Proximity drawings in polynomial area and volume

We introduce a novel technique for drawing proximity graphs in polynomial area and volume. Previously known algorithms produce representations whose size increases exponentially with the size of the graph. This holds even when we restrict ourselves to binary trees. Our method is quite general and yields the first algorithms to construct (a) polynomial area weak Gabriel drawings of ternary trees, (b) polynomial area weak β-proximity drawing of binary trees for any 0⩽β<∞, and (c) polynomial volume weak Gabriel drawings of unbounded degree trees. Notice that, in general, the above graphs do not admit a strong proximity drawing. Finally, we give evidence of the effectiveness of our technique by showing that a class of graph requiring exponential area even for weak Gabriel drawings, admits a linear-volume strong β-proximity drawing and a relative neighborhood drawing. All described algorithms run in linear time.