Graph drawing
In mathematics and computer science, graph drawing combines methods from geometric graph theory and information visualization to derive two-dimensional depictions of graphs.
Contents
Description
A drawing of a graph or network diagram is a pictorial representation of the vertices and edges of a graph.
This drawing should not be confused with the graph itself: very different layouts can correspond to the same graph.
In the abstract, all that matters is which pairs of vertices are connected by edges.
In the concrete, however, the arrangement of these vertices and edges within a drawing affects its understandability, usability, fabrication cost, and aesthetics.
The problem gets worse, if the graph changes over time by adding and deleting edges (dynamic graph drawing) and the goal is to preserve the user's mental map.
Applications
Applications for graph drawing include:
Application-specific graph drawings
Graphs and graph drawings arising in other areas of application include:
- Sociograms, drawings of a social network, as often offered by social network analysis software
- Hasse diagrams, a type of graph drawing specialized to partial orders
- Dessin d'enfants, a type of graph drawing used in algebraic geometry
- State diagrams, graphical representations of finite state machines
- Computer network diagrams, depictions of the nodes and connections in a computer network
- Flow charts, drawings in which the nodes represent the steps of an algorithm and the edges represent control flow between steps.
- Data flow diagrams, drawings in which the nodes represent the components of an information system and the edges represent the movement of information from one component to another.
- Bioinformatics, including phylogenetic trees, protein-protein interaction networks, and metabolic pathways.
See also
External links
- Graph drawing @ Wikipedia
