Creating a Tag Cloud

 1 /* OVERALL CALCULATIONS */
 2 int   numOfTags         = 0;   // total distinct tags
 3 int   numOfTagInstances = 0;   // total instances of all tags
 4 int   targetFontSize    = 11;  // mean font size
 5 float avgTagInstances   = 0F;  // average instances of each tag
 6 
 7 /* CALCULATIONS ABOUT CURRENT TAG */
 8 int   fontSize          = 0;   // font size
 9 float instanceDeviation = 0F;  // deviation from avg instances
10 int   fontSizeDeviation = 0;   // deviation from mean font size

1 numOfTags = /* compute this value */;
2 numOfTagInstances = /* compute this value */;
3 
4 avgTagInstances = ((float)numOfTagInstances) / numOfTags;

 1 foreach (/* for each tag you want to print */)
 2 {
 3     // how many times this tag appears
 4     int instancesOfThisTag = /* compute this value */;
 5     
 6     // start with the font size set to the target size
 7     fontSize = avgFontSize;
 8     
 9     // find the deviation from the mean
10     instanceDeviation = instancesOfThisTag - avgTagInstances;
11     
12     // scale the font-size deviation based on the deviation from the 
13     // average number of instances
14     // * the instance number deviation is fitted to the 
15     // * curve of the natural logarithm to give it 
16     // * solid upper and lower bounds, so that font 
17     // * sizes will not deviate unreasonably far from the 
18     // * target mean font size.  this gives us a tight and 
19     // * predictable range of font sizes within which our 
20     // * values will fall, and prevents extremely popular or 
21     // * unpopular tags from having extreme font size 
22     // * deviations.
23     fontSizeDeviation = (int) Math.Round(2.5 * 
24                                 Math.Log(
25                                     1 + Math.Abs(instanceDeviation)
26                                 )
27                               );
28 
29     // since we had to use the absolute value of the deviation above, 
30     // we re-introduce the sign here, so the scaling is either smaller 
31     // or larger based on whether the number of instances is smaller 
32     // or larger than the average number of instances
33     if (instanceDeviation > 0)
34         fontSize += fontSizeDeviation;
35     if (instanceDeviation < 0)
36         fontSize -= fontSizeDeviation;
37         
38     /* Now, print out the tag using the calculated font size */
39     
40 }