Compare programs

Click here for an overview comparing dSNAP, PolySNAP and PolySNAP M.





SNAP software is developed by the Theoretical Crystallography group at the University of Glasgow, and is exclusively distributed by Bruker AXS.
Publishing graphics from PolySNAP and dSNAP

Using results graphic displays from PolySNAP and dSNAP in other programs is easy - just right-click on any graphic and choose Copy to Clipboard.

By default, these graphics are optimised for display on the screen, rather than the page.

If you are using these results displays in other media - for example in a journal article or printed report - you may wish to alter some of these settings.

  • Rendering Quality
Click anywhere in the 3D Plots or Cell Display and press F12  to bring up a dialog box to change the rendering quality. This is normally set low, to speed up rotation when dealing with large datasets, but increasing the quality will give smoother lines and better results when printed.

Low Quality                      High Quality
  • Changing Colours: Background, Axes, Objects
While dark background colours look good on screen, depending on printing methods, a white background may be preferred. Right-click on any graphics pane, and choose Show Toolbar from the pop-up menu. Clicking on the Colours icon brings up a list of items you can change the colour for.

Selecting one brings up a standard system Colour Picker dialog box. Select the colour required and click OK.
Background changes the background colour. If changing this to White or another light colour, the Axes should also be changed to a darker colour for best results. Foreground controls the label colours, the main lines in the Dendrogram, and the MRP marks in the 3D plot.
  • Line Thickness
The line thickness of axes and other plotted lines can be increased, improving legibility on printing, by selecting from the options in the Line Thickness list on the graphics toolbar.

1 pixel is the minimum, 5 pixels is the maximum.






  • Changing label fonts & sizes
Clicking the Font icon in the toolbar brings up a standard Font Picker dialog box, letting the font, size and style of the labels be controlled.
  • Dragging Labels
Once the 3D plot is set up with the view you want, you can select Drag Labels from the right-click pop-up menu, and manually reposition any labels that are not in an optimum position. Turning off the 3D Gridlines may also help legibility.

  • Suggested Settings for Print
For dendrograms, we suggest white as the background colour, dark grey for the foreground and black for the axes. For most datasets, a line thickness of 1 pixel works well, though this could be increased for small data sets.


The 3D MMDS plots render much better on a black background, but  changes in e.g. sphere size, and zooming in to decrease the amount of background, can improve the overall appearance and reduce printing costs of large expanses of black background. We suggest grey axes for MMDS plots.