Welcome to the documentation page of EMStudio

EMStudio is an open-source, standalone editor for the Extended Matrix (EM) language: the place where you author a stratigraphic and interpretive record — draw the matrix, attach sources and paradata, declare the provenance of every asset, compare with what is not yours, and finally tell the story and export it. It runs as a desktop application, in the browser, and as a self-contained file you can open with a double click.

EMStudio is a component of the Extended Matrix Framework, an Open Source and Open Science project developed to manage, visualize, represent and share the data and paradata associated with the documentation and the reconstruction of an archaeological context, an object, or a collection. Within that ecosystem EMStudio is the sovereign editor of the EM language: it reads and writes em.json natively, projects to RDF for semantic queries, and speaks to the other tools — EM-blender-tools for 3D, Heriverse for dissemination, and the s3Dgraphy library that all of them share.

EMStudio lets you:

  • read, edit and validate the Extended Matrix as a property graph (fast, interactive) that projects losslessly to RDF/CIDOC-CRM (semantic, queryable);

  • lay out the stratigraphic matrix automatically with a layout engine driven by the epochs, and fold groups into a readable diagram;

  • bring in documentation (files on disk, the shared object store, ingested batches) and declare the provenance of every asset with the DTC model (acquisition → derivation → attribution);

  • compare your study with what is not yours (other studies, other Heritage Digital Twins) on the shelf;

  • write a narrative — the graph read as a story — with AI-assisted drafts you validate, embeds that stay live references, and exports to HTML, Word, LaTeX and Jupyter;

  • annotate images, place the site on a map, and collaborate in real time inside a room.

EMStudio has been developed by E. Demetrescu at CNR-ISPC (Rome, former CNR-ITABC).

Remember

This documentation is under continuous development, and EMStudio is a fast-moving project. Where the interface has moved on from a screenshot, trust the text.

New to EMStudio?

Start with the Getting Started — installation, first launch, and a guided first contact: load an example study and read its matrix.

Looking for a specific task?

Browse the How-to Guides recipes — task-oriented guides grouped by goal (bring material in, interpret in the Graph, declare provenance in DTC, compare, write and export the narrative, annotate, collaborate).

Need panel details?

Consult the Reference — a tab-by-tab and window-by-window description of the interface, the menus, the Inspector fields, the export formats, and the em.json file, plus a changelog appendix.

Want to understand the design?

Read the Explanation — the concepts behind EMStudio: the two-tier (property-graph + RDF) model, the tabs as arrangements of windows, the DTC provenance model, the narrative as a reading of the graph, rooms and collaboration, and EMStudio’s place in the Extended Matrix Framework.

Choose your path

I document and interpret a site

Begin with the formal language at the EM language docs, then come back here for Getting Started and the Interpret in the Graph loop. Most of your work happens in the Graph tab.

I write and publish the story

Go to Write the narrative and Export the narrative. The Narrative tab is where the graph becomes prose, with AI drafts you sign, and the export bar carries it to HTML, Word, LaTeX and Jupyter.

I want to understand or extend it

Read the Explanation for the model and the architecture. EMStudio is GPL-3.0; its source lives in the EMStudio repository and it consumes the shared s3Dgraphy library.