Graphical Style Sheets: Towards Reusable Representations of Biomedical Graphics

Abstract

We propose that the design characteristics shared by a family of data graphics can be represented as declarative, knowledge-based graphical style sheets that a general-purpose visualization system can use to generate domain-specific data graphics automatically. Graphical style sheets (GSS) define the layout and drawing conventions shared by members of a particular family of data graphics. A GSS is a declarative mapping between Postscript-like graphical objects and data stored in object-oriented data structures. We describe the conceptual framework underlying our approach, and a prototype constraint-based visualization system (PALLADIO) and design representation language (P-SPEAK) we are building to evaluate this framework.