Beta Tester Feedback on the Latest Release of Our 2D & 3D Graphing Program – Grapher™ 12

Prior to any release, our software undergoes a rigorous 6 week external testing period. This testing period, referred to as Beta Testing, gives a select group of Grapher customers an opportunity to provide their input on the new features and to test the functionality in their everyday use of the product. These individuals are extremely important to the final release as their input and testing ensures we have a stable and upgrade-worthy product.

During the Grapher 12 Beta Testing period, 20 individuals completed the testing period. Below are their comments on the newest set of Grapher features.

• "I use Grapher exclusively for any graph that goes into a report that leaves my office." Paul Maconochie, Principal Geotechnical Engineer, GeoTek Solutions
• Regarding the color gradient fill set to values: "Absolutely works great for linear-scaled graphs. Cool thing is we can save *.clr file and then use that file to set color-filled contours in Surfer when we need Grapher and Surfer colors to match. Or, vice versa. Nice way to get these products to play together." Gary Rice, GeoFrontiers
• "I've been using Grapher since 1998 and have always appreciated the high quality appearance of the exported graphs. Use of the program leading to the finished graph products has been easy to learn. This is one of the things I like about being able to do beta-testing for Golden Software: the testing process nearly always exposes me to new and old functions within the tested software I never had occasion to use before." Larry Turner, Managing Geologist, DIR Exploration, Inc.
• "I love the improvement that allows you to add scripts to the developer tab. Very good! A plus that historically has had Golden Software is to enable programming via scripts. This saves us a lot of time on tasks that are highly repetitive." Alberto Vargas, Geographer
• "I will pay for this upgrade just to have the Visible Plots Only checkbox for legends. What a timesaver." Eric Tappa, Research Associate, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of South Carolina
• "Love the improvements, especially the Move Label in the legend…now it's much easier - Thank you!" Nada Derek, Research Technician, CSIRO
• "The legend’s visible plots only option is awesome." Kevin Beattie, Environmental & Mining Project Engineer
• "Beta-phase is a good time not just for testing but for unleashing imagination." Igor Yashayaev, Ocean Research Scientist, Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Grapher product manager, Sabrina Pearson, commented on Beta Testing, “It was a pretty smooth beta testing period. Probably the biggest surprise was around the colour mapping feature. I thought I had tested every piece of functionality involved, but the Beta Testers used it in many other ways I had not considered. They provided a number of improvement requests which we were able to implement and Grapher is even better!”

During the Beta Testing period, we also hold a graphics competition. Participants submit images they create while testing Grapher 12 and are entered to win a prize. Below are the first and second place winners for the Grapher 12 graphics competition.

First place winner. Line plot of temperatures, salinity and density of the Central Laborador Sea. Image courtesy of Igor Yashayaev of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Second place winner. Graph of experimental results and interpretation for mercury injection porosimetry of a rock sample. Image courtesy of Andrey Kazak of Schlumberger Moscow Research Center.

Runner up. Line/scatter plot displaying the subduction profile of the Cocos Plate under the Caribbean Plate at Northern Costa Rica. Image submitted by Albert Vargas.

From all of us at Golden Software, thank you Beta Testers for your valuable feedback! If you are interested in future Beta Testing opportunities, contact graphersupport@goldensoftware.com.