On Order-Preserving, Gap-Avoiding Rectangle Packing

We present 2D rectangle packing heuristics that preserve the initial ordering of the rectangles while maintaining a left-to-right reading direction. Furthermore, rectangles are placed such that inner whitespace ("gaps") can be eliminated by enlarging and repositioning them without enlarging the drawing. This is achieved by initially approximating the required width and using a strip packing algorithm to pack the rectangles. The algorithms are suitable for interactive scenarios and can also be applied to strip packing problems to maintain the reading direction.