[erikdared]

I used Raphael in the past and am just starting to learn D3 now. D3 seems to make it a lot easier to take a data set and represent it visually. It has lots of very useful helpers for scaling axes and such (even when the units are time). I know I've only really scratched the surface so far, but those are things that stand out the most.

Raphael is still very capable, but it took me a lot more effort to create a graph than with D3. I think Raphael is better at general purpose drawing.

Bottom line: D3 is best if you're taking data and want to represent it visually in a chart/graph. Raphael can do general-purpose drawing without explicitly needing any data to back it.

[mlent]

I have had the same experience. You have to DIY a lot if you want to create a graph or chart with Raphael, whereas D3 will just take your data and make one for you.