How can I avoid label collisions?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
How can I influence the spaces between labels on a BarChart

How can I avoid label collisions in plot ticks and labels? For example, here is a histogram with colliding frame tick labels:

BarChart[{Labeled[{196}, Row[{"Jan", "Feb 23"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{349}, Row[{"Feb 23", "Apr 15"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{333}, Row[{"Apr 15", "Jun 6"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{308}, Row[{"Jun 6", "Jul 28"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{308}, Row[{"Jul 28", "Sep 19"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{344}, Row[{"Sep 19", "Nov 10"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{162}, Row[{"Nov 10", "Jan"}, "-"], Below]}, 
 GridLines -> {Automatic, None}, 
 BaseStyle -> Directive[FontFamily -> "Bitstream Charter", 10], 
 BarSpacing -> 0, Ticks -> None, GridLines -> None, 
 Frame -> {{True, False}, {False, False}}, PlotRange -> All, 
 BarOrigin -> Bottom, BarSpacing -> None, ChartLayout -> "Stacked", 
 PerformanceGoal -> "Speed", 
 ChartStyle -> {Directive[
    EdgeForm[{Opacity[1.`], Thickness[Medium], Blue}], Opacity[1.`], 
    FaceForm[LightBlue]]}]

Mathematica graphics

So the question has two parts:

How to detect collisions in frame tick labels in general.
How to rearrange labels to minimize collisions and optimize for aesthetics.

I'm not sure how to do part 1, but part 2 should involve either rotations or columns I guess. I would rather not assume a specific font or size of text, but perhaps this is unavoidable.

Weird, I can't upload images. The toolbar is gone! What should I do? I've tried restarting safari. — M.R., Sep 10 '12 at 19:49
You could use Szabolcs' picture upload tool to directly upload graphics from Mathematica to StackExchange. — Sjoerd C. de Vries, Sep 10 '12 at 20:18
Take a look at: http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/9530/how-to-align-rotated-tick-labels More generally, http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/search?q=labels — DavidC, Sep 10 '12 at 20:41
Also dup of http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/questions/8378/how-to-rotate-tickmarks-in-datelistplot — alancalvitti, Sep 10 '12 at 23:37

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 11 '12 at 09:25

You can rotate the labels like this:

rot[x_] := Rotate[x, \[Pi]/2]

BarChart[{Labeled[{196}, rot@Row[{"Jan", "Feb 23"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{349}, rot@Row[{"Feb 23", "Apr 15"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{333}, rot@Row[{"Apr 15", "Jun 6"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{308}, rot@Row[{"Jun 6", "Jul 28"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{308}, rot@Row[{"Jul 28", "Sep 19"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{344}, rot@Row[{"Sep 19", "Nov 10"}, "-"], Below], 
  Labeled[{162}, rot@Row[{"Nov 10", "Jan"}, "-"], Below]}, 
 GridLines -> {Automatic, None}, 
 BaseStyle -> Directive[FontFamily -> "Bitstream Charter", 10], 
 BarSpacing -> 0, Ticks -> None, GridLines -> None, 
 Frame -> {{True, False}, {False, False}}, PlotRange -> All, 
 BarOrigin -> Bottom, BarSpacing -> None, ChartLayout -> "Stacked", 
 PerformanceGoal -> "Speed", 
 ChartStyle -> {Directive[
    EdgeForm[{Opacity[1.`], Thickness[Medium], Blue}], Opacity[1.`], 
    FaceForm[LightBlue]]}]

Example barchart with rotated labels

How can I avoid label collisions?

1 Answers1