MacResearch

GraphClick won an Apple Design award at last year's WWDC, yet I've somehow overlooked it until now. GraphClick is a graph digitizer software which allows to automatically retrieve the original (x,y)-data from the image of a scanned graph or from a QuickTime movie. Strange and innovative isn't it! I have to admit, the first time I read the description I was stupefied by the power and innovation wrapped up in this simple little application. The following tagline from the GraphClick website provides a more elegant description: "The idea is very simple, but its usefulness is likely to become essential." Whenever you come across a colleague that's bad at sharing his toys and his data you can skip the middle-man and extract the data directly from a publication or presentation. GraphClick features include:

• Automatic detection of curves (solid, dotted or dashed), symbols, bar charts, or perimeters of areas
• Almost all file formats recognized (PDF, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, Photoshop, etc.)
• Frame-by-frame digitization of QuickTime movies
• Image modification for adjustment (edge detection, blur, sharpen, etc.)
• Can handle arbitrarily deformed axis systems, and two ordinate axes
• Linear, logarithmic or inverse scales
• Error bars
• Several data set in the same document
• Unlimited undo

GraphClick can be downloaded from the GraphClick Website.