Below is a comparison of the ball and stick skeleton figures made by several graphics programs here in the CSB core lab. This type of figure is frequently used for stereo figures for manuscripts so the examples are done in stereo. The example scripts will give you an idea of how to make your own similar figure.

Look at the individual documentation linked to the previous page for these other types of programs that also make skeleton figures. Also, look at the electron density examples for another way to make stereo images.

Click on the image for a larger view.

	Ribbons is also good for making ball and stick figures. All manipulations may be done with menu buttons. The initial output is an SGI *.rgb file. The script for this image is here. Ribbons allows one to rotate the image (and labels) in real time. Anti-aliasing is good.
	Molscript is good for making Postscript output. It uses a very powerful (and therefore somewhat complicated) command file as input. The Postscript output may be viewed using Ghostview and /or printed directly on a Postscript printer. The script for this image is here. Molscript does not allow one to rotate the image in real time. Anti-aliasing is not necessary for the Postscript output.