Book Image

Learning D3.js 5 Mapping - Second Edition

By : Thomas Newton, Oscar Villarreal, Lars Verspohl
Book Image

Learning D3.js 5 Mapping - Second Edition

By: Thomas Newton, Oscar Villarreal, Lars Verspohl

Overview of this book

D3.js is a visualization library used for the creation and control of dynamic and interactive graphical forms. It is a library used to manipulate HTML and SVG documents as well as the Canvas element based on data. Using D3.js, developers can create interactive maps for the web, that look and feel beautiful. This book will show you how build and design maps with D3.js and gives you great insight into projections, colors, and the most appropriate types of map. The book begins by helping you set up all the tools necessary to build visualizations and maps. Then it covers obtaining geographic data, modifying it to your specific needs, visualizing it with augmented data using D3.js. It will further show you how to draw and map with the Canvas API and how to publish your visualization. By the end of this book, you'll be creating maps like the election maps and the kind of infographics you'll find on sites like the New York Times.
Table of Contents (13 chapters)
6
Finding and Working with Geographic Data

Mapping with Canvas and D3

It's time to leave our house and tree. I know it's sad, but we'll move on to potentially more exciting things to build. You covered a lot of ground in the previous chapter. You learned how to draw with Canvas, how to animate with Canvas, and a pattern to combine the D3 life cycle with Canvas. As D3 is usually in cahoots with SVG, you also learned about a few key differences between SVG and Canvas. Understanding the advantages and limitations of either approach is key to making informed decisions about which mode of rendering to use. Here's what we will go through in this chapter:

  • We'll start off with a summary of the key reasons for using either SVG or Canvas.
  • We will then move on to review steps to build a flight path visualization with SVG, before building one with Canvas.
  • Along the way, we will focus on measuring the performance...