OpenFilters is an open source software, released under the GNU General Public License, for the design of interference optical filters.

DOWNLOAD VERSION 1.0.2 HERE:  Windows installer or Source code (Release notes)

OpenFilters offers multiple tools for the design and optimization of optical interference coatings, including refinement, the needle method, the step method, the Fourier transform method and multiband rugates. It can calculate the transmission, the reflection, the absorption, ellipsometric variables, phase, group delay, group delay dispersion, the circle and admittance diagrams, the electric field distribution and the color of the filter. It can also be used to generate photometric or ellipsometric monitoring curves. It is described in details in the article: Stéphane Larouche and Ludvik Martinu, “OpenFilters: open-source software for the design, optimization, and synthesis of optical filters”, Applied Optics, vol. 47, no. 13, 2008, pp. C219-C230.

It is written in Python and C++. The user interface is programmed using the wxPython toolkit.

It was written by Stéphane Larouche while he was a graduate student at École polytechnique de Montréal under the supervision of Professor Ludvik Martinu.

All comments, bug reports and questions should be sent to OpenFilters@polymtl.ca. If you want to be informed of the release of new versions of OpenFilters, please indicate it in your email. We will not use your address for any other purpose.

For older versions, see release history.

Frequently asked questions

Why can't I add new materials? modify existing materials?

Materials can be added or modified only when no project is opened.

Furthermore, you need administrator privileges to modify or add new materials if OpenFilters is installed in the Program Files directory (it is by default). If you do not have administrator privileges, install OpenFilters in another directory where you have write privileges (such as My Documents).

What do I need to run OpenFilters on Windows?

The installer installs everything you need to run OpenFilters.

If you want to modify OpenFilters's source code, you will need Python (2.5 ≤ version < 3.0) and wxPython. If you want to recompile the abeles and moremath dynamic libraries, you will need a C++ compiler; I use MinGW.

Can I use OpenFilters on Linux, Mac OS X, ... ?

Yes, OpenFilters should work on all systems where Python and wxPython are available. If they are not installed by default, install Python (2.5 ≤ version < 3.0) and wxPython. Then download OpenFilters’s source code, and simply run the file Filters.py using Python. OpenFilters will complain that the abeles and moremath dynamic libraries cannot be imported; OpenFilters works without them, but is much slower.

If you want to use the abeles and moremath dynamic libraries, you will need to compile them. To do so, you will need to modify the Makefiles according to the compiler you are using and the position of python header and library files on your system.