writing.

The Macintosh port of the "open-source" automated graph layout software, featuring a new document-based GUI, export to PDF and many more bitmap formats, full alpha transparency, native font support and anti-aliasing.

With AT&T Graphviz, you don't figure out the graph, the program does. Using a simple file format called dot, just describe which nodes should connect to which other nodes. Then the sophisticated layout routines quickly render it into many different output formats.

Here are some key features of "Graphviz":
Document-based GUI with the Macintosh look-and-feel:
Preview and zoom graphs, from 12.5% to 800%.
Pan the graph with the hand cursor.
Tweak settings with a drawerful of switches and component defaults, and see the effect immediately.
Can't figure out a setting? Tooltips to the rescue...
Choose fonts and colors with the integrated font and color panels.
Print and export graphs using familiar menu commands.
Click to edit the file, then save it and the changes are automatically picked up.
Check the activity window for the actual command line calls.
Open files or portions of text as graphs from other applications.
Remember settings for the next graph, or change settings via the command line.
Easy installation:
Drag-and-drop to install, no separate installer required.
Works out of the box on stock Mac OS X 10.2 or better system, no third-party libraries required.
Quartz rendering:
Direct export to paged or embedded PDF.
Supports full alpha transparency.
Supports native fonts.
Supports shapefiles: PDF, Postscript, JPEG, PNG and all Quicktime formats.
Anti-aliases shapes and text.
Quicktime exporting:
Supports all Quicktime image formats: SGI, Photoshop, Windows BMP, JPEG, Macintosh PICT, PNG, MacPaint, TIFF, Targa, JPEG 2 and Quicktime Image.
Automatically recognizes additional export components.

What's New:
Improved font searching.
Fixed labels with blank lines sometimes failing to render.
Fixed bitmap formats sometimes not showing in export dialog.
Tracked main build of 23 August.