UCSF Chimera is a program for the interactive visualization and analysis of molecular structures and related data, including density maps, trajectories, and sequence alignments. It is available free of charge for noncommercial use. Commercial users, please see Chimera commercial licensing.

We encourage Chimera users to try ChimeraX for much better performance with large structures, as well as other major advantages and completely new features in addition to nearly all the capabilities of Chimera (details...).

Chimera is no longer under active development. Chimera development was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (P41-GM103311) that ended in 2018.

Feature Highlight

2D Labels and Arrows

Text, symbols, and arrows of multiple colors and sizes can be added to the Chimera display using the 2D Labels tool or the command 2dlabels. These annotations are drawn “in the plane of the screen” in front of any displayed objects and do not move when the objects are moved. 2D labels and arrows are included in saved images and movies, and can be faded in or out over a specified number of frames.

(More features...)

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Gallery Sample

Binding Site Similarity

β-1,4-glycanase (gold, PDB 1exp) and cellobiohydrolase I (cyan, PDB 1cel) have similar glucose-binding sites but different folds. Ribbons were slimmed with Ribbon Style Editor and the title and captions were added with 2D Labels (see image how-to). (More samples...)