1 Introduction

GSB-Intro

Welcome, and thank you for using Origin!

Origin is a powerful data analysis and publication-quality graphing software, tailored to the needs of scientists and engineers. What sets Origin apart from other applications is the ease with which you can customize and automate your data import, analysis, graphing and reporting tasks.

Customizations can range from simple modifications to a data plot, saved as a graph "template" for later use, to customized data analyses which produce publication-quality reports, saved as an Analysis Template. Batch plotting and analysis operations are also supported, wherein templates are used for repeat analysis of multiple files or datasets.

We are confident that you will find Origin to be an effective tool for analyzing your data and presenting your findings. And to help you get the most from Origin, we offer first-class customer and technical support, training and consulting services.

In this guide, unless otherwise noted, "Origin" will refer to both Origin and OriginPro. OriginPro offers all the features of Origin, plus extended analysis tools for Peak Fitting, Surface Fitting, Statistics, Signal Processing and Image Handling.

The purpose of this guide is to try and present a broad overview of Origin's capabilities. We hope that new users will find this to be a valuable orientation to the Origin workspace and its primary features. For those who are already using Origin, we hope you will find useful information on new features and perhaps learn a thing or two about Origin features that you had overlooked previously.

More detailed information is provided in the Origin Help file (Help:Origin from your Origin software's main menu) and numerous other learning resources exist. For a complete listing of available resources, see the Origin Resources chapter of this guide.

Some things to look for in this guide:

We have added short tutorials to numerous topics throughout this guide. These short tutorials are intended to give you a quick introduction to a key Origin feature. These tutorials will be marked with this icon.

Also, sprinkled throughout this guide, you'll find tips on using Origin. These tips are marked with this icon.

Important changes to key features and other critical information will be marked with this icon.

We like to get feedback from our users on ways to improve and expand Origin's data analysis and graphing capabilities. We would love to hear from you. You can find contact information in the Origin Resources chapter of this guide.