An extension of Wilkinson's algorithm for positioning tick labels on axes

The non-data components of a visualization, such as axes and legends, can often be just as important as the data itself. They provide contextual information essential to interpreting the data. In this paper, we describe an automated system for choosing positions and labels for axis tick marks. Our s...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics. - 1998. - 16(2010), 6 vom: 15. Nov., Seite 1036-43
1. Verfasser: Talbot, Justin (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Lin, Sharon, Hanrahan, Pat
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2010
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics
Schlagworte:Journal Article
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:The non-data components of a visualization, such as axes and legends, can often be just as important as the data itself. They provide contextual information essential to interpreting the data. In this paper, we describe an automated system for choosing positions and labels for axis tick marks. Our system extends Wilkinson’s optimization-based labeling approach to create a more robust, full-featured axis labeler. We define an expanded space of axis labelings by automatically generating additional nice numbers as needed and by permitting the extreme labels to occur inside the data range. These changes provide flexibility in problematic cases, without degrading quality elsewhere. We also propose an additional optimization criterion, legibility, which allows us to simultaneously optimize over label formatting, font size, and orientation. To solve this revised optimization problem, we describe the optimization function and an efficient search algorithm. Finally, we compare our method to previous work using both quantitative and qualitative metrics. This paper is a good example of how ideas from automated graphic design can be applied to information visualization
Beschreibung:Date Completed 14.12.2010
Date Revised 26.10.2010
published: Print
Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE
ISSN:1941-0506
DOI:10.1109/TVCG.2010.130