I'm trying to make a scatterplot that avoids overlapping symbols. To do this, I can jitter along one of my axes (in this case my x value) if symbols are overlapping. My symbols all have different sizes.
Does anyone know a way to keep track of the space in the axis that is filled by existing symbols? If that is possible, I can easily make an algorithm to check if the space for a symbol is taken and move it until it is not conflicting.
I'm including an image of a draft scatterplot where I have randomly jittered the values on the X axis. I'd like to be able to do something that guarantees non-overlap instead of this.
Thanks! draft scatter image