FCS Express has 16 different types of plots (grouped into 1D Plots, 2D Plots, and Other Plots on the Insert Tab) to allow you to display your data in many different ways. The different types of plots are:

 

•1D Plots - (one-dimensional) plots allow you to display one parameter of your data. You can also display a cumulative probability distribution of your data.

 

oA Histogram bins all of your data into a discrete number of bins, and sums all the events that fall into the individual bins. In a Histogram, the data is typically displayed as the data value on the X-axis and number of events on the Y-axis.

 

oIn a Kinetics plot, the X-axis is the Time parameter and all of the Y-value events are averaged for each unit of time.

 

oMulticycle DNA histograms are a subset of one-dimensional plots that fit DNA cell cycle statistics.

 

oProliferation histograms are a special subset of one dimensional plots that automatically model proliferation statistics.

 

oSpectrum plots are a subset of one-dimensional plots to graphically display spectral data.

 

oBar plots can be used to graphically display statistics from plots, default statistics or text tables, or custom data.

 

oPie charts can be used to graphically display statistics from plots, default statistics or text tables, or custom data.  

 

•2D Plots - (two-dimensional) plots allow you to plot one parameter against another parameter.

 

oDot plots represent each cell with an individual dot. Dot plots always display the dots in the overlay color. Dot plots may also be Shaded Based on Density.

 

oDensity plots. In a density plot, the color of an area reflect how many events are in that position of the plot. Density plots may also be set to base color on a different parameter and set to shade base on density.

 

oColor Dot plots. In a color dot plot, the colors can mean one of two different things. If there is only one overlay on the plot, the colors refer to which cells fall into which gate. If there is more than one overlay on the plot, the color refers to which overlay that dot belongs to. If one dot actually belongs to more than one overly, the color of the dot will be randomly chosen among the overlays. Color Dot plots may also be Shaded Based on Density

 

oContour plots are the same as density plots, with the exception that contour lines represent different numbers of cells, rather than colors. A contour plot looks very similar to a topographical map. Contour plots may also be set to base color on a different parameter

 

oSurface plots. Together with the two parameters on the X- and Y-axes, the Z-axis displays the number of events.

 

oScatter plots can be used to graphically display custom data.

oScatter with regression plots can be used to graphically display custom data with the regression curve automatically overlaid onto the plot (e.g., in generating a titration curve).

Note: Dot, Density, Contour, and Color Dot plots all bin your data into a discrete number of bins. Therefore, the dot size of these plots is related to the number of bins that the data is being divided into. Scatter plots do not bin your data, but put a symbol at the location of your data value. The symbol size is controlled by the Formatting preferences. The binned plots are a better option when viewing data sets containing large numbers of data points (i.e., >5000). Scatter plots are more useful when displaying smaller numbers of data points, where customization of the point shape and style are more important.