Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5-27:
In this graph of sales occupations, border color indicates
income.
More Attributes
Many more attributes are available than have been addressed here. The
authors have added visual attributes to graphs such as glows, drop shadows,
multi-line text labels, multiple font styles, three-dimensional (3D) nodes,
gradient edges, pie chart and doughnut chart nodes, dozens of shape types,
and more. Although all these advanced attributes are feasible, they each
have different caveats and may not be easily accessible in many graph
visualization packages. Feel free to experiment with some of the advanced
features, but beware that the results may not be as effective as intended,
and keep in mind how the use of these features relates back to the overall
objective.
Interference and Separation
Combining many visual attributes results in interference and/or legibility
issues. Some attributes still visually pop out (such as size), but other
attributes such as colors or font styles may be more difficult to
distinguish—particularly if the same visual attribute is being used multiple
times (for example, color for both node fill and node outline).
Figure 5-28
shows the sales occupation data with color being used to
indicate both change in income (node fill color) and total income (node
outline color). Note that the bright red fills may be easily perceived, but the
