Planar Embeddings with Small and Uniform Faces

Abstract

Motivated by finding planar embeddings that lead to drawings with favorable aesthetics, we study the problems MINMAXFACE and UNIFORMFACES of embedding a given biconnected multi-graph such that the largest face is as small as possible and such that all faces have the same size, respectively. We prove a complexity dichotomy for MINMAXFACE and show that deciding whether the maximum is at most $k$ is polynomial-time solvable for $k\le 4$ and NP-complete for $k\ge 5$. Further, we give a 6-approximation for minimizing the maximum face in a planar embedding. For UNIFORMFACES, we show that the problem is NP-complete for odd $k\ge 7$ and even $k\ge 10$. Moreover, we characterize the biconnected planar multi-graphs admitting 3- and 4-uniform embeddings (in a $k$-uniform embedding all faces have size $k$) and give an efficient algorithm for testing the existence of a 6-uniform embedding.

23 pages, 5 figures, extended version of 'Planar Embeddings with Small and Uniform Faces' (The 25th International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation, 2014)