DepthEncoding

Visual legibility is one of the design goal of visualizations. In his book semiology of graphics, Bertin described for the first time the legibility rules for the design of 2D graphical representations from three aspects - graphical density, angular separation and retinal separation. Bertin's theory on the graphic design stated in this book has been the theoretical foundation of information visualization.

Motivated by these guidelines for legible 2D graphic design, a plausible design space for legible 3D scientific visualizations has been proposed. Presumably, I include all the three basic dimensions above inherited from Bertin's theory in the design space, as has been on the basis of current scientific visualization literature with respect to visual legibility issues as far as I read. Another dimension beyond these three, specific to 3D data visualization, is depth separation as I proposed to name it.