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What is Kuva?

Kuva is a scientific plotting library for Rust that renders plots to SVG with optional PNG and PDF output. It targets bioinformatics and scientific use cases, shipping with 25 specialized plot types — from standard scatter and bar charts to Manhattan plots, UpSet plots, phylogenetic trees, and synteny diagrams. The library includes both a programmatic API for Rust projects and a standalone CLI binary that lets you render plots directly from the command line without writing any Rust code.

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Key Features

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25 Specialized Plot Types

Kuva provides a comprehensive collection of plot types designed for scientific visualization: Core Statistical Plots
  • Scatter (with error bars, trend lines, confidence bands, bubble charts)
  • Line plots with multiple series
  • Bar charts (grouped, stacked, horizontal)
  • Histograms (1D and 2D)
  • Box plots and violin plots
  • Strip plots
Scientific & Domain-Specific
  • Volcano plots — differential expression analysis
  • Manhattan plots — genome-wide association studies (GWAS)
  • Dot plots — gene expression visualization
  • UpSet plots — set intersection analysis
  • Phylogenetic trees — evolutionary relationships
  • Synteny plots — genomic sequence alignment
  • Sankey diagrams — flow visualization
  • Chord diagrams — circular relationship plots
Financial & Advanced
  • Candlestick charts
  • Waterfall plots
  • Stacked area charts
  • Heatmaps with multiple color maps
  • Contour plots
  • Brick plots
  • Band plots
  • Pie charts

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Multiple Output Formats

  • SVG — Always available, vector graphics for web and print
  • PNG — Optional feature for raster output (requires png feature)
  • PDF — Optional feature for vector PDF (requires pdf feature)
  • Terminal — Render plots directly in your terminal using Unicode/ASCII art

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Builder Pattern API

Every plot type follows a consistent, ergonomic builder pattern: 
use kuva::prelude::*;

let plot = ScatterPlot::new()
    .with_data(vec![(1.0, 2.0), (3.0, 5.0), (5.0, 4.0)])
    .with_color("steelblue")
    .with_size(5.0)
    .with_legend("Samples");

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Command-Line Interface

The CLI accepts TSV/CSV input (auto-detected) and can:
  • Read from files or stdin
  • Select columns by name or index
  • Output to SVG, PNG, or PDF
  • Render directly in the terminal
  • Support all 25 plot types

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Customization Options

  • Themes — Pre-built themes for consistent styling
  • Palettes — Color schemes from the colorous library
  • Annotations — Text labels, reference lines, shaded regions
  • Date/Time Axes — Native support for temporal data
  • Multi-plot Figures — Grid layouts with shared axes
  • Twin Y-Axes — Overlay plots with different scales
  • Legend Control — Flexible positioning and styling

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When to Use Kuva

Bioinformatics

Built-in support for volcano plots, Manhattan plots, phylogenetic trees, synteny diagrams, and dot plots commonly used in genomics and molecular biology.

Rust Projects

Native Rust library with no Python dependencies. Integrate directly into your Rust scientific computing or data analysis pipeline.

Command-Line Workflows

Generate publication-ready plots from shell scripts or data pipelines. Pipe data directly from stdin, no scripting required.

Reproducible Research

Version-controlled plot generation with type-safe APIs. Plots are defined programmatically, not through GUI interactions.

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Design Philosophy

Kuva follows a four-stage rendering pipeline: 
plot struct  →  Plot enum  →  Layout  →  backend output (SVG/PNG/PDF)
  1. Build — Construct plot structs using builder methods
  2. Collect — Convert to Plot enum variants using .into()
  3. Layout — Auto-compute or manually configure axis ranges, labels, titles
  4. Render — Choose backend (SVG, PNG, PDF, or Terminal)
This separation of concerns allows for:
  • Composing multiple plot types on one canvas
  • Reusing layouts across different datasets
  • Swapping backends without changing plot definitions
  • Testing plot logic independently of rendering

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Performance

Kuva is designed for performance:
  • No runtime dependencies on Python or JavaScript
  • Optimized SVG generation
  • Efficient KDE (Kernel Density Estimation) for violin plots
  • Benchmarks available in the repository

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Browser and Platform Support

SVG output works in:
  • All modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)
  • Vector graphics editors (Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator)
  • LaTeX documents via \includegraphics
  • Markdown and HTML documentation
The CLI binary runs on:
  • Linux (x86_64, ARM64)
  • macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon)
  • Windows (x86_64)

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Getting Started

Ready to create your first plot? Continue to the Installation guide to get Kuva installed, then follow the Quick Start to render your first visualization.

Installation

Install the Kuva library or CLI binary

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