Density of States (DOS) #
This page documents the DOS workflow in detail, including required files, parsing behavior, plain and filtered plotting, filter controls, projection tables, axis behavior, and export.
The workflow is code-agnostic: upload the output files from your DFT simulation, parse,
tune your plot settings, and export a publication-ready figure.
Where useful, this page uses VASP file names (DOSCAR, POSCAR) as examples.
For full styling controls (figure, title, axes, grid, legend, etc.), see Plot Settings.
Input and Parsing #
DOS plotting requires DOS data and optionally structural metadata.
In this documentation, VASP files are used as an example. Because DOSCAR contains the
Fermi energy, the VASP page does not include a Fermi-energy input field.
For spin-polarized DOS, spin-down values are mirrored on the negative side in the standard DOS layout.
Although this section resembles uploading files to a website, your files never leave your computer. Parsing and plotting run locally in your browser. Below is the list of files currently required by the web app to generate DOS figures.
| Code | Required | Optional |
|---|---|---|
VASP |
DOSCAR | POSCAR |
After selecting the files, click Parse to process the data.
DOS Plot Options #
Plot plain DOS: show the total DOS curve from parsed DOS arrays.
Plot filtered DOS: show projected DOS curves based on the filter selections. This mode requires projected DOS data and at least one filter.
DOS Figure Orientation: select the orientation of the figure. Horizontal to plot energy on x, or Vertical to plot energy on y.
Smooth: adjust line smoothing from 0 to 1; use 0 for no smoothing and 1 for maximum smoothing. ECharts applies smooth line interpolation (Bezier-style) using this factor.
Filtered DOS Workflow #
Filtered DOS requires projected DOS data from parsing.
If projected data is unavailable, filtered plotting is disabled and the + Add Filter action remains blocked.
Once projected data is available, each added filter can target custom ion/orbital/spin subsets and has independent visual styles.
+ Add Filter: add a new filter card with projection-table selection and style controls. The button remains disabled until a compatible DOS file is parsed successfully.
At least one filter is required before filtered DOS can be plotted. Plain and filtered curves can be rendered in the same figure.
Filter Panels #
Each DOS filter includes style controls for legend and line/marker settings.
For spin-polarized calculations, the Legend panel and Line/Marker panel
are effectively duplicated (one set for spin-up and one for spin-down).
Legend Panels
Legend Label: enter custom legend text for the curve. Leave this field empty to use the auto-generated filter label.
Color: customize the legend label color using the color picker. The appearance of the color picker is defined by the browser. In Firefox, to select a custom color you need to click on the “+” icon.
Weight: customize the font weight using this dropdown. The options correspond to font-thin, font-extralight, font-light, font-normal, font-medium, font-semibold, font-bold, font-extrabold, and font-black, which map to 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, and 900, respectively. Most fonts only provide a subset of these weights (typically normal and bold). You can see examples of fonts that support all weights in Google Fonts.
Style: customize the font style as normal or italic.
Line and Marker Panels
Line row controls:
Line: select curve line style from None, Solid, Dashed, and Dotted.
Width: set line width in pixels. This field is disabled when Line is None.
Color: customize the line color using the color picker. The appearance of the color picker is defined by the browser. In Firefox, to select a custom color you need to click on the “+” icon.
Marker row controls:
Marker: select marker type from None, Circle, Rect, RoundRect, Triangle, and Diamond.
Size: set marker size in pixels. This field is disabled when Marker is None.
Color: customize the marker color using the color picker. The appearance of the color picker is defined by the browser. In Firefox, to select a custom color you need to click on the “+” icon.
Projection Table (Ions, Orbitals, and Spin Channels) #
The projection table defines which projected DOS components are summed for each filter. Table structure adapts to available metadata and projected layout.
Rows: represent ions directly, or species-grouped ions when parsed structure metadata is available and consistent.
Columns: represent orbital channels and, when applicable, magnetization channels.
All: use row-level and species-level bulk selection. Checkboxes become indeterminate when only part of a row/species is selected.
Basic projection table when a structure file (e.g. POSCAR) is not available. In this case, ions are labeled by their order in the DOS output file (e.g. DOSCAR).
Species-grouped table when structure data is present and consistent with projected DOS blocks. To ensure consistency, use files from the same simulation.
Additional magnetization channel columns appear,
enabling direction-resolved projected DOS filtering.
If none of mx, my, or mz is selected,
the orbital total projection is used. If any of them is selected, the plotted contribution follows the
selected magnetization channel(s).
Sizing and Rendering Behavior #
Figure sizing: in vertical orientation, automatic sizing swaps figure dimensions to preserve layout.
Series composition: plain and filtered series can be rendered together, and legend labels are built from filter selections and spin context.
Export and Output #
Use Plot to render, Reset to clear, and Download to export.
Export supports PNG, JPEG, and SVG.
Renderer is selected automatically per export format to preserve expected quality and compatibility.
Troubleshooting #
Missing DOS input: shown when parse is requested without a selected DOS file.
Parsing required: shown when plot is requested before a successful parse cycle.
No DOS data available: shown when parsed DOS arrays are missing or invalid.
Filtered DOS requires filters: shown when filtered mode is enabled without at least one filter.
Projected DOS required: shown when filtered plotting is requested but projected blocks are unavailable.
Auto-label fallback warning: shown when projection-based label generation fails for one or more filters.