User talk:Mrsabetta

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Hi.

[edit] Doomsday clock

Hi there! Thank you for the pleasant compliment about the graph. The graph was actually done completely by hand in Inkscape. I'm not really sure why I did it that way, as it was probably more time-consuming than how I would usually work on graphs, but that's how I did it, anyway. It was the first graph that I have created totally from scratch.

With graphs with more complicated data (such as this one or this one), I have one of two ways of making them look nice. First I always chart out the data in Excel to make sure it looks reasonably correct (passes the sanity/typo check). Then I usually copy and paste the Excel graph into Adobe Illustrator, which effectively converts it to a vector graphic. Then I save the Illustrator file to SVG and open it in Inkscape, which I can then use to fine-tune how everything looks, re-size the entire thing, get rid of chartjunk, etc. The other method is the same as that one, except I put it into OpenOffice.org Calc and export its graph directly to SVG. This would be a little more direct, except that at the moment Calc does not support plotting your data with circles (only squares, diamonds, and other things of that nature), which drives me crazy (I think circles generally look much nicer). Then I clean up in Inkscape. ("Cleaning up" is rather euphemistic — basically I use the already-plotted data as the basis for re-drawing the graph by hand. Unfortunately most graphing programs produce incredibly ugly and cluttered graphs, as you no doubt know.)

So that's the process! Unfortunately it is not terribly easy to replicate, and takes a lot of time. But I'm usually very happy with the results. I enjoy the practice — I do not currently work in a field which allows me to exploit my more artistic inclinations (I am a graduate student in the history of science), and I find thinking about the visualization of data very interesting (it is one of my more long-term intellectual interests). I have been particularly taken lately with the writings of Edward Tufte, who has inspired me to try and make very clean, clear graphics.

I hope that is useful in one way or another. I am very touched that you enjoyed the graph and took the time to write to me about it. --Fastfission 16:19, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image copyright problem with Image:BallyAstrocade.jpg

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[edit] Orphaned non-free media (Image:Astrocade.JPG)

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