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Last time, on "As the Tagxedo Grows"... |
I came back to Tagxedo and tried a different approach. After much thought, I realized that, by design, many of the options in the "Word | Layout Options" menu (and in the Tagxedo interface in general) are dependent upon one another, which can affect a user's output in unexpected ways. If I wanted to see what just the "emphasis" option did, then I would need to take steps to ensure the other available options don't alter what I'm trying to accomplish, or at least minimize their effect. I needed a "controlled input": something that lined up with my hypothesis and could be used in Tagxedo. My brainstorming brought me to perhaps my favorite board game: SCRABBLE©. I decided to use the frequency of occurrence of SCRABBLE© letter tiles and input that information into Tagxedo to see if my hypothesis about the "emphasis" option was indeed correct. I did have to change a few parameters to make the output easier to analyze:
- I stopped trying to be cute with the cloud shape and went with a basic vertical cloud
- I upped the emphasis parameter to maximum (120%) so that any modifications would be extremely obvious
- Under the "Word" tab I had to set the "Remove Common Words" option to "No" (leaving this on leaves you with no output, as Tagxedo views all individual letters as common words)
Here's the output:
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SCRABBLE© Letter Tile Frequency (as interpreted by Tagxedo)... |
The result was consistent with the frequency of SCRABBLE© tiles: the letter "E" is the most frequently occurring tile in the game, and in the Tagxedo output it is the most "emphasized" (i.e. largest) letter (technically word) in the output image. Success!
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...and here's the output after I maximized the "emphasis" to 120% (forgot to do that in the previous screenshot) |
I enjoyed taking this trial-and-error, quasi-scientific method approach to learning more about Tagxedo's "emphasis" option, but I feel as though I learned
more than I was aiming for. Tagxedo's options are somewhat interdependent; changing or affecting one most often changes or affects some other one. This fact is important to know and realize if a user is aiming for a particular outcome or result (kind of like real life, isn't it?)
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