TernaryPlot.com

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Introduction

TernaryPlot.com is a web application for creating ternary plots (also known as triangular plots, three-component plot, composition triangle, or simplex plots). These plots are useful for visualizing compositions of three components that sum to a constant, commonly used in materials science, physical chemistry, petrology, and other fields.

The application provides an intuitive interface to help you quickly create publication-quality ternary plots You can add points, lines, areas, and text annotations, customize the appearance, and export your plots.

Free users are limited to 3 plot downloads per week. Purchase a pass for unlimited downloads and additional features.

  • Unlimited plot downloads
  • SVG export for publication-quality graphics
  • Watermark-free plots
  • Priority support

There are four different types of element you can add to the plot:

  1. Points

  2. Lines

  3. Areas

  4. Text

Each type of element has its own table where data can be added.

You can switch between the tables by clicking the table title in the tabs above the table.

Elements are plotted in the following order (back to front)

  1. Areas
  2. Lines
  3. Points
  4. Text

Elements are plotted in the order they appear in the table. If you want some element to appear on top of another element of the same type, move that element below the other in the table.

For points and text, this means you can drag that row down. For points and areas, you will have to move all multiple rows down.

See the Overplotting question in the FAQ in case your element is not discernable anymore.

There are two ways to change the labels of the data.

  1. Press the in the toolbar above the table (on the right side).
  2. Or press a label in the plot to edit that label. Enter your text and confirm by pressing the Enter key or click the confirm button next to the input field.

Be aware that when formatting a CSV file for upload, you have to name the data columns in your CSV files a, b, and c. Already naming the columns in the CSV file will not work, they really have to be a,b,c.

Press the download button in the toolbar above the plot.

You can change the format by clicking the chevron on the right side of the button. Note that SVG download is a premium feature.

SVG export is a premium feature.

SVG is the ideal choice if you plan to make any edits to your plot after downloading. As a vector format, SVG allows you to:

  • Edit any text or labels
  • Move and resize individual elements with precision
  • Change colors, styles and other properties
  • Add new elements or annotations
  • Scale the plot to any size without losing quality

You can edit SVG files using popular vector graphics software like Inkscape (free), Adobe Illustrator, or Figma (free for personal use).

Unlike pixel-based formats like PNG, SVG files maintain clarity at any scale - from tiny thumbnails to large posters. This makes SVG the most flexible format for your ternary plots.

PNG is a widely supported image format that produces high-quality plots suitable for most purposes. However, since PNG is a raster format (made up of individual pixels), it cannot be easily edited after export. The plot dimensions and resolution are fixed - scaling it larger will result in pixelation.

PNG is ideal when you:

  • Need a final version for publication or presentation
  • Want to share the plot in a universally compatible format
  • Don't anticipate needing to make further edits
  • Require a smaller file size than SVG

If you think you might need to modify the plot later (adjust colors, move elements, edit text, etc.), SVG would be the better choice.

Well, if you're wondering: Initially, I built this as a small tool for myself to quickly make many ternary plots and avoid having to work with janky Excel templates or dealing with MATLAB (or Python or R for that matter).

It was a nice exercise in programming and making an app. I learned a lot and enjoyed doing it. It was (still is) nice to know I built something useful. This was all the way back in 2018 during my studies. Later on, after my studies, I built it into a user-friendly website. Then that actually attracted users and even donations from those user. I completely rebuilt it to improve it in 2021. And now in 2025, I rebuilt it again. This time well enough to charge money for it.