caridlin / figuredata

Extract quantitative data from published graphics

FigureData.py:

This program allows one to extract quantitative numbers from published figures that were not accompanied by tables with the data themselves.

Usage:

>>> import FigureData
>>> FigureData.go(figure_file='Brammer11_Fig7.png', output_file='myfigure.data')

The primary input figure_file is an image file of the figure (PNG, GIF, JPG).
The script prompts for the user to mark points on the figure defining the plot regions.

The steps are as follows:

1. Click two points on the x axis where you know the values from, e.g., the axis labels. After clicking the points in the plot window, type the x values of those coordinates on the command line and hit .

2. Same as 1) for two points on the y axis.

3. Prompt to click on the lower-left and upper-right corners of the plot window

4. After 3) you can then click as many points as you want on the figure. To finish, click in the small border outside of the plot window to save the data to a file specified by the output_file keyword.

   The third column of the output file is a flag for marked data points that fall outside of the defined plot window.