Josh Peek edited Enhanced Figures.md  over 9 years ago

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Historically, a figure in a paper is a static, in that it offers one unchanging view of the data offers wish to present. Often, though, adding the opporutnity to either manipulate a figure, or see it in context, lets a reader learn more. By using visualization software capable of outputing to formats that allow for interactivity, authors are not limited to a single view of a figure, and readers can explore beyond what an author-provided default view provides.  ## 3D figures  3D PDF is a standard fully supported by Adobe within PDF itself. It allows for a selectable sequence of views of embedded 3D objects, in which each view can have a subset of objects visible from a given vantage point. As the tools for creating 3D PDFs were spun off from Adobe itself a few years ago, it had become somewhat cumbersome to generate such figures. A [tutorial](http://www.astrobetter.com/tutorial-for-embedding-3d-interactive-graphics-into-pdf/) now exists that allows a user to generate a PDF with a 3D figure using LaTeX tools. 

Figures are more useful when they can interacted with an explored. One can think of an interactive chart as giving the user the experience of playing with data, but in a very limited sandbox. Many top-tier news agencies (e. g. *The New York Times*) have done a lot of this work, and the technology is now getting easier to use without dedicated developers.   ### Brushing  Brushing is the idea of being able to select, with a box or lasso like tool, a subset of the points in a one- or two- dimensional space.  ### Linking  Linking is when data points are connected. In the context of brushing, this allows a user to explore high dimensional spaces by selecting collections of points in one dimension and determining where they lie in another dimension.   ### Staging  Staging is a storytelling tool, allowing the author to reveal or highlight parts of a figure in sequence. The highlighting can take the form of Brushing and Linking as above.  ## Images in Context  The AstroExplorer tool (cite) and the [ADS All Sky Survey](http://adsass.org) can allow images to be treated as data, in the sense that they can be "put back" on the Sky in context. Here's a sample, using an image from Barnard that is 100 years old (update). Click the caption's link to see it on the Sky in WorldWide Telescope.