Quick graphs?

Graphviz is a simple markup language to create simple quick graphs.

How to install

firstly to install it on linux u know what to ofc

on windows just use wsl

on mac :

brew install graphviz

Usage

create a file which has a (.gv) extension

here is a simple graphviz script :

digraph {
        label="Life cycle of a programmer";
        fontsize=10;
        labelloc=top;
        splines=curved;
        node [shape=rectangle];
        Coding -> Eating -> Sleeping -> Coding
}

This one renders the following graph :

first we specify the type of the graph :

graph for a normal graph, digraph for a directional graph (has arrows instead of simple links)

and then we open curly braces to begin the graph, we begin to tweak some properties. we might choose the title of it by modifying the “label” option, “fontsize” changes the font size (ofc), “labelloc” stands for label location ie. title location and splines are the linkes between the nodes. a node is anything that can be linked into another thing.

in line 6 we have the type selector node for selecting all nodes in the graph.

and then we can change its properties without affecting other stuff by putting them inside brackets.

and then to run it you can do :

neato graph.gv -Tpng -o output.png

well u might be asking… why does the command begin with “neato”

neato is the engine we are going to render the image with

option -Tpng means set the output file type to png

and -o to set the output file name

feel free to experiment with the different engine (each one gives a different feel), neato gives a rounded feel to the image (like the previous one)

for fast switching between the engines, take a look at this makefile :

all:
        dot graph.gv -Tpng -o output.png

neato:
        neato graph.gv -Tpng -o output.png

circo:
        circo graph.gv -Tpng -o output.png

fdp:
        fdp graph.gv -Tpng -o output.png

twopi:
        twopi graph.gv -Tpng -o output.png

so to run it make sure the name of your file is graph.gv and to run it :

make <your engine, ex: neato>

for more info i recommend watching this youtube video : graphviz tutorial

these are the different stuff i made with it (chatgpt helped me quiet a lot ngl):

(this one made with dot engine)

code :

digraph {

        node [shape=circle, style=filled];
        features, output [shape=square, fillcolor="#FFEF00"];

        overlap=scale;
        rankdir=LR;
        label="neural network"
        features -> {1,2,3,4}

        subgraph cluster_0 {
                fillcolor=lightblue;
                style=filled;
                label="hidden layers";
                {1,2,3,4} -> {a,b,c,d}
        }
        {a,b,c,d} -> output
}

graph {
        overlap=scale;
        node [style=filled, shape=circle];              
        A [label="linux distros", fillcolor="#FFEF00"];
        {Debian, Ubuntu, Kali, "Arch btw", NixOs, EndeavourOs, Manjaro} --  A
}
// can't wait to see yours!!!