Figure Composer 5.0.2

This was the last 5.0.x release.

PLEASE IGNORE the source code archive for this release, as it DOES NOT correspond to any commit tag on this GitHub repository, which was created long after 5.0.2 was released.

Version 5.0.2, originally released 10 November 2016.

• Support for translucent color. Figure Composer supports translucent color as of this release. Text/fill color, stroke color, the color of a solid background fill, and the data group fill colors for the bar, area, and pie charts can all be set to translucent values (alpha component neither 0 or 1). The color stops for any gradient-style background fill must be opaque, as must be the color map for a 2D or 3D graph. CAVEAT: While FC now supports translucency, please keep in mind that Postscript does not. If you export a figure to Postscript, any translucent colors in the figure will show up as their opaque versions. If you need to import a FypML figure with translucent elements into a program like Adobe Illustrator, be sure to use the PDF export format.
• Improved support for histogram plots. The raster node was updated to provide more flexibility when rendering a histogram of a sampled data set, and to provide a way to import Matlab figures generated with the histogram() function introduced in Matlab R2014b. Two additional histogram-like display modes render estimates of the sample collection's probability density function (pdf) and cumulative density function (cdf). In addition, you can set the range [start..end] over which the sample data is binned; if start >= end, the actual observed sample range is used, as was the case prior to this release.
• The FIG-to-FypML import engine and the utility matfig2fyp() have been updated to support importing histogram plots generated by Matlab's histogram() function, including the translucent fills often associated with these plots.
• Updated the RGB color picker and background fill picker components to improve their appearance and support the selection and display of translucent colors.
• All axis labels on 2D graphs are now rendered in the same manner, regardless whether they are multi-line or not. This eliminates the misalignment, for example, of a single-line X-axis label on one graph with a multi-line X-axis label on an adjacent graph.
• Added Edit menu command Select like elements. This will make it easier to quickly apply the same change across all like elements in a figure (for example, all X axes) without having to select them all manually.
• Bug fix: If you made a copy of a bar, area or pie chart and then changed a data group color or label on the original, the copy was also affected.

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Installation on Mac OS

Download and unzip the archive FigureComposer_mac_502.zip (if you are still using Apple's own Java 6 JRE) or FigureComposer_mac_j7p_502.zip (if you're using a third-party Java 7 or better JRE). Move the extracted folder, FigureComposer, to your Applications directory. Within this folder is the FigureComposer.app application bundle, along with a matlab subfolder containing the Matlab support package. Drag the app bundle onto the Dock for convenient access.

NOTE: In OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) and later, Apple ships the OS configured to prevent you from opening any software that was not downloaded from the Mac App Store. Thus, you will be unable to run FigureComposer, unless you make a change in your System Preferences. Under the Security & Privacy section, set "Allow applications downloaded from" to "Anywhere". If you would rather not open up your machine in this way, you can instead choose to make an exception only for FC. Right-click on the downloaded app bundle, choose "Open" and confirm that you would like to open and run the app. You should only have to do this once!

Installation on Windows

Download and unzip the archive FigureComposer_win_502.zip, then open the resulting folder and run the self-extracting installer, FigureComposerSetup.exe. No administrator privileges are required. Select which application components you want to install. The installer makes the program available only to the current user. You'll find the installed components at Start Menu | All Programs | Figure Composer. You can pin FC to the task bar, and you can uninstall it like any other Windows application.

NOTE: The installed program, FigureComposer.exe, is a small Windows executable that locates the installed Java Runtime Environment (JRE) and uses it to launch FC. If it cannot find the JRE for whatever reason, it will abort with the error "Failed to find Java VM, "JRE load error", or a similar error message. You can still run FC in this scenario, but you must locate the installed JAR file and launch it manually from a Windows Command Prompt via the command java -Xmx1024m -jar figurecomposer.jar. However, starting FC this way means it will lack certain desktop integration features available when it launches as a native executable.

Installation on Linux

Download and unzip the archive FigureComposer_linux_502.zip. A single FigureComposer folder is created; it contains everything needed to run FC, and the Matlab support package is found in the matlab subfolder. Open a C-shell terminal, navigate to the FigureComposer directory, and run launchFC. This short script contains a command that launches the program: java -Xmx1024m -jar figurecomposer.jar. Note: On Ubuntu Linux, you may need to rename this file launchFC.sh.