Online Graphics
The presentation of graphics online presents a problem in that large graphic files load very slowly. The following programs are designed to present data of a reasonable size.
XConvert
XConvert allows the manipulation (Convert, Compress, Resize, Merge, and Split) of a huge variety of text and picture files.
Spinwave Graphics
Spinwave Graphics (Spinwave, Wales) provides compression for GIF and JPG files.
Gif Tools
Gif Tools (GifTools.com) also provides compression for GIF and JPG files.
Autotracer
Autotracer is a free online image vectorizer. It can convert raster images like JPEGs, GIFs and PNGs to scalable vector graphics (EPS, SVG, AI and PDF). No registration or email required.
ZAMZAR Online file conversion
ZAMZAR Online file conversion converts documents, images, videos, and sound, with 1100+ formats supported.
Photo editors
Photo Editor (Befunky.com), LUNAPIC (Lunapic.com), and Online-Image-Editor (OIE Internet Concepts) are useful free photo tools.
Idiographica
Idiographica
is a general-purpose web application to build idiograms on-demand for
human, mouse, and rat.
(Reference: Kin T & Ono Y, Bioinformatics 2007;
3(21): 2945-6).
Simple web-based plasmid drawing programs
For simple web-based plasmid drawing programs see NetPlasmid (JustBio.com) or Savvy (Bioinformatics.org, Scalable Vector Graphics Plasmid Map; M.K. Basu).
PlasMapper 3.0
PlasMapper 3.0
allows users to generate, edit, annotate, and interactively visualize
publication quality plasmid maps. Additionally, it offers an option of
automated codon optimization and BLAST sequence alignment.
(Reference: Wishart DS et al. 2023. Nucleic Acids
Res 51(W1): W459-W467).
DNAPlotter
DNAPlotter
is an interactive Java application for generating circular and linear
representations of genomes. Making use of the Artemis libraries to
provide a user-friendly method of loading in sequence files (EMBL,
GenBank, GFF) as well as data from relational databases, it filters
features of interest to display on separate user-definable tracks. It can
be used to produce publication quality images for papers or web pages.
(Reference: Carver, T. et al. 2008. Bioinformatics
25:119-120)
NovoBuilder
NovoBuilder (NovoPro Bioscience Inc., Shanghai, China) allows one to design a plasmid (GenBank or Snapgene file format) or modify an existing plasmid. A similar site is VectorBuilder (VectorBuilder Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).
GenomeVx
GenomeVx
makes editable, publication-quality maps of mitochondrial and
chloroplast genomes and of large plasmids. These maps show the location
of genes and chromosomal features as well as a position scale. The
program takes as input either raw feature positions or GenBank records.
In the latter case, features are automatically extracted and colored, an
example of which is given. Output is in the Adobe Portable Document
Format (PDF) and can be edited by programs such as Adobe Illustrator.
(Reference: G. Conant & K. Woolfe. 2008.
Bioinformatics 24:861-862)
OrganellarGenomeDRAW
OrganellarGenomeDRAW is a suite of software tools that enable users to create high-quality visual representations of both circular and linear annotated genome sequences provided as GenBank files or accession numbers. Although all types of DNA sequences are accepted as input, the software has been specifically optimized to properly depict features of organellar genomes. A recent extension facilitates the plotting of quantitative gene expression data, such as transcript or protein abundance data, directly onto the genome map.
GSDS2.0
Gene Structure Display Server
(GSDS2.0)
is designed for the visualization of gene features, such as the
composition and position of exons, introns, and conserved elements, etc.
The input could be sequences, GenBank Accession Number (or GI), or
features in BED/GTF/GFF3 formats. After inputting gene features, a
high-quality image can be generated. Shape and color for features can be
customized by users and further modifying functions on figures are
provided. To facilitate evolutionary analysis, a phylogenetic tree can be
uploaded and added on the figure.
(Reference: B. Hu et al. 2015. Bioinformatics
31:1296-1297).
CPGAVAS 2
CPGAVAS 2 (Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences) draws the circular map by providing a GFF3 or Tab-delimited file, which includes information on the colours used.
ChemSpider
ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database providing fast access to over 100 million structures, properties, and associated information. By integrating and linking compounds from hundreds of high-quality data sources, ChemSpider enables researchers to discover the most comprehensive view of freely available chemical data from a single online search. It is owned by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Chem-Space
Chem-Space uses Marvin JS from Chemaxon to draw chemical structures. Once done you can search in their database (1.8 billion chemicals) for a chemical with an exact match, its substructure, or any similar structure.
A number of resources are available to draw Venn diagrams:
BioVenn
BioVenn
is a web application for the comparison and visualization of biological
lists using area-proportional Venn diagrams. Good choice of colours.
(Reference: T. Hulsen, et al. 2008. BMC Genomics 9:
488).
Venny
Venny (Developed by Juan Carlos Oliveros, BioinfoGP, CNB-CSIC) provides basic graphical output with overlaps not to scale and basic colours.
Venn Diagram Maker
Venn Diagram Maker offers lots of options. Calculate and draw custom Venn diagrams.
Venn Diagram Plotter
Venn Diagram Plotter draws correctly proportioned and positioned two and three circle Venn diagrams whose colors can be customized and the diagrams copied to the clipboard or saved to disk.
OrthoVenn 2
OrthoVenn 2 is a web platform for comparison and annotation of orthologous gene clusters among multiple species. No installation or registration is required. It works on any operating system with a modern browser and JavaScript enabled.
Updated: November, 2025