NAME Image::WorldMap - Create graphical world maps of data SYNOPSIS my $map = Image::WorldMap->new("earth-small.png", "maian/8"); $map->add(4.91, 52.35, "Amsterdam.pm"); $map->add(-2.355399, 51.3828, "Bath.pm"); $map->add(-0.093999, 51.3627, "Croydon.pm"); $map->draw("test.png"); DESCRIPTION This module helps create graphical world maps of data, such as the Perl Monger World Map (http://www.astray.com/Bath.pm/). This module takes in a number of label locations (longitude/latitude) and outputs an image. It can attach text to the labels, and tries to make sure that labels do not overlap. It is intended to be used to create images of information such as "where are all the Perl Monger groups?", "where in the world are all the CPAN mirrors?" and so on. This module comes with a low-resolution image of the world. Additional larger images have not been bundled with the module due to their size, but are available at: http://www.astray.com/WorldMap/ METHODS new The constructor. It takes two mandatory arguments, the filename of the image of the earth used for the background, and whether or not to display labels. The label option is actually a font size and name. You must have a local truetype font in your directory. The font name format is "font_name/size". For example. If there is a font file called cinema.ttf somewhere in the font path you might use "cinema/20" to load a 20 pixel sized font of cinema. # Without labels my $map = Image::WorldMap->new("earth-small.png"); # With labels my $map = Image::WorldMap->new("earth-small.png", "maian/8"); add This adds a node to the map, with an optional label. Longitude and latitude are given as a decimal, with (0, 0) representing a point on the Greenwich meridian and the equator and (-180, -180) top-left and (180, 180) bottom-right on a projection of the Earth. $map->add(-2.355399, 51.3828, "Bath.pm"); draw This draws the map and writes it out to a file. The file format is chosen from the filename, but is typically PNG. $map->draw("text.png"); NOTES This module tries hard to make sure that labels do not overlap. This is an NP-hard problem. It currently uses a simulated annealing method with Inline::C to speed it up. It could be faster still. The label positioning method used is random: if you run the program again, you will get a different set of label positions, which may or may not be better. COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) 2001, Leon Brocard This module is free software; you can redistribute it or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. AUTHOR Leon Brocard, acme@astray.com