Editing Visualization (graphics) (section)

==Overview==
[[Image:PtolemyWorldMap.jpg|thumb|250px|The [[Ptolemy world map]], reconstituted from Ptolemy's ''Geographia'' (circa 150), indicating the countries of "[[Serica]]" and "Sinae" ([[China]]) at the extreme right, beyond the island of "Taprobane" ([[Sri Lanka]], oversized) and the "Aurea Chersonesus" ([[Southeast Asia|Southeast Asian peninsula]])]]
[[File:Minard's Map (vectorized).svg|250px|thumb|right|[[Charles Minard]]'s information graphic of [[Napoleon]]'s march]]

The use of visualization to present information is not a new phenomenon. It has been used in maps, scientific drawings, and data plots for over a thousand years. Examples from [[cartography]] include [[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Ptolemy's Geographia]] (2nd century AD), a map of China (1137 AD), and [[Charles Joseph Minard|Minard]]'s map (1861) of [[Napoleon]]'s [[French invasion of Russia|invasion of Russia]] a century and a half ago. Most of the concepts learned in devising these images carry over in a straightforward manner to computer visualization. [[Edward Tufte]] has written three critically acclaimed books that explain many of these principles.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tufte |first=Edward R. |author-link=Edward Tufte |year=1990 |title=Envisioning Information|url=https://archive.org/details/envisioninginfor00tuft |url-access=registration |isbn=0961392118}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Tufte |first=Edward R. |author-link=Edward Tufte |edition=2nd |orig-year=1st Pub. 1983 |year=2001 |title=The Visual Display of Quantitative Information |isbn=0961392142 |url=https://archive.org/details/visualdisplayofq00tuft }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Tufte |first=Edward R. |author-link=Edward Tufte |year=1997 |title=Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative |publisher=Graphics Press |isbn=0961392126 |url=https://archive.org/details/visualexplanatio00tuft }}</ref>

Computer graphics has from its beginning been used to study scientific problems. However, in its early days the lack of graphics power often limited its usefulness. The recent emphasis on visualization started in 1987 with the publication of Visualization in Scientific Computing, a special issue of Computer Graphics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.evl.uic.edu/core.php?mod=4&type=3&indi=348|title=evl – electronic visualization laboratory|website=www.evl.uic.edu|access-date=2 September 2018}}</ref> Since then, there have been several conferences and workshops, co-sponsored by the [[IEEE Computer Society]] and [[ACM SIGGRAPH]], devoted to the general topic, and special areas in the field, for example volume visualization.

Most people are familiar with the digital animations produced to present [[meteorological]] data during weather reports on [[television]], though few can distinguish between those models of reality and the [[satellite photo]]s that are also shown on such programs. TV also offers scientific visualizations when it shows computer drawn and animated reconstructions of road or airplane accidents. Some of the most popular examples of scientific visualizations are [[computer-generated images]] that show real [[spacecraft]] in action, out in the void far beyond Earth, or on other [[planet]]s.{{Citation needed|date=January 2013}} Dynamic forms of visualization, such as [[educational animation]] or [[timeline]]s, have the potential to enhance learning about systems that change over time.

Apart from the distinction between interactive visualizations and animation, the most useful categorization is probably between abstract and model-based scientific visualizations. The abstract visualizations show completely conceptual constructs in 2D or 3D. These generated shapes are completely arbitrary. The model-based visualizations either place overlays of data on real or digitally constructed images of reality or make a digital construction of a real object directly from the scientific data.

Scientific visualization is usually done with specialized [[software]], though there are a few exceptions, noted below. Some of these specialized programs have been released as [[Open-source software|open source]] software, having very often its origins in universities, within an academic environment where sharing software tools and giving access to the source code is common. There are also many [[proprietary software]] packages of scientific visualization tools.

Models and frameworks for building visualizations include the [[dataflow|data flow]] models popularized by systems such as AVS, IRIS Explorer, and [[VTK]] toolkit, and data state models in spreadsheet systems such as the Spreadsheet for Visualization and Spreadsheet for Images.