Visualization

This is a list of miscellaneous resources I’ve come across dealing with data visualization in several forms.

These are mostly utility libraries and viewers that I had scattered all over the place and that are best concentrated on a single page for reference.

The Graphs and Graphing and Visualization pages will be subsumed by this one in the fullness of time.

Ratings are entirely subjective based on my interest.

Scientific Visualization

Date	Link	Type	Formats	Rating	Notes
2011
Jul 28	cinder	C++	GL		Very high performance native code, with Mac/Xcode support.
Jul 13	d3.js	JavaScript	SVG		Allows for interesting interactivity.
Feb 23	philogl	JavaScript	GL		WebGL library – impressive.
Feb 20	ggplot2	R	Multiple		Very interesting, if niche.
2010
Earlier	MayaVi	Desktop app	Multiple		Heavy-duty scientific visualization tool
	matplotlib	Python library	Too many to list		Inspired by MATLAB. Good for publication quality output. Extremely sophisticated (and complex), looks better using this config file
	SciGraphica	Desktop app	Multiple		Competent GTK app, hasn’t been updated since 2005
	R	Desktop app	Multiple		Focuses on statistical computing, graphics are a competent add-on.

Charting and Plotting

Date	Link	Type	Formats	Rating	Notes
2012
Jan 12	Rickshaw	JavaScript	SVG		Optimized for real-time line/bar charts
2011
Apr 9	Graphite	Python	Misc.		A complete data collection and real time charting framework.
2010
Sep 20	webtreemap	JavaScript	HTML		Brilliant treemap code.
Aug 3	streamgraph.js	JavaScript	HTML canvas		An elegant streamgraph implementation.
Mar 13	HumbleFinance	JavaScript	HTML canvas		A very good reimplementation of the Google Finance charts.
2009
Nov 2	Protovis	JavaScript	SVG		Seems pretty damn good and provides an amazing array of output formats with a simple approach to coding.
Jun 6	Fun With Canvas: Create a jQuery Graph Plugin	JavaScript	HTML canvas		Simple and effective
May 23	Axiis : Data Visualization Framework	Flex library	Flash		Built atop Degrafa, adding a few layout primitives and other building blocks.
	Degrafa : Declarative Graphics Framework	Flex library	Flash		Seems very flexible and powerful.
Mar 03	RGraph	JavaScript library	HTML canvas		Pretty extensive, does interaction, Gantt charts, supports ASCII text rendering as well.
Jan 28	jsxgraph	JavaScript library	HTML canvas, SVG		Good for mathematical plotting.
2008
Dec 23	TimeSeriesGraph	Source code	Flash		A clone of the Google Finance zoomable charts
Sep 17	Bluff: Beautiful graphs in JavaScript	JavaScript library	HTML canvas		A port of the Gruff library for Ruby. Very small and lightweight, can pull data straight off HTML tables.
Previously	Open Flash Chart	Viewer and server-side libraries	Flash		Pretty damn good, only thing I don’t like are the funky tooltips
	Google Chart API	Web Service	PNG		Lots of chart types, but URL API makes it a bit limited
	Plotkit	JavaScript library	HTML canvas, SVG		Simple and to the point, hasn’t been updated since 2006
	Flot	jQuery extension	HTML canvas		Amazingly powerful, supports interactive zooming of data
	ExtFlot	jQuery extension	HTML canvas		Extended version using ExtJS
	amCharts	Viewer	Flash		Commercial (free with hard-coded link to home site)
	XML/SWF Charts	Viewer	Flash		Commercial (free with hard-coded link to home site)
	Pychart	Python library	PDF, PNG, SVG		Good for complex scientific plots. Not updated since 2006.
	Chaco	Python library	Qt and GUI, primarily		Best suited for GUI apps
	ZedGraph	C# classes	Multiple		Usable for server-side chart generation as well as GUI
	Pybrary Plot	C#	Multiple		Simple and straightforward
	nplot	C#	Multiple		Primarily aimed at server-side plots
	Gnuplot	CLI tool	Multiple		The old favorite, great for scientific plotting but too complex for simple stuff
	ploticus	CLI tools	Multiple		Great for very large datasets
	RRDtool	Standalone tool with multiple language bindings	PNG		Excellent for system and network monitoring over large periods of time
	GraphSketcher	Desktop app	PDF, JPEG, PNG		Simple and to the point, great for off-the-cuff graphs

Graphs

Date	Link	Type	Formats	Rating	Notes
Feb 10	canviz	JavaScript library	HTML canvas		An utterly amazing browser-side Graphviz implementation.
Previously	Graphviz	Desktop and CLI app	Multiple		The quintessential graph rendering application, also available with a spiffy Mac OS X GUI
	The JavaScript Canvas Hyperbolic Tree	JavaScript library	HTML canvas		Very good interactive navigation
	Moowheel	JavaScript library	HTML canvas		Not much interaction, but good visuals
	Graph Gear	Viewer	Flash		A bit too funky for my taste – might be usable after a thorough visual review
	jsViz	JavaScript library	HTML canvas, SVG, VML		Impressively fast
	Hypergraph	Java applet	N/A		Slow and pokey

Miscellaneous

Link	Type	Formats	Rating	Notes
NodeBox	Desktop app	Multiple		Can be used to programmatically do just about anything, including graphs
Flare	Multi-purpose library	Flash		Can do several kinds of interactive data plots and directed/undirected graphs
Flow Map	Java desktop tool	Multiple		Unique, as far as I know

Geodata

Link	Type	Formats	Rating	Notes
gheat	Tile server for integration with Google Maps	HTML, PNG		Requires Python 2.5, PIL and whatnot