Jmol: an open-source Java viewer for chemical structures in 3D

Jmol icon

with features for chemicals, crystals, materials and biomolecules

snapshot of a molecule

JSmol is the HTML5 modality of Jmol, able to be embedded into web pages. All the functionality of Jmol (as a standalone application) is also present in JSmol.

JSmol is an interactive web browser object.

This is a still image, but you can see several animated displays of Jmol abilities by clicking here or on the image itself.

(The JSmol library may take some seconds to load. Please, wait and do not reload the page in the meantime.)

SourceForge awards for the Jmol project (March 2022):

Overview

Jmol is a free, open source viewer of molecular structures useful for students, educators and researchers in chemistry, biochemistry and other fields dealing with molecular structure. It is cross-platform, running on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux/Unix systems.

How to cite Jmol

The recommended way to cite Jmol is:
Jmol: an open-source Java viewer for chemical structures in 3D. http://www.jmol.org/

Remember to always use uppercase 'J', lowercase 'mol' (explanation).

If you prefer, a list of articles that describe Jmol can be found in the Jmol Literature section of the Jmol Wiki.

What Jmol can do

Samples

Check out the Screenshot Gallery (still images) to see samples of what can be done with Jmol
and the Demonstration pages to see buttons and menus in action (interactive object within the webpage).

Features

What the critics are saying

Jmol v10: I can't believe it's Java!
But it's also open-source, so there's simply no question about it.
Get your copy now, before they run out of those virtual Java machine thingies.
It's just in time (JIT) for Christmas, from what I hear!
Warren L. DeLano, shell-shocked C/Python developer
Principal Scientist, DeLano Scientific, Author of PyMOL
December 2004.

Obtain Jmol

You can get the latest version of Jmol from the download page.

Being a .jar file, the Jmol application will be displayed as a Java icon. If you want a Jmol icon to be shown instead, you can get it from the Jmol Wiki.

Learn to use Jmol

Manuals and tutorials

A handbook has been published for learning Jmol, and there are also other publications about Jmol.

There is also a list of tutorials designed to learn the use of Jmol, and more help, within Jmol Wiki.

Finally, there is a documentation section in this web site, for more technical details.

Learn by example

You can also learn by examining web pages that use Jmol: demonstration pages within this web site, and a list of websites using Jmol in Jmol Wiki.

Jmol community

Jmol Wiki

A user-maintained site collecting a lot of information about the use of Jmol. More dynamical and frequently updated than this web site! -- visit Jmol Wiki

Mailing lists

Those with interest in molecular visualization, especially the education and research communities, are encouraged to join the jmol-users mailing list or even the jmol-developers mailing list. There you can share ideas and experiences, ask for help, give us feedback, request new features or changes, discuss implementation, submit patches, or contribute code.

Without subscribing to any lists, you can also search the archives that collect all messages posted to the lists.

For more information, please visit the Project pages section.