

Tools for Data Visualization - DanBC
http://datavisualization.ch/tools/selected-tools/

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rm999
I'm surprised R is on there but ggplot2 isn't. R is great for working with
data, ggplot2 is great for actually visualizing that data. I believe Wickham
is considering redesigning ggplot2 to use D3 to enable interactive
visualizations.

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elliott99
can you please show me a repository of R graphs that look half as
polished/nice as graphs made in d3? I am not challenging or being
confrontational I am actually curious why you think ggplot2 produces great
vizes. I am new to data visualization, but I've worked in bit in R before and
understand it's power to handle large data sets. Do you mean that they are
great as in they are very functional for producing basic static charts like in
Tableau? Or dynamic/creative vizes too?

In my line of work, clients are more concerned about "out-vizzing" the
competition by creating mind-blowing "Wow!" vizes. Doesn't this rule ggplot2
out for the most part?

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ihodes
ggplot & R aren't really for "out-vizzing" anyone.

While d3 is a great tool for analysis as well, it's more for presentation than
exploration, I think.

R and ggplot2 are for exploration & analysis, with the added benefit that
ggplot2 makes wonderful plots fit for publication. They're quite beautiful,
and well done, but not creating interactive, shiny visualizations.

They all have their place in the ecosystem.

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taliesinb
This is a nice resource.

I scraped the basic info and put it up on Google Docs for anyone who wants the
raw data:

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmdQMmlwPBAndHF...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmdQMmlwPBAndHFURnpncG1FemJWTlRLcWhSU3I3WFE#gid=0)

(Note: I took the liberty of adding Wolfram|Alpha Pro, which I work on)

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alexpopescu
Why not adding a comment to make that clear?

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taliesinb
Fair point -- done.

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joshdotsmith
This is awesome. Would love to have some extra metadata about each project in
one place, though. For example, version, GitHub info, etc.

D3 still seems to be the best of the bunch: most mature and most flexible.
Right now we're using a combination of R for heavy data processing and
refinement, and D3 for visualization. They make a good pair.

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Homunculiheaded
I've been experimenting with the R/D3 setup as well and so far I really like
it. Another thing that's great is that for any sort of traditional data
visualization R has you covered, leaving D3 for what it's best at: custom
and/or interactive visualization.

Interestingly enough almost all my coding has been in the browser since I've
been using Tributary [<http://tributary.io/>] for D3 prototyping and RStudio
Server for R (which is amazing if you haven't tried it)

Although I haven't used it yet, it's worth mentioning Shiny from the RStudio
team <http://www.rstudio.com/shiny/> which makes it pretty painless (so I
hear) to create interactive R visualizations.

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jmelloy
I have two problems with d3.js right now. 1) I have a hard requirement for IE
8. 2) All d3.js sites look the same.

2 I could get over, I suppose, but I really need something slick, simple &
fast that works in IE.

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Homunculiheaded
I've you're looking to build something custom from primitives and you need ie
support I would definitely recommend Raphael.js [<http://raphaeljs.com/>] They
claim ie6+ support and in my own experience this has been true. Granted I was
just making little dynamic pie charts, but they looked fantastic in IE6 (I'm
actually surprised it isn't in more common usage by designers to certain
visual bugs in IE6).

Raphael.js is really just a nice way to handle svg, and so it lacks some of
the niceties of d3 as far directly tying your visualization to the data. But
it's still a great tool.

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jmelloy
That's my current top contender for the switch. I figure we'll start with
g.raphael.js and then if we outgrow it we can just upgrade to the full
library.

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InAnEmergency
After just having spent a couple days wrestling with g.raphael.js, I would
recommend against it. The documentation is vague and incomplete, the generated
graphs are inconsistent (e.g., points placed outside of axes), simple bugs
with fixes in pull requests have been sitting for months with no
response...honestly it looks abandoned.

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zdw
A "sort by license" option would be nice on this page (ala the existing
code/no-code switch):

<http://selection.datavisualization.ch>

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owenfi
And by language.

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ataleb52
I'm currently working on a project of turning a TON of data into something
less of an eye sore than a ppt slide...you good sir have given me one hell of
a jolt of inspiration with this post.

Thank you!!!

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therandomguy
Is there a browser based solution equivalent to MS Excel pivot charts? I know
of chartio.com, but they seem to be pretty expensive. Office 360 maybe?

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edouard1234567
graphviz should be in this list.

