Gephi
Desktop program for drawing and measuring networks, such as who wrote to whom. The most common no-code network tool in digital history.
At a glance
- Maker
- Gephi open-source project
- Released
- 2008
- Licence
- Open source (GPL-3 / CDDL)
- Cost
- Free
- Runs
- Desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux); Gephi Lite in browser
- Skill
- No code (steep learning curve)
Historian’s notes
Where your sources go Desktop version is local.
How it’s been tested Discussed for historians in “Demystifying Networks” (Weingart, 2011–12).
Known problems on historical sources Its measures assume one kind of node, but historical networks mix people, places and documents. Centrality can reflect what the archive kept rather than past reality.
Used in research3
- Finnish literary translation circles · Laura Ivaska, 2026
- Sociability in scientific expeditions · Anderson Pereira Antunes, 2021
- Visualising the Republic of Letters catalogue · Scott Weingart with Bodleian Digital Library, 2011
Used to build corpora0
None recorded yet.
Tested in0
No published evaluations found yet.
Nobody has said they’re using it in 2026 yet. “I’m using this now” asks you to sign in with ORCID. One count per person per year; it adds to Trending, and names are never shown.