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Image collections are getting larger and larger. To access those collections, systems for managing, searching, and browsing are necessary. Visualization plays an essential role in such systems. Existing visualization systems do not analyze all the problems occurring when dealing with large visual collections. In this paper, we make these problems explicit. From there, we establish three general requirements: overview, visibility, and structure preservation. Solutions for each requirement are proposed, as well as functions balancing the different requirements. We present an optimal visualization scheme, supporting users in interacting with large image collections. Experimental results with a collection of 10,000 Corel images, using simulated user actions, show that the proposed scheme significantly improves performance for a given task compared to the 2D grid-based visualizations commonly used in content-based …