Refinement of orthogonal graph drawings

Current orthogonal graph drawing algorithms produce drawings which are generally good. However, many times the readability of orthogonal drawings can be significantly improved with a postprocessing technique, called refinement, which improves aesthetic qualities of a drawing such as area, bends, crossings, and total edge length. Refinement is separate from layout and works by analyzing and then hue-tuning the existing drawing in an efficient manner. In this paper we define the problem and goals of orthogonal drawing refinement and introduce a methodology which efficiently refines any orthogonal graph drawing. We have implemented our technique in C++ and conducted preliminary experiments over a set of drawings from five well known orthogonal drawing systems. Experimental analysis shows our technique to produce an average 34% improvement in area, 22% in bends, 19% in crossings, and 34% in total edge length.