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Interactive Clustered Heat Map Feature Comparison

Next-Generation Clustered Heat Maps (NG-CHMs) are not the only software package that allows interactive access to the data in clustered heat maps. Other popular interactive heat map packages include ClusterGrammer2, Java Treeview 3, and Morpheus.

They share many of the features available in NG-CHMs, but none of them have all of the features that are included in NG-CHMs nor provide as many alternatives for building or customizing the heatmaps.


Feature Comparison Between Interactive Heat Map Software Applications

Category Feature NG-CHM Viewer NG-CHM Builder NG-CHM R Package ClusterGrammer2 Java Treeview 3 Morpheus
Project Activity Last Updated May 2023 May 2023 Nov 2022 Sept 2021 May 2020 Dev Stopped July 2022
Map Navigation Pan Y Y Window scrollbar only Window scrollbar only
Zoom Y Y Buttons only +/- keys or fit to window
Other integrated modules/tools Dimensionality reductions plots Y N N Y
Pathway visualization modules Y N N N
Matrix Layers Maximum Cells Limited by RAM 12250000 Limited by RAM ~1,000,000 Limited by RAM Not specified
Support for Multiple Data Layers Y N Y N N Y, via matrix overlays
Grid Controls Y Y Y N N Y
Gap Controls Y Y Y N N N
Matrix Data Histogram Y ? N N N
Matrix History Undo Feature Y N N N N
Can import matrix containing covariates/categories Y ? Y N N
Ordering / Clustering / Filtering Row/Column Ordering Y Y Y Restricted Y
Order map by original matrix order Y Y N Y Y
Row/Column Clustering Y Y Y Y Y
Dendrogram display options (Visibility and Height) Y Y Y Only one slice N Y
Filter data Y Y Y N Y
Covariates / Categories Support for discrete or continuous covariates Y Y Y Y Calculated only
Show/Hide Covariates Y Y Y N Y
Reorder Covariates Y Y Y Via API only N
Covariate plot types supported color, bar, scatter color, bar, scatter color, bar, scatter color bar color
Coloring User Defined Breakpoints Y Y Y N Y Y
User Defined Colors For Map Y Y Y N Y Y
User Defined Colors For Covariates Y Y Y N N
Predefined Color Palettes Y Y N N Y Y
Color Histogram Y Y N N N N
Set Selection Color Y Y Y N N N
Labels Label Controls for Trimming Labels Y Y Y N N N
Column Label Types (e.g. samples, cells) configurable configurable configurable Y N Y
Support non-visible fields attached to labels Y Y N N N
Search for labels Y Y Y Y
Copy Selected Labels to clipboard Y N N Y
Top Items (Highlight certain items on map) Y Y Y N N N
Missing Data Missing Data Handling Y Y Y ? Y Y
Set missing data color Y Y Y N Y Y
Data Selection Select Area by mouse drag Y Y Rows only N
Select Area by dendrogram portion Y by cluster Y N
Select Area by range of labels Y N Y Y
Select non-congruent sections by labels Y N N Y
Select Area by covariate value Y N N Y
Data Download or Images Download Matrix Y Y N Y
Download values of selected area to a file Y Y N Y
Copy Bar data for selected labels Y N N Y
Copy Bar data for entire covariate/category Y N N N
Zip download of heatmap Y N N N
Download SVG or PNG N N N Y N N
Download PDF Y N N Y
Interactivity With Other Systems Embeddable in other systems Y Y Y N Possibly, no examples
Dynamic Link Outs / Plug-in Architecture for Labels Y (dozens) Y N N N
Dynamic Link Outs / Plug-in For Covariates/Categories Y Y Y N N
Performance Matrix Load Speed - Builder fast fast fast fast Slow for large maps
Map Load Speed - Viewer fast medium-fast fast Slow for large maps
How builder limits map size By matrix size, rows, or columns By available RAM By total matrix size By available RAM Out of memory errors for some large maps
Error message quality High High Medium High ? Low