EPG-Renderer

EPG-Renderer turns forensic STR profiles into clear, kit-aware electropherogram-style figures. Load a GeneMapper genotype-table export or type in the alleles, and every peak appears in its dye channel at its place in the kit's size range, with marker and allele labels.

• Publications: SVG is vector graphics and stays sharp at any size; refine the figure in Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator.
• Teaching and training: enter invented profiles by hand to show heterozygous loci, shared alleles or mixtures, without using casework data.
• Slides and lectures: create PNG or JPG for PowerPoint or Keynote.

Example output

A synthetic three-person mixture with a major, a minor and a trace contributor in the proportions 6:3:1; shared alleles carry the summed heights.

Capabilities

• SVG, PNG, and JPEG output from GeneMapper genotype-table exports
• GUI-based GeneMapper import and kit-aware manual profile entry
• explicit RFU or uniform non-quantitative manual peak-height modes
• batch rendering with one image per sample and a JSON manifest
• automatic or explicit kit resolution using 14 bundled profiles
• deterministic SVG output and byte-reproducible source ZIP, source distribution, and wheel builds
• fully local processing without profile-data uploads

Documentation

Start at the documentation home or go directly to your task.

Create a figure without programming

• Windows: download and start the GUI; Python is not needed.
• macOS and Linux: start the GUI with Python.
• GUI guide: from export or manual entry to the finished figure, and which format to choose.
• Reading the figure: what the peaks, labels and annotations show.

Use EPG-Renderer in your software

• Install the Python package: the wheel from the Releases page; EPG-Renderer is not on PyPI.
• Command line and standalone Windows epg-render.exe
• Python vignette and API reference

Background and development

• GeneMapper input requirements, coordinate model and sources and provenance
• Development and release checks, architecture and declarative kit format
• Release history: changelog

Scope and limitations

• EPG-Renderer is a visualization tool. It does not reconstruct measured fluorescence curves or replace analytical interpretation and quality control.
• Input must be a GeneMapper genotype-table export, not an .fsa file or other raw capillary-electrophoresis data.
• Exported Size n values are used when present. Otherwise, peak positions are nominal display coordinates or bounded estimates unless a kit explicitly declares verified exact bin centres.
• Nominal and estimated coordinates are not measured sample fragment sizes or official GeneMapper bins.
• Imported RFU values are structural inputs subject to a 32,767-RFU package ceiling; instrument-specific off-scale review remains an upstream responsibility.
• Manually entered profiles are visibly and machine-readably identified as schematic manual profiles.

Read the GeneMapper input requirements, coordinate model, and sources and provenance before scientific use.

License

EPG-Renderer is distributed under the BSD 3-Clause License. See the license text.