What is Jmol?
Jmol is an open-source molecular viewer and visualization software for 3D chemical structures, with features for chemical education, research, and commercial use. It is written in Java so that it can run on desktops and servers, online or locally. Jmol allows users to visualize, animate, manipulate, measure, and analyze a wide variety of molecular file formats including PDB, Mol2, SDF, Gaussian outputs, XYZ, and more.
Some key capabilities of Jmol include:
- Interactive visualization and smooth real-time rotation of molecular models
- Support for displaying crystal morphologies, surfaces, vibrations and orbitals
- Measuring bond lengths, angles, torsions
- Displaying space-filling, sticks, balls and sticks, ribbons, cartoon models
- Selecting, hiding and coloring atoms
- Annotating models with text labels
- Exporting high resolution image files
Jmol scripts can be embedded in web pages to create custom interactive visualizations. It has extensive documentation and tutorials available. Jmol is used worldwide for education, training, and research in fields like chemistry, biochemistry, physics, nanotechnology, and material science.