Conventions about what information goes on each axis of a two-way plot are precisely that, conventions. This column discusses—historically, syntactically, and by example-the idea that flouting convention in various ways can lead to small but useful improvements in graph display. Putting y-axis...

Quantile plots showing by default ordered values versus cumulative probabilities are both well known and also often neglected, considering their ma jor advantages. Their flexibility and power is emphasized by using the qplot program to show several variants on the standard form, making full use...