UV-Vis data files, read and analyzed — free
How UV-Vis spectrophotometer data is stored (Agilent/Varian, Shimadzu, Thermo .usd), how to read/convert absorbance spectra — upload to Matflow free, or parse in Python.
Formats: Agilent/Varian .ads/.dsw, Shimadzu .spc/.uvd, Thermo .usd, CSV/Excel exports · For: Chemistry, biochemistry & materials labs
What the format actually is
Where the data hides, and what a naive parser loses.
UV-Vis exports are usually readable text or CSV — which is exactly why labs have thousands of them and zero structure: one CSV per measurement, naming conventions drifting per student.
Kinetics time-courses, wavelength scans, and photometric repeats get exported in different layouts from the same instrument, so the "parse the folder" script grows one special case per student.
Quantitative workflows (Beer-Lambert calibrations, band-gap Tauc plots, kinetics fits) need the metadata — path length, slit width, scan rate — that CSV exports often omit.
Vendor quirks that break naive parsers
Each of these has produced a silently wrong number in a real workflow.
Do it yourself in Python
We would rather you succeed with or without us. The open-source path:
What happens if you use Matflow
The parser is only step one — the value is the review and the provenance that follow.
Upload on the Ingestion page
Excel, CSV, PDF, SDS images and instrument files are parsed into evidence-tagged rows — the original file is retained as provenance.
Review before promotion
Column roles and types are proposed for a reason; correcting a mislabeled column here is the highest-leverage five minutes in the workflow.
Promote to a governed dataset
The accepted rows become a versioned dataset any stage can use — every row keeps its source and extraction status.
Docs: ingestion & extraction · column roles · instrument parsers
Stop parsing by hand
Upload your Agilent/Varian .ads/.dsw, Shimadzu .spc/.uvd, Thermo .usd, CSV/Excel exports file to Matflow and it lands as a governed, validated dataset — original file preserved as provenance, every column documented. Free tier, no card.
Other formats we parse
This guide covers one of 10 instrument formats.