DATAPLOT:A graphical display package for bacterial morphometry and fluorimetry data

A microbiological image processing system has been developed, which is used to determine both morphometry and fluorimetry data on (mainly faecal) bacteria. A special program for display of these data has been developed for this system. Besides probability density estimates of any one or two parameters and scatter plots of any two or three parameters in the distribution, it can generate scatter plots using the actual bacterial shapes, rather than arbitrary symbols. A particularly powerful feature of the program is the possibility to overlay a contour plot of the probability density distribution of the bacteria in parameter space, with a scatter plot of the actual bacterial shapes involved. In this paper, the program's organization, options, and the algorithms used are discussed.