RIBBON: a stereo cartoon drawing program for proteins

A suite of Fortran computer programs is described which generates simplified stereo schematic drawings (cartoons) of protein structures similar to the hand-drawn figures of Richardson [Methods Enzymol. (1985), 115, 359–380]. α-helices are represented by helical ribbons, β-strands by twisted arrows and random coils and reverse turns by smooth `ropes'. Such drawings are useful in visualizing the folding and topology of proteins.