Tutorial

Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Gephi Tutorial
Visualization
Welcome to this Gephi tutorial. It will guide you to the basic and advanced visualization
settings in Gephi. The selection and interaction with tools will also be introduced.
Follow the Quick Start tutorial to learn the basic steps.
Gephi version 0.7alpha4 is used to do this tutorial.

Get Gephi

A sample airlines.gexf dataset is used during this tutorial. It maps airline routes in the
United-States.
Last updated May 26th, 2010

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Introduction
Gephi is built around its visualization window, which looks like below. Each element has a
function and will be detailed in this tutorial.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Zoom & Pan

Use your mouse to move and scale the visualization
- Zoom: Mouse Wheel
- Pan: Right Mouse Drag

Zoom

If you loose your graph, reset the zoom

Pan

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Selection size
When you start Gephi, the drag mode
mouse pressed and moving away.

is enabled and let you drag nodes by keeping left

The dragging selection size can be changed:

Click on the area where Dragging is written

Configure the Diameter with the slider

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Rectangle selection
The rectangle selection is used to select one or multiple area of the network.
Select the Rectangle selection tool

Press the left mouse on the visualization window and

expand the rectangle zone by keeping left button pressed
To reset selection, click somewhere else on the window
One can also select single nodes by clicking on them and keeping CTRL key (Command
on Macintosh).

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Autoselect neighbors
Essential option to enhance readability of the network. Selected nodes neighbors are
automatically selected as well, allowing to know who is connected to who easily.
Expand

the visualization settings

Check the Autoselect neighbors option

without

with

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Edges color
By default edges have the same color as their source node. This can be configured and a
single color put instead.
Expand

the visualization settings and go to the Edges tab

Uncheck the Source node color and configure Edge defaut color

source color

user color

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Background color
Click on the first button in the visualization settings

Configure the color and click OK to confirm

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Nodes shapes and 3-D

Although Gephi uses a 3-D rendering engine, networks
are usually in 2-D and this is the default mode.
Lets see how to enable 3-D mode.
Expand

the visualization settings and go to the Nodes tab

Select Sphere 3d instead of Disk 2d

The aspect of nodes changes and it is now possible to move in 3-D

space.
Keep middle button of your mouse pressed and move up and down to inclinate the view.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Show labels
Locate the visualization settings related to text display

Find the size mode button

and pick Node Size option

- Fixed Independent of zoom magnification
- Scaled Label size depends on the zoom magnification
- Node size Depends on the node size
The color mode
allows to paint the label as its node color
or as a unique color

Font quality

To have better font rendering, increase the Font size and reduce the text size.

Size

Color

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Size mode
The differences between size mode in text drawing. One can see the text size on the
right is proportional to the nodes size.

Fixed mode

Tip - Use compact fonts

To gain space, use compact fonts like Libel Suit or Yanone.

Node size

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Set label color

Locate the color chooser in the visualization settings

Press the left mouse to display the palette and pick a color
(Right-click to get a complete palette chooser)

This sets node label color. To configure edge label color, expand the settings bar

Palette

Combine Alt, Shift and Ctrl (Command on Macintosh) to switch palettes on the fly.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Label Adjust
Using the sample dataset with text display, labels are sometimes overlapping. The Label Adjust layout can be run to
avoid that.
Go to the Layout panel

Choose the Label Adjust layout in the list
Click on

to proceed

Overlapping

Fine

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Display attributes
Besides a label, nodes and edges have attributes, like gender, age or relationship type in
a social network. Its easy to display them instead/with the label.
Click on the Attributes button in the visualization settings.
A dialog appears and lists all attributes, separated for nodes
and edges.
Check all attributes you want to display, for
instance Code.
Click on OK to confirm

Values will be displayed separated by a -

character.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Display only selected labels

A useful option for showing labels only if elements are selected. Works for both nodes
and edges.

Expand

the visualization settings and go to the Labels tab

Check the Hide non-selected option

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Antialiasing option
Antialiasing is a visualization option which makes edges look
smoother. It is set at 4x by default and can go up to 16x.
Go to Gephi options in the Tools menu
0x

Select the Visualization tab and then the OpenGL tab.

16x

Here you can change the antialising option. Restart Gephi to validate the changes.
The best value is 16x but is not supported on all hardware. It is recommended to update
your graphics driver to profit from maximum performance in Gephi.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Take screenshots
Gephi can take high-resolution screenshots of the current visualization window. Screenshots images are exported in PNG format.
Find the camera icon in the visualization bar
Click on the down arrow to access the settings panel
High-resolution screenshots depend on your computer capabilities. Screenshot with higher resolution looks better but have a larger file size.
Antialiasing makes edges smoother. Note that 16x
is not supported on all hardware.
With good hardware you can go until 16000 width
and 16x antialiasing.
Click on the
icon to take the screenshot. The interface will appears frozen during
execution. That is normal, just wait few seconds until the process ends.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Tools
Tools are available in the toolbar and allow various interactions with the graph window or graph elements (nodes, edges). They can react on mouse click, selection,
drag or more complex scenario like moving up while pressing.
Click on the first tool, the Painter and hold mouse button to color selected
nodes.
You can see properties related to tools are located in the upper properties bar

Try now the pencils tools to create new nodes and edges. Increase default node
size to make them more visible, set 10 instead of 1.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Shortest Path tool

Visualizing the shortest path between two nodes can be done with a tool easily.
Click on the shortest path tool

in the toolbar

Click on a node (the source node) and then on the target node

The path is colored and nodes are selected. If no path is found, the properties bar indicates No path exists between these two nodes. The distance is given otherwise. Note
the distance takes edge weight in account.
Click elsewhere on the window to unselect the nodes. And use
Reset Color action to remove the red color.

Undirected graphs

Note that the shortest path is not the same for directed and undirected graphs.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Heatmap tool
Working with network distance like the Shortest Path tool, the Heatmap gives distance
from a single node point of view. It can easily highlight the closest or the farthest reachable nodes.
Select the Heatmap

tool

Configure the gradient like below. Double-click on the triangles to change color.
Use the airlines sample dataset and click on a node. Farthest reachable airports are
painted in red. The properties bar also indicates the max distance value. Compare Detroit, a well connected airport and a less central one.

Heatmap from the Minneapolis airport.

Red nodes are airports reachable in two
steps, the maximum distance.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Edit tool
Edit tool is a convenient way to edit your data directly from the visualization window,
and in particular labels.
Select the Edit tool

in the toolbar

Notice a new panel just appears on the left.

Click on a node to edit its label or attributes. Press
always ENTER key to validate the changes when you edit
a value.
Edge edit is not available for the moment but will be developed in a future version.

Find more Tools

Developers can easily add new tools to Gephi. Consult the Plugin Center to see what is available.
And share your tools ideas and suggestions on the Gephi forum.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Bonus
Text color and size can be used as a visual sign to express higher influence or any
other characteristic. To conclude this tutorial, lets see how to do something like
below.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Transform text color and size

The Ranking module will be used to do that.
Find the label color
transformer and select which
attribute to use for ranking. Here the Degree is chosen.
Configure the ranking colors and click on
The text should be colored now. Try also to use Betweenness
Centrality instead of Degree.
Now select the label size

transformer

Select sizes between 0 and 1, as this size value

is multiplied with the default element size
Click on

to see how the text size changes

Reset transformations

Click on Reset label color and Reset label size to reset text aspect.

Tutorial
Visualization

* Introduction
* Zoom & Pan
* Selection
* Color
* 3-D
* Labels
* Text size
* Text color
* Adjust labels
* Attributes text
* Text & Selection
* Antialiasing
* Screenshots
* Tools
* Transform texts
* Conclusion

Conclusion
In this tutorial you learnt more about Gephis visualization capabilities and the essential
settings. You are now mastering text drawing and are ready to produce more readable
and nifty-looking results. You discovered interactive features like Tools and know how to
configure them.
A future tutorial may focus only on tools and provide details about all of them. In the
meantime youre welcome to ask all the questions you want on the forum. The Gephi
community can help you.

Go further:
Gephi Website
Gephi Wiki
Gephi forum