Re: [NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
Karl Ove Hufthammer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes! R (especially using the new grid and lattice framework) produces excellent charts and graphs, with very sensible default options (much of it based on Cleveland's research). What is Cleveland's research? Can you provide references on the web? Thank you, Nicolas Grilly ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
Nicolas Grilly skreiv: Karl Ove Hufthammer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Yes! R (especially using the new grid and lattice framework) produces excellent charts and graphs, with very sensible default options (much of it based on Cleveland's research). What is Cleveland's research? Can you provide references on the web? Cleveland has done much research on graphical perception and the visual decoding of information from data displays. He was one of the first to do actual scientific study on this. Earlier, many people had opinions on various common graphs (e.g., ‘pie charts are bad – I don’t like them’). Cleveland came along and did actual scientific *experiments* to show why some type of graphs were worse than others for presenting data (e.g., ‘humans are very bad at judging angles and very good at judging position along a common scale; that’s why pie charts are terrible and dot plots good at presenting (the same) data’), and he proposed new graphical display *based* on this research. See for example this very interesting and easy to read article: Title: Graphical Perception: Theory, Experimentation, and Application to the Development of Graphical Methods Author(s): William S. Cleveland; Robert McGill Source: Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 79, No. 387. (Sep., 1984), pp. 531-554. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0162-1459%28198409%2979%3A387%3C531%3AGPTEAA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y Some of Cleveland’s research resulted in novel graphical displays, such as trellis displays, coplots and dot plots, and much of it resulted in improvements to common displays. Unfortunately, many of these smaller improvements and very minor but important details seems to be unknown to people who design graphing software. Let me mention a few (not too exciting) examples: Circles should be used instead of rectangles as plotting symbols, especially with data overlap, because overlapping rectangles still look like rectangles, while overlapping circles look nothing like circles. Cleveland actually recommended a list of plotting symbols (for plotting several groups in one plot) for use in scatterplots; see: Title: A Model for Studying Display Methods of Statistical Graphics Author(s): William S. Cleveland Source: Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, Vol. 2, No. 4. (Dec., 1993), pp. 323-343. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1061-8600%28199312%292%3A4%3C323%3AAMFSDM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y Tick marks should point outwards, not inwards (so they don’t camouflage data). The data rectangle should always be slightly smaller than the scale-line rectangle (the box around the data), again to avoid camouflaging the data. These are just a few (perhaps less interesting) features of graph design that R does correctly, but many other programs (e.g., gnuplot, at least for tick marks and data rectangles) don’t (by default). Much of Cleveland’s research has been summarised in his excellent book W.S. Cleveland. Elements of Graphing Data. Revised edition. 1994. See also his other book W.S. Cleveland. Visualizing data. 1993. Other articles of his that may be of interest: Title: Graphical Perception and Graphical Methods for Analyzing Scientific Data Author(s): William S. Cleveland; Robert McGill Source: Science, New Series, Vol. 229, No. 4716. (Aug. 30, 1985), pp. 828-833. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036-8075%2819850830%293%3A229%3A4716%3C828%3AGPAGMF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D Abstract:Graphical perception is the visual decoding of the quantitative and qualitative information encoded on graphs. Recent investigations have uncovered basic principles of human graphical perception that have important implications for the display of data. The computer graphics revolution has stimulated the invention of many graphical methods for analyzing and presenting scientific data, such as box plots, two-tiered error bars, scatterplot smoothing, dot charts, and graphing on a log base 2 scale. Title: Graphical Perception: The Visual Decoding of Quantitative Information on Graphical Displays of Data Author(s): William S. Cleveland; Robert McGill Source: Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General), Vol. 150, No. 3. (1987), pp. 192-229. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0035-9238%281987%29150%3A3%3C192%3AGPTVDO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T Abstract:Studies in graphical perception, both theoretical and experimental,
Re: [NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
David Wooten wrote: Thus I'm curious as to what others use... is R an efficient method to produce elegant charts? Yes! R (especially using the new grid and lattice framework) produces excellent charts and graphs, with very sensible default options (much of it based on Cleveland’s research). There are packages for most common and not-so-common stasticial graphs, but it is not difficult to create your own from scratch, either, or to modify existing ones. For an example of the various graphics possible to create with R, try these commands (at an R prompt): library(lattice) # Load the ‘lattice’ package¹. grid::grid.prompt(TRUE); par(ask=TRUE) # Pause between each graphic. example(xyplot)# Many nice lattice graphs. demo(lattice) # More lattice graphs. demo(graphics) # Example of non-lattice graphs. You may also want to take a look at the R Graph Gallery: http://addictedtor.free.fr/graphiques/ ¹ Which is basically ‘trellis for R’; see http://stat.bell-labs.com/project/trellis/. -- Karl Ove Hufthammer E-mail and Jabber: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
http://www.nieuwarchief.nl/serie5/index.php Thanks, lots of elegant layouts there, and enjoyable mathematics! -Sanjoy `Never underestimate the evil of which men of power are capable.' --Bertrand Russell, _War Crimes in Vietnam_, chapter 1. ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
Sanjoy Mahajan wrote: But where you put one figure will affect the placement of later figures. And maybe you paint yourself into a corner, and would like to backtrack and sacrifice excellent earlier placements in order to minimize terrible placements now... http://www.nieuwarchief.nl/serie5/index.php gives some examplex of more complex layouts (done with a pretty old context btw); this is why column sets shows up (they will be used in future renderings) Hans - Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl - ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
Hans writes: fyi: there is a new tufte book (don't have it yet but i'm told that it's nice too) It's _Beautiful Evidence_ (2006) and it is beautiful. I think it was typeset in Quark. A few pages from the book, as well some of Tufte's updates on the book's production, are here: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=000262topic_id=1 Can TeX/LaTeX/ConTexT-based typesetting can look as good? Perhaps! Towards the end of this thread http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=hB, there are well-designed documents typeset with LaTeX. With MetaPost they would look even better. Maybe the ConTeXt community should add to the thread examples of beautiful ConTeXt/Meta(Fun|Post) documents... -Sanjoy `Never underestimate the evil of which men of power are capable.' --Bertrand Russell, _War Crimes in Vietnam_, chapter 1. ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
Hi Sanjoy, On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 11:48:07 -0600, Sanjoy Mahajan [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It's _Beautiful Evidence_ (2006) and it is beautiful. I think it was typeset in Quark. A few pages from the book, as well some of Tufte's updates on the book's production, are here: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=000262topic_id=1 Can TeX/LaTeX/ConTexT-based typesetting can look as good? Perhaps! I'm curious: What is preventing ConTeXt in particular from looking this good? What is the basis of your Perhaps!? What's missing? Best Idris -- Professor Idris Samawi Hamid Department of Philosophy Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523 -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/ ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
Can TeX/LaTeX/ConTexT-based typesetting can look as good? Perhaps! I'm curious: What is preventing ConTeXt in particular from looking this good? What is the basis of your Perhaps!? What's missing? Mostly my lack of skill with ConTeXt, but the experts could say for sure. A likely trouble spot is automatic figure placement. Positioning involves compromising competing criteria: keep figures next to the text that references them (the ideal), but it may not fit. So failing that, keep it on the same page, or at least on the same double-page spread. Otherwise, on the next page. But where you put one figure will affect the placement of later figures. And maybe you paint yourself into a corner, and would like to backtrack and sacrifice excellent earlier placements in order to minimize terrible placements now... So the engine should typeset a document one chapter at a time (figures should never cross chapter boundaries). TeX does one page and a bit at a time, so fully automatic placement is difficult to program (and always tricky to use since it involves lots of hinting). Instead of doing it automatically, you can give a lot of help to the program, which is probably what you have to do with Quark. -Sanjoy `Never underestimate the evil of which men of power are capable.' --Bertrand Russell, _War Crimes in Vietnam_, chapter 1. ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
On Friday 21 July 2006 15:22, David Wooten wrote: Mojca Miklavec wrote: Thus I'm curious as to what others use... is R an efficient method to produce elegant charts? Is straight MetaPost preferable? With metapost you can surely achive most beautiful results and it is not as difficult to learn as TeX-programming. Of course you might need more time to draw what you need or to write your own set of macros, but if you have high demands about quality this might be the way to go. However, if you prefer doing it quicly using the existing tools (be aware that you have to learn how to use those tools as well), R or gnuplot might be an interesting choice. You'll be limited by the power of those two tools, but in most cases they should suffice for the normal usage. The gnuplot module is still in development (I've been just begging Hans for help a few hours ago ;). Take a look at the demo section of gnuplot (http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo_4.1/) to see if it can offer you what you want to do. In that case ask on the list again, I'll give you further pointers how to use it with ConTeXt (http://pub.mojca.org/gnuplot). But basically you can take any program to draw graphs and include the resulting PDFs. I'm afraid that the macros from the paper which you pointed to, use some PostScript code that cannot be handled as-is (you need some conversion to PDF first) and I'm affraid that the effort put into making it work woudn't pay off now that you have a great varienty of other plotting programs, including metapost itself (esp. if the package has never been released - you'll probably hardly get any support for it). Mojca Thanks very much for your reply. Your advice seems strong, and in truth I have been intrigued by MetaPost for many years. This certainly seems a valid excuse to delve into it ;) David ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context I have always found Pstricks to be very useful. There is a module m-pstric.tex that you can look at. -- John Culleton Able Indexing and Typesetting Precision typesetting (tm) at reasonable cost. Satisfaction guaranteed. http://wexfordpress.com ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
David Wooten wrote: There is a special (albeit not well furnished) place in my heart for Tufte's /Visual Display of Quantitative Information/, so I suppose I fyi: there is a new tufte book (don't have it yet but i'm told that it's nice too) Hans - Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl - ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
[NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
Greetings all, I've been itching to stop using Illustrator and other programs to make the charts and graphs I wish to include in my ConTeXt-generated documents, and would like to get some advice on the matter. There is a special (albeit not well furnished) place in my heart for Tufte's /Visual Display of Quantitative Information/, so I suppose I am always leaning towards that philosophy of chart-making. I came across Jean-luc Doumont's article /Drawing effective (and beautiful) graphs with TeX* [1]/, in which he refers to his macro package called JLdraw---and shows some pretty examples. JLdraw was in fact never generally released, although when I contacted him he was happy to send along the macro package. In beginning to tinker with them, I have not had much luck getting them to work within ConTeXt, undoubtedly due to my persistent naiveté. Thus I'm curious as to what others use... is R an efficient method to produce elegant charts? Is straight MetaPost preferable? Many thanks, David [1] http://www.tug.org/TUG99-web/pdf/doumont2.pdf ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Charts, Graphs, Tufte, and ConTeXt
Mojca Miklavec wrote: Thus I'm curious as to what others use... is R an efficient method to produce elegant charts? Is straight MetaPost preferable? With metapost you can surely achive most beautiful results and it is not as difficult to learn as TeX-programming. Of course you might need more time to draw what you need or to write your own set of macros, but if you have high demands about quality this might be the way to go. However, if you prefer doing it quicly using the existing tools (be aware that you have to learn how to use those tools as well), R or gnuplot might be an interesting choice. You'll be limited by the power of those two tools, but in most cases they should suffice for the normal usage. The gnuplot module is still in development (I've been just begging Hans for help a few hours ago ;). Take a look at the demo section of gnuplot (http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo_4.1/) to see if it can offer you what you want to do. In that case ask on the list again, I'll give you further pointers how to use it with ConTeXt (http://pub.mojca.org/gnuplot). But basically you can take any program to draw graphs and include the resulting PDFs. I'm afraid that the macros from the paper which you pointed to, use some PostScript code that cannot be handled as-is (you need some conversion to PDF first) and I'm affraid that the effort put into making it work woudn't pay off now that you have a great varienty of other plotting programs, including metapost itself (esp. if the package has never been released - you'll probably hardly get any support for it). Mojca Thanks very much for your reply. Your advice seems strong, and in truth I have been intrigued by MetaPost for many years. This certainly seems a valid excuse to delve into it ;) David ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
