Graphviz For Mac

The DOT language offers the possibility to use plain text to describe a graph and then you can generate .dot or .gv files to share the data. Graphviz is a small macOS application that is able to open this type of files and automatically render the graphs.

Graphviz comes with its own installer package that places the utility in your Applications directory: the procedure is extremely straightforward. The next step is to launch the application and direct it to the file you want to open: Graphviz will take care of the rest.

The Graphviz main window is reserved for the graph visualization, while the top toolbar includes buttons for basic functions: zoom out, zoom in and access the Attributes window.

Graphviz comes with several layout programs and automatically selects the one suitable for the task at hand: dot (for hierarhical drawings), neato (can deal with “spring models”), fdp (uses the Fruchterman-Reingold heuristic), sfdp (a fdp version for big graphs), twopi (produces radial layouts) and circo (creates circular layouts).

Moreover, via the Attributes window, you get to change various aspects related to the graph representation. The capabilities are organized by target: graph, nodes and connection lines.

This way you can add hyperlinks, change the font style, the color scheme, the nodes shape, and much more. Note that for each option, Graphviz provides a short description in the bottom area of the Attributes panel.

Graphviz provides a minimalist yet efficient solution for quickly viewing graphs described in plain text, by using the DOT language. Since the app is offering support for multiple layout programs, it will prove to be able to handle both simple and more complex graphs.