If you’re working with data that captures patterns, intensities, or variations across a grid-like structure—such as temperature readings, gene expression levels, or well plate assays—a heatmap can be a great way to visualize your data. Heatmaps allow you to quickly identify trends and outliers by using color to represent values, making it easier to interpret and communicate your findings. Here’s how you can create heatmaps in BioRender Graph.
Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Select the Heatmap option in the Graph menu
When you open the Graph menu, you’ll see two heatmap options: regular heatmaps and well plate heatmaps.
- Regular heatmaps: Versatile and can be used for a variety of datasets.
- Well plate heatmaps: Specifically designed for data from well plates, with each cell representing a row and column of the plate.
Step 2: Create dataset and view default heatmap
Click ‘Create’ to view an example dataset and see how it maps to the heatmap.
- Each value in the dataset corresponds to the same position on the heatmap (e.g., row 1, column 1 is in the top-left corner).
- You can paste your own data directly into the dataset, and the heatmap will automatically adjust in size to match. This applies to both regular and well plate heatmaps—just paste your data, and the visualization will adapt accordingly.
Step 3: Customize your heatmap
You can customize many elements of the heatmap, similar to other BioRender Graph visualizations, including font, graph title, and axis labels. Additionally, there are some extra customization options specific to heatmaps:
For both heatmaps and well plate heatmaps:
- Data normalization: Apply z-scoring to rows or columns. The color bar will automatically adjust to reflect the changes.
- Color bar customization: Click the color bar to open the customization menu, where you can adjust the border size, tick marks, and bar size.
For heatmaps only:
- Heatmap shape: The default shape is square, but you can switch to rectangle by clicking on the heatmap and selecting your preference.
- Spacing and margin: You can adjust the spacing between cells and the margin between the row/column labels and the cells. Setting spacing to 0 removes gaps between data points, while margin adds extra space (default is
For well plate heatmaps only:
- Well plate border and corners: Rounded corners are the default, but you can adjust both the border and corner settings by clicking anywhere on the heatmap.
- Well display customization: Adjust the gap between wells, the border width, and the border color to suit your visualization.
- Margin and padding: Margin adjusts the gap between row/column labels and the plate, while padding affects the space between the wells and the edge of the plate.
Troubleshooting Tips
Empty wells in your well plate heatmap?
- If you want to show empty wells alongside your data, make sure to enter row and column names for these wells. If the labels are left blank, the heatmap may appear incomplete.
Need clustering or analysis options?
- We’re actively working on these features—stay tuned!
Switching between heatmap types?
- You can switch between regular heatmaps and well plate heatmaps from the drop-down menu. Keep in mind that not all customizations will carry over, so you may need to adjust some settings after switching. We recommend duplicating your graph before trying out a different visualization type.
What’s Next
If you want to explore other customization options in detail, please have a look at the article on How to customize your graph.
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Articles in this section
- Creating heatmaps in BioRender graph
- Keeping Your Graph Data Secure in BioRender
- BioRender Graph
- Creating a new graph file
- How to enter data into the spreadsheet
- Performing a statistical analysis
- How to customize your graph
- How to change your data format
- How to plot and analyze continuous (XY) data in BioRender Graph
- Exporting your BioRender graph