OriginPro: Hands down one of the best softwares for handling research data

Complete graphing program for technical publications

I have been using it for at probably 15 years. I generate about 1000 graphs a year for publication.

Pros

There are many types of graphs you can make. But the best feature is the quality of the output. I use the highest quality images in my manuscripts and this program delivers them. Most my graphs are of a few types, and it is easy to copy and paste new data (I use Excel) right into the graph, then all you have to do is tweet some of the parameters. I often generate a new publication quality image in two minutes or less from and Excel spreadsheet.

Cons

The first time you use a new graphing feature, it may take some time and help references to get it just right.

The best tool for making graphs

OriginPro is and will be my first choice when creating graphs.

Pros

The best feature is how easy you can make a graph from data. You just add the data, select columns and press the needed graph button and that is it. It takes very little time to make a lot of graphs and adjust them, Also, I love how much of graphs you can adjust. Everything on the graph is adjustable. Additionally, Origin has all the mathematical tools that you will need for data analysis. Adding that you can automate everything. Origin is the most powerful and user friendly tool for graphical data analysis. Also, I like that Origin can be used for data storage. You can keep an entire project in one file.

Cons

What bugs me the most, is that the plotted graph style is very much outdated. The graph looks just ugly and it feels like from the 90s. It needs serious update because I can not show them in a business meeting.

GUI lost its way

I do data plotting and analysis. Anything from 2D graphs to matrices, 3D plots, spectral analysis and fitting.

Pros

Powerful tool included within the options on data analysis and data plot management

Cons

1. Its interface and menus. Origin has grown massively in ways to customize every possible feature on the menu, let it be data fit or plotting. It produced very complicated and difficult to navigate menus with mirriad of tick boxes, fields, sub-options etc. Some of this make process of using software very painful. 2. Milti peak spectral fit of spectra with difficult base lines.

Student version should have more windows, even 40 instead of 30. Please!

It's decent. I did a lot of Fit Peaks (Pro) and it worked for my application wonderfully. But the tables in the graphs that are generated glitch and generate MORE WINDOWS upon opening and closing the software. Which I am only allowed 30. So you hopefully can see where I start to run into trouble.

Pros

This software looks nicer than using excel for example and has more graphing and fitting power which I utilize and appreciate.

Cons

I used JMP for years and I miss it, it's just too expensive for graduate students. I used to script things so I didn't have to change the graph font and number display style 1 million times manually. I like how origin works like JMP for the most part but I definitely have had some graphical struggles in comparison.