Edward Rolf Tufte

     The work by Edward R. Tufte, especially as reflected in his classic book on Visual Display of Quantitative Information, develops a full theory about the visual organization of data in tabular format. It is based on a careful analysis of a large repertory of examples, which illustrate the pertinent historical background (with even a reference to maps displayed on clay tablets, p. 20). The discussion does not develop the theme of non–linearity, which is of interest to us, but it is implicit in the very emphasis on the "density" of data (chapter 8) that can be represented in such a fashion.

[G. Buccellati – December 2005]