A unified approach to labeling graphical features

The automatic placement of text or symbol labels corresponding to graphical objects is critical in several application areas such as Cartography, Geographical Information Systems, and Graph Drawing. In this paper we present a general framework for solving the problem of assigning text or symbol labels to a set of graphical features in two dimensional drawings or maps. Our approach does not favor the labeling of one type of graphical feature (such as a node, edge, or area) over another. Additionally, the labcls arc allowed to have arbitrary size and orientation. We have applied our framework to drawings of graphs. We have implemented our techniques and have performed extensive experimentation on hierarchical and orthogonal drawings of graphs. The resulting label assignments are very practical and indicate the effectiveness of our approach.

[1]  E. Lynn Usery,et al.  Geographical Information Systems: Principles and Applications , 1992 .

[2]  Donald E. Knuth,et al.  The Problem of Compatible Representatives , 1992, SIAM J. Discret. Math..

[3]  Stephen A. Hirsch,et al.  An Algorithm for Automatic Name Placement Around Point Data , 1982 .

[4]  Andrew V. Goldberg,et al.  An efficient cost scaling algorithm for the assignment problem , 1995, Math. Program..

[5]  Robert E. Tarjan,et al.  Data structures and network algorithms , 1983, CBMS-NSF regional conference series in applied mathematics.

[6]  Giuseppe Liotta,et al.  An Experimental Comparison of Four Graph Drawing Algorithms , 1997, Comput. Geom..

[7]  Joe Marks,et al.  The Computational Complexity of Cartographic Label Placement , 1991 .

[8]  Ioannis G. Tollis,et al.  Algorithms for Drawing Graphs: an Annotated Bibliography , 1988, Comput. Geom..

[9]  H. Edelsbrunner.  A new approach to rectangle intersections part I , 1983 .

[10]  Joe Marks,et al.  An empirical study of algorithms for point-feature label placement , 1995, TOGS.

[11]  Herbert Freeman,et al.  On the Problem of Placing Names in a Geographic Map , 1987, Int. J. Pattern Recognit. Artif. Intell..

[12]  Ioannis G. Tollis,et al.  On the Edge Label Placement Problem , 1996, GD.

[13]  Frank Wagner,et al.  A packing problem with applications to lettering of maps , 1991, SCG '91.

[14]  Pinhas Yoeli,et al.  The Logic of Automated Map Lettering , 1972 .

[15]  Alexander Wolff,et al.  Map labeling heuristics: provably good and practically useful , 1995, SCG '95.

[16]  Ioannis G. Tollis,et al.  An Algorithm for Labeling Edges of Hierarchical Drawings , 1997, GD.

[17]  J. Roessel.  An Algorithm for Locating Candidate Labeling Boxes Within a Polygon , 1989 .

[18]  Steven Zoraster,et al.  The Solution of Large 0-1 Integer Programming Problems Encountered in Automated Cartography , 1990, Oper. Res..

[19]  Madhav V. Marathe,et al.  Map labeling and its generalizations , 1997, SODA '97.

[20]  A. R. Forrest,et al.  Application Challenges to Computational Geometry: CG Impact Task Force Report , 1999 .

[21]  Michiel H. M. Smid,et al.  Efficient Algorithms for Counting and Reporting Pairwise Intersections Between Convex Polygons , 1999, Inf. Process. Lett..

[22]  E. Imhof.  Positioning Names on Maps , 1975 .

[23]  Kurt Mehlhorn,et al.  LEDA: a platform for combinatorial and geometric computing , 1997, CACM.

[24]  Lee R. Ebinger,et al.  Noninteractive Automated Names Placement for the 1990 Decennial Census , 1990 .

[25]  Herbert Freeman,et al.  A rule-based system for dense-map name placement , 1992, CACM.