Visualizing with Text uncovers the rich palette of text elements usable in visualizations from simple labels through to documents. Using a multidisciplinary research effort spanning across fields including visualization, typography, and cartography, it builds a solid foundation for the design space of text in visualization. The book illustrates many new kinds of visualizations, including microtext lines, skim formatting, and typographic sets that solve some of the shortcomings of well-known visualization techniques.

Key features:

• More than 240 illustrations to aid inspiration of new visualizations
• Eight new approaches to data visualization leveraging text
• Quick reference guide for visualization with text
• Builds a solid foundation extending current visualization theory
• Bridges between visualization, typography, text analytics, and natural language processing

The author website, including teaching exercises and interactive demos and code, can be found here. Designers, developers, and academics can use this book as a reference and inspiration for new approaches to visualization in any application that uses text.

About the Author

Richard Brath has been actively involved in the research, design, and development of data visualization and visual analytics since 1990. His research interests include exploration of the boundaries of visualization - such as this book regarding text and visualization - as well as graph visualization, automated insights, 3D, spreadsheets, aesthetics, and machine learning. From a commercial perspective, Richard focuses on the creation of unique, innovative visualizations that are in use by hundreds of thousands of users. Richard originally acquired a degree in architecture and worked in industrial design, special effects, and 3D animation. With the opportunity to solve business challenges with interactive computer graphics, Richard switched to visualization, creating one of the first interactive 3D financial visualizations on the web (1996). Richard is a partner at Uncharted Software, where his team creates a wide variety of visualizations, ranging from small mobile screens to multi-screen video walls. These visualizations are used in domains such as financial markets, professional sports, health care, journalism, and customer analytics. Richard has a personal blog at richardbrath.wordpress.com.

Reviews

"A treasure trove of inspiring ideas presented in 250 mind expanding examples, systematic, yet playful; complex, yet simply astonishing.

Richard Brath's delightful tour shows how to integrate text into visualizations and visualizations into text. His charming old examples and eye-opening fresh ideas show readers a remarkable range of possibilities.

Wow! This delightful book shows so many fresh ideas and novel visualizations that I had to rethink what I believed was possible. Richard Brath's book expands my mind in ways I never thought possible. What fun!"

--Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland

"Attention graphic designers! This is an important and serious book. It's a delightful invitation to follow Richard Brath down lots of information-related rabbit holes. Brath has collected hundreds of examples of text visualizations from medieval manuscripts to contemporary big data graphics and has designed a hundred more new kinds of text visualizations. Come to think of it, Attention all readers!"

-- Nigel Holmes, Graphic Designer, Author, Former Graphics Director, Time Magazine

"A systematic study of how text functions as an element of design, not just as a carrier of content but as an intrinsic tool in presenting and organizing that content. Well illustrated and clearly described."

--John Berry, past president of ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale)

"Text with imagery is an important tool for supporting effective visual communication. The value of text is seldom exploited to its potential, particularly in the context of information visualization. There is a need for helping people see and understand their data, and effective text can provide takeaways and narratives when combined with charts. I am delighted to endorse Richard Brath's upcoming book, Visualizing with Text as it serves a useful perspective of visualization with text. The repertoire of topics with thoughtful examples offers the reader an appreciation for the role of text in supporting a better semantic understanding of data."

--Vidya Setlur, Principal Research Scientist, Tableau Software

"Visualizing with Text is timely, relevant and provocative. It is also clearly written, and tightly organized. Chapter 13 neatly summarizes the key concepts that have appeared along the way. There are plenty of use cases, primarily derived from research or business. After reading this book, you'll revel in the new sandbox of text, and long to free yourself from the constraints of your tool."

--Kaiser Fung, Author, Junk Charts

"A treasure trove of inspiring ideas presented in 250 mind expanding examples, systematic, yet playful; complex, yet simply astonishing.

Richard Brath's delightful tour shows how to integrate text into visualizations and visualizations into text. His charming old examples and eye-opening fresh ideas show readers a remarkable range of possibilities.

Wow! This delightful book shows so many fresh ideas and novel visualizations that I had to rethink what I believed was possible. Richard Brath's book expands my mind in ways I never thought possible. What fun!"

--Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland

"Attention graphic designers! This is an important and serious book. It's a delightful invitation to follow Richard Brath down lots of information-related rabbit holes. Brath has collected hundreds of examples of text visualizations from medieval manuscripts to contemporary big data graphics and has designed a hundred more new kinds of text visualizations. Come to think of it, Attention all readers!"

-- Nigel Holmes, Graphic Designer, Author, Former Graphics Director, Time Magazine

"A systematic study of how text functions as an element of design, not just as a carrier of content but as an intrinsic tool in presenting and organizing that content. Well illustrated and clearly described."

--John Berry, past president of ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale)

"Text with imagery is an important tool for supporting effective visual communication. The value of text is seldom exploited to its potential, particularly in the context of information visualization. There is a need for helping people see and understand their data, and effective text can provide takeaways and narratives when combined with charts. I am delighted to endorse Richard Brath's upcoming book, Visualizing with Text as it serves a useful perspective of visualization with text. The repertoire of topics with thoughtful examples offers the reader an appreciation for the role of text in supporting a better semantic understanding of data."

--Vidya Setlur, Principal Research Scientist, Tableau Software

Book Information
ISBN 9780367259266
Author Richard Brath
Format Paperback
Page Count 268
Imprint CRC Press
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 793g