Improving Angular Resolution in Visualizations

Abstra t. In visualizations of large-s ale transportation and ommuni ations networks, node oordinates are usually xed to preserve the underlying geography, while links are represented as geodesi s for simpli ity. This often leads to severe readability problems due to poor angular resolution, i.e. small angles formed by lines onverging in a node. We present a new method using automati ally routed ubi urves that both preserves node oordinates and eliminates the resolution problem. The approa h is applied to representations in the plane and on the sphere, showing European train onne tions and Internet traÆ , respe tively.