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43 Python scripts generated for circle packing this week

Circle Packing

Chart overview

Circle packing is a hierarchical visualization where data is represented as circles containing other circles.

Key points

  • The area of each circle is proportional to the value it represents, making it effective for showing part-to-whole relationships in nested data.
  • Unlike treemaps which use rectangles, circle packing can sometimes waste space but creates a more organic, visually appealing representation.
  • It's particularly effective for organizational charts, file systems, and budget allocations.

Python Tutorial

How to create a circle packing in Python

Use the full tutorial for implementation details, troubleshooting, and chart variations in matplotlib, seaborn, and plotly.

Complete Guide to Scientific Data Visualization

Example Visualization

Circle packing diagram showing budget allocation by department and subcategory

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Generate publication-ready circle packings with AI in seconds. No coding required – just describe your data and let AI do the work.

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Example AI Prompt

"Create a circle packing diagram showing 'Corporate Budget Allocation' for a $200M annual budget across 5 departments. Generate hierarchical data: Marketing ($45M: Advertising $25M, Digital $15M, Events $5M), Engineering ($65M: Development $40M, QA $15M, DevOps $10M), Sales ($50M: Enterprise $30M, SMB $15M, Support $5M), HR ($25M: Recruiting $15M, Training $10M), Finance ($15M: Accounting $10M, Compliance $5M). Use distinct colors for each department. Label outer circles with department names and totals, inner circles with subcategory names. Add a legend mapping colors to departments. Include tooltips showing percentage of total budget."

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2

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3

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Python Code Example

example.py
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.patches as patches
import matplotlib.colors as mcolors
import matplotlib.cm as cm
import circlify

# === 1. DATA ===
df = pd.DataFrame({
    'Department': ['Marketing', 'Marketing', 'Engineering', 'Engineering', 'Sales', 'Sales', 'HR', 'HR'],
    'Subcategory': ['Advertising', 'Social Media', 'Development', 'Testing', 'Direct Sales', 'Online Sales', 'Recruitment', 'Training'],
    'Budget': [30000000, 20000000, 50000000, 15000000, 25000000, 18000000, 12000000, 8000000]
})

# === 2. HIERARCHY BUILDING ===
data = []
for dept, group in df.groupby('Department'):
    sub_children = []
    for _, row in group.iterrows():
        sub_children.append({'id': row['Subcategory'], 'datum': row['Budget']})
    data.append({'id': dept, 'datum': group['Budget'].sum(), 'children': sub_children})

# Compute circle positions (always normalized to radius 1.0)
circles = circlify.circlify(
    data, 
    show_enclosure=False, 
    target_enclosure=circlify.Circle(x=0, y=0, r=1)
)

# === 3. SETUP PLOT (THE FIX) ===
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(14, 14), facecolor='white')

# !!! CRITICAL FIX: Lock the view to see the whole unit circle !!!
ax.set_xlim(-1.2, 1.2)
ax.set_ylim(-1.2, 1.2)
ax.axis('off')
ax.set_aspect('equal') # Prevents distortion

# Colormap setup
budgets = df['Budget'].values
norm = mcolors.LogNorm(vmin=min(budgets), vmax=max(budgets))
cmap = cm.get_cmap('magma_r')

# === 4. DRAWING LOOP ===
for circle in circles:
    x, y, r = circle.x, circle.y, circle.r
    level = circle.level
    
    if level == 1:
        # --- PARENT (Department) ---
        # Draw a light container circle
        ax.add_patch(patches.Circle(
            (x, y), r, 
            facecolor='#f0f0f0', 
            edgecolor='#999999', 
            linewidth=2,
            zorder=0  # BACKGROUND LAYER
        ))
        
        # Label: Place at the top edge of the circle
        label_y = y + r 
        ax.text(
            x, label_y, 
            circle.ex['id'].upper(), 
            ha='center', va='bottom', 
            fontsize=16, fontweight='bold', color='#333333',
            zorder=2
        )

    elif level == 2:
        # --- CHILD (Subcategory) ---
        budget = circle.ex['datum']
        label = circle.ex['id']
        
        # Color based on budget
        color = cmap(norm(budget))
        
        # Draw the bubble
        ax.add_patch(patches.Circle(
            (x, y), r * 0.95, # Slight gap
            facecolor=color, 
            edgecolor='white', 
            linewidth=1,
            zorder=1 # FOREGROUND LAYER
        ))
        
        # Smart Labeling (Hide if too small)
        if r > 0.05:
            # Contrast check
            lum = 0.2126*color[0] + 0.7152*color[1] + 0.0722*color[2]
            text_col = 'black' if lum > 0.6 else 'white'
            
            # Label
            ax.text(x, y + r*0.15, label, ha='center', va='center', 
                    fontsize=11, fontweight='bold', color=text_col, zorder=3)
            # Value
            val_str = f"${budget/1000000:.1f}M"
            ax.text(x, y - r*0.15, val_str, ha='center', va='center', 
                    fontsize=9, color=text_col, zorder=3)

# === 5. TITLE & LEGEND ===
total_budget = df['Budget'].sum()
plt.title(f"Budget Allocation (Total: ${total_budget/1000000:.1f}M)", 
          fontsize=24, fontweight='bold', y=0.95)

# Add Colorbar
sm = plt.cm.ScalarMappable(cmap=cmap, norm=norm)
sm.set_array([])
cbar = plt.colorbar(sm, ax=ax, shrink=0.5, pad=0.02)
cbar.set_label('Budget Scale (Log)', fontsize=12)

plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig('fixed_budget_plot.png', dpi=300)
plt.show()

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Common Use Cases

  • 1Corporate budget allocation visualization
  • 2File system size analysis
  • 3Organizational structure display
  • 4Market segmentation by size

Pro Tips

Use contrasting colors for different hierarchy levels

Add labels only for circles large enough to display them

Consider treemaps for more space-efficient layouts

Long-tail keyword opportunities

how to create circle packing in python
circle packing matplotlib
circle packing seaborn
circle packing plotly
circle packing scientific visualization
circle packing publication figure python

High-intent chart variations

Circle Packing with confidence interval overlays
Circle Packing optimized for publication layouts
Circle Packing with category-specific color encoding
Interactive Circle Packing for exploratory analysis

Library comparison for this chart

circlify

Useful in specialized workflows that complement core Python plotting libraries for circle-packing analysis tasks.

matplotlib

Best when you need full control over axis formatting, annotation placement, and journal-specific styling for circle-packing.

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