Learning Graphical Layout Algorithms

Question

During my day-to-day work, I tend to come across data that I want to visualize in a custom manner. For example, automatically creating a call graph similar to a UML sequence diagram, display digraphs, or visualizing data from a database (scatter plots, 3D contours, etc).

For graphs, I tend to use GraphViz. For UML-like plots and 3D plots, I would like to write my own software to run under Linux.

I typically program in C++ and prototype in Python.

What books have people used to learn these basic graphical algorithms? I've seen some nice posts on force-directed layout and various block-style layout algorithms based upon the Cutting and Packing problems -- these are great starts, but I would like a more beginners guide and overview before I jump in.

• Directed Graph Layout
• Force directed layout

Answer 1

Here are some sources,

• Graphic Layout and Design (Paperback).
• Active Layout Engine: Algorithms and Applications in Variable Data Printing