[[!meta  title="Getting numbers from journal figures"]]
[[!meta  date="2008-09-06 00:20:30"]]
This morning I wrote up this quick and easy way to get actual numbers
out of graphs and whatnot that show up in journal articles.

    $ pdfimages article.pdf fig
    $ clickloc.tk fig-000.ppm > fig-000.pixels
    $ scale_click.py 0 10 5 20 fig-000.pixels > fig-000.data

Just use your first four clicks in
[[clickloc.tk|clickloc/clickloc.tk]] to mark out the x and y minimum
and maximum values.  Then use
[[scale_click.py|clicloc/scale_click.py]] to convert the pixel values
to the units listed in the figure.  In my example, the x axis ran from
0 to 10 units, and the y axis ran from 5 to 20 units.  Supports
log-scaled axes too.

Having gotten some numbers, my sawtooth simulator matches up fairly
well to [Schlierf & Rief's results][SR] on both models.  Hooray! ;).

[SR]: http://www.biophysj.org/cgi/content/abstract/90/4/L33

[[!tag tags/linux]]
[[!tag tags/programming]]
[[!tag tags/theory]]