Digitize Graph Using Color Recognition and Save Graph Data to Excel - ByteScout

Digitize Graph Using Color Recognition and Save Graph Data to Excel

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How to digitize graph using color recognition mode with Graph Digitizer Scout

This page contains step-by-step tutorial that will teach you how to digitize graph using color recognition method using Graph Digitizer Scout software.

First download, install and run Graph Digitizer Scout

This tutorial will show step by step how to digitize graph on the picture using built-in color selection tool

In this example we will digitize green graph from the following picture:

scanned image with source graph to digitize using Graph Digitizer software

Run Graph Digitizer Scout:

Graph Digitizer Scout main window

Now open picture file. To open picture use Open command in File menu:

Open command in File menu will open chart to digitize

Select file with picture and click Open to open picture

Open dialog to open image with graph

We will bind coordinates to 2 points. To bind graph by 2 points click on toolbar on Binding tool and select “By 2 Points”. In this mode we should set XminYmin and XmaxYmax points so program will use  these point to bind graph to the grid

Selecting binding by 2 points

Now click on Xmin and Ymin point (left-bottom point of the coordinate scale):

Selectin Xmin and Ymin point on the picture

And then click on Xmax and Ymax point (bottom-top  point):

Selecting max X and Y point on the graph

Now program will display coordinates window to confirm coordinates.

Take a look at the picture and enter min and max values for X and Y axes:

Enter min X, min Y, max X and max Y values according to the picture

Then click OK

Graph Digitizer Scout will set grid relative to the original graph:

Grid automatically aligned according to a grid on the picture

Now select Digitization tab on the vertical toolbar at the right.

And set digitization method to By Color F6 so program will digitize graph using color recognition method:

Press F6 to select color recognition method

Now point out which graph on the picture we should recognize. To do this double-click on green graph and program will use green color to recognize source graph:

Click graph to set recognition color

Now you see that Line Color indicator indicates green color as we’ve selected

Now set digitization pitch in Step box to Scale Units

And set digitization step to 0.02 to get more more accurate recognition

Change digitization units to Scale Units

Press F9 to start automatic digitization.

Program digitized green graph with blue graph but we see that we have to limit digitization region to get rid of noise outside graph.

Recognized graph is shown with blue line

So change Digitization Region on the main toolbar and set it to Region mode:

Select region mode to limit digitization region

Then click on the Set Digitization Region button to start selection:

Click on Set Digitization Region button

Click on the XminYmin point, hold on mouse button and set digitization region:

Select area/region to digitize

Then press F9 again to re-digitize selected region

Now we got this graph:

More accurate re-digitized graph according to region limitations

Much better!

If we need to correct graph then we can do this in Correcting (F8) mode. We will correct last point of this graph:

Change program operating mode to Correcting mode

Left-click using mouse to select point (selected pointed will be highlighted with red color):

Select point to correct using mouse

Now click on another position to move the point:

Set new position for the point

You can copy data from recognized graph to clipboard to move it to another application.

Click on Copy Data toolbar button to copy set of points coordinates to the clipboard:

Copy to clipboard button on the main toolbar

Now we can insert this set to the Excel

Run Ms Excel and select Paste command in Edit menu

Paste command in Edit menu in Excel

Excel will insert set of points from clipboard to the worksheet:

Data pasted from clipboard to Excel

Now we can build a chart using inserted data (A column in Excel contains X coordinates, B column in Excel contains Y coordinates)

To build a chart select Chart command in Insert menu:

Insert Chart command in Insert menu in Excel

Chart Wizard will appear. Select XY (Scatter) chart type in Chart Wizard and click Finish

Select chart type to create a chart

Excel will build a chart from our data:

New chart in Excel based on the data received from Graph Digitizer Scout based on recognized graph

That’s all!

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