Ea Graphics Library

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Taneka Tarring

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Aug 4, 2024, 4:07:09 PM8/4/24

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Agraphics library is a program library designed to aid in rendering computer graphics to a monitor. This typically involves providing optimized versions of functions that handle common rendering tasks. This can be done purely in software and running on the CPU, common in embedded systems, or being hardware accelerated by a GPU, more common in PCs. By employing these functions, a program can assemble an image to be output to a monitor. This relieves the programmer of the task of creating and optimizing these functions, and allows them to focus on building the graphics program. Graphics libraries are mainly used in video games and simulations.

One of the favorite requests I get is to help someone choose a data-graphics book. The last person to ask my help was one of my Cooper Union students. So, they are my audience today. But I think you may want to listen too.

My arms-reach access to this library gives me an edge as a practicing designer. Impractically, my love of these books propelled me to found Visionary Press in pursuit of creating spectacular books about information graphics.

Start with this essential trio. They give a complementary mix of how-to basics, historic tradition, chart types, loads of examples, and colorful presentation. Each is a well-presented and enjoyable experience. Any is good on its own, but the group is particularly strong when read together.

The WSJ Guide to Information Graphics by Dona M. Wong (2013, 160 pages) [Amazon] [Internet Archive]

Cartographies of Time by Daniel Rosenberg and Anthony Grafton (2010, 272 pages) [Amazon] [Internet Archive]

Thematic Mapping by Kenneth Field (2022, 296 pages) [Amazon]

There are also some overview books that have a more specific perspective. Nerd Journalism is my favorite Cairo. Munzer has an authoritative research-backed perspective, but it is in need of an update to account for the past ten years of findings.

If you like your lessons more obliquely, then consider reading Howard Wainer or Edward Tufte. Each made a career of assembling short essays into books. Wainer is better at teaching a lesson. Tufte is better at making pretty books.

From Hieroglyphics to Isotype by Otto Neurath (2010, 224 pages) [link]

Designer's Guide to Creating Charts and Diagrams by Nigel Holmes (1984, 144 pages) [Amazon] [Internet Archive]

Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec (2016, 288 pages) [Amazon]

Further: If you want to learn more from the Isotype crowd then find a used copy of The Transformer by Marie Neurath (2008, 80 pages). If you want another chronicle of cross-Atlantic dueling creatives, but with code, then check out Data Sketches by Nadieh Bremer and Shirley Wu (2021, 428 pages) [Amazon].

A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication by Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer (2021, 320 pages) [Amazon]

Early Thematic Mapping in the History of Cartography by Arthur H. Robinson (1982, 280 pages) [Amazon] [Internet Archive]

tienne-Jules Marey: The Graphic Method by by Georges Hattab and RJ Andrews (2022, 168 pages) [Amazon] [Visionary]

Any recommendation for what to do is strengthened by advice on what not to do. The following books all made huge contributions and deserve our respect. But they are skippable today (especially in favor of other books by Brinton and Tufte that I find more enchanting). You have my permission to disregard all of these.

Data storyteller RJ Andrews helps organizations solve high-stakes problems by using visual metaphors and information graphics: charts, diagrams, and maps. His passion is studying the history of information graphics to discover design insights. See more at infoWeTrust.com.

This is a great list, thanks so much for putting it together. Bookmarked! Just when I thought I was familiar with most books on dataviz, there are more gems I've never even heard of. I have an idea to create a poster/chart of dataviz books, somehow ordered and grouped. Or a timeline. Or a family tree history of publications about dataviz. There is so much data on dataviz now. Thanks for your contributions!

My design library includes Playfair pie charts, John Venn diagrams, Nightingale roses, and Sankey sankeys. A shelf full of 1920s dataViz textbooks, another shelf of Neurath Istoypes, and a couple dozen poorly-bound 21st-century softbacks. Some charts by good guys, some charts by bad guys, mostly charts by people trying to make a buck. It\u2019s not that I need all these. But once one gets locked into a serious book collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can.

What follows are some suggestions for how to start building your own library: What to read first, and then what to read next. Each of the books is about data graphics. Books that merely feature data graphics are not included. I\u2019ve included Amazon affiliate, Internet Archive, and other links as relevant. You can also find similar information in this Google sheet.

The WSJ Guide to Information Graphics by Dona M. Wong (2013, 160 pages) [Amazon] [Internet Archive]

Cartographies of Time by Daniel Rosenberg and Anthony Grafton (2010, 272 pages) [Amazon] [Internet Archive]

Thematic Mapping by Kenneth Field (2022, 296 pages) [Amazon]

The following set, listed chronologically, are all magnificent classics that still deserve your attention. (Later, we will see a list of famous books that are OK to skip.) Each of these is pretty long. Reading any cover-to-cover is not necessary. Instead, read their introductions, Karsten\u2019s conclusion, and then bounce around to what excites you most.

Buying all of these would be expensive. You probably won\u2019t find a copy of Brinton, it\u2019s rare. I recommend reading Karsten and Brinton for free at the Internet Archive. Borrow Tukey from your local library. If you read the first essential trio and internalized Karsten and Tukey you would become an information-design powerhouse.

Wong\u2019s Guide to Information Graphics is short. I wish there was an even smaller introductory handbook to making charts. (Perhaps that\u2019s a to-do for me?) If you find yourself instead wanting more than Wong, then try one of the following general intro-books.

Storytelling with Data by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic (2015, 288 pages) [Amazon]

The Truthful Art by Alberto Cairo (2016, 400 pages) [Amazon]

Better Data Visualizations by Jonathan Schwabish (2021, 464 pages) [Amazon]

Data Visualisation by Andy Kirk (2019, 328 pages) [Amazon]

Personally, a Cairo book was my gateway into the field. Maybe it will be yours too. Knaflic is the most talented chart-presenter of the lot and shows you how to do it too. Today, I reference Schwabish the most because of its chart-by-chart structure.

Even though it\u2019s not the longest book of the lot, Kirk feels like the most comprehensive. (Maybe it\u2019s his British accent.) He is working on a third edition right now, so you may want to choose that book when it comes out because it will be the newest of the lot.

From Hieroglyphics to Isotype by Otto Neurath (2010, 224 pages) [link]

Designer's Guide to Creating Charts and Diagrams by Nigel Holmes (1984, 144 pages) [Amazon] [Internet Archive]

Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec (2016, 288 pages) [Amazon]

If these monographs make you curious about the history of the field, then read one of our many histories, spanning from Friendly and Wainer (2021) all the back to Marey\u2019s 1878 Graphic Method (which was recently translated in 2022 by me and Hattab).

A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication by Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer (2021, 320 pages) [Amazon]

Early Thematic Mapping in the History of Cartography by Arthur H. Robinson (1982, 280 pages) [Amazon] [Internet Archive]

\u00C9tienne-Jules Marey: The Graphic Method by by Georges Hattab and RJ Andrews (2022, 168 pages) [Amazon] [Visionary]

Further, if narrative history is your thing, then track down a PDF of Howard Funkhouser\u2019s \u201CHistorical Development of the Graphical Representation of Statistical Data\u201D from 1937\u2014it is the modern foundation for understanding our tradition.