Solving the simple continuous table layout problem

Automatic table layout is required in web applications. Unfortunately, this is NP-hard for reasonable layout requirements such as minimizing table height for a given width. One approach is to solve a continuous relaxation of the layout problem in which each cell must be large enough to contain the area of its content. The solution to this relaxed problem can then guide the solution to the original problem. We give a simple and efficient algorithm for solving this continuous relaxation for the case that cells do not span multiple columns or rows. The algorithm is not only interesting in its own right but also because it provides insight into the geometry of table layout. Categories and Subject Descriptors I.7.2 [Document and Text Processing]: Document Preparation—Format and notation, Photocomposition/typesetting General Terms Algorithms Keywords automatic table layout,constrained optimization

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: DOCENG
• Authors: Nathan Hurst, Kim Marriott, David W. Albrecht
• Keywords: Automatic Table Layout, Continuous Relaxation, DOCENG 2006, Table Layout