Re: Really slick Charts and Graphs

I think it might be good to take time to decide exactly what makes a graph "nice". Since this is largely a matter of taste, different people are likely to have different opinions about it.

What do you feel is missing? Is it the user interface, the selection of graph types, choice of colors, etc? What improvements do you think are needed to make a graphics package nice?

Are you thinking of something along the lines of Microsoft's Excel, where you simply let the program handle the colors, etc. (with the option of overriding them if desired)?

I think that the visual display of data is highly useful, not just a pleasant gimmick. With properly done graphs, you can see at a glance how the data is arranged, notice trends, etc., all of which would be obscured by plain lists of numbers. But - what do you want, what needs to be done?

Comment on Re: Really slick Charts and Graphs

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Re^2: Really slick Charts and Graphs by adamk (Chaplain) on Apr 08, 2006 at 09:36 UTC
Well, having used GD::Graph quite a bit for CVS Monitor, here's a few of my favourites. 1. Axis - I don't want to have to manually tell what axis to use, although I'd like the option. Lacking any information, I'd like the graph module to pick a relatively sensible set of both X and Y axis, and a set of seperators (both quantity and values) that are asthetically pleasing and functionally useful. I ended up having to write Chart::Math::Axis to try and deal with this situation in my graphs. 2. Time - I want my automagic horozontal axis to display time sensibly. I want something that understands that my data isn't necesarily uniform over time, and picks sensible values, days vs weeks vs months. Otherwise, I want the same as for 1. 3. Decoration. I don't care about particularly shiny graphics so much. But I DO want relatively nice labels, in a nice font, anti-alised, and so on. I want the graph to work out how to position the labels properly, shrinking the actual data are down to the most appropriate size. 4. As with font's, it might be nice to have my lines anti-aliased. Not everything needs to be incredibly scientific accuracy, sometimes it's the asthetics that count a little more, and some light anti-aliasing would be greatly useful. The graphs don't have be massively eye-candied, but it would be nice to have them at least clean-looking.	[reply]
Re^2: Really slick Charts and Graphs by Anonymous Monk on Apr 08, 2006 at 20:20 UTC
adarnk hit most of my points. 1 ->> Anti-aliased lines and labels. 1994 called - it wants its fonts back. 2 ->> Better-looking charts Given the choice between displaying a composite line chart using DBD::Chart or Dundas I can see how it really would just depend on what you are trying to do. 3 ->> Object-oriented API/DOM I think a DOM-style API to the chart would be great. 4 ->> Smooth vector-style colors, gradients, alpha and shading This is pretty standard across even low-end commercial packages. There's got to be some way to generate smooth graphics. 5 ->> Professional Appearance When I am making a chart for myself to see how many emails a server is bouncing, I'll use whatever tool will get the job done. This might just be HTML. However, when I am putting together some charts for a commercial tool (i.e. - CRM suite), I would like to have something that looks as good as the rest of the design (and still presents the information in a concise way).	[reply]


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