Infographics are visual representations of data in summary charts.
On the internet, there are several information websites that use the technique of infographics to summarize data, in a visual way, of all kinds, especially economic ones.
However, an infographic can be used for anything you want to synthesize, therefore, instead of presenting and sharing data and statistics in a table or in long lists, it becomes easier to communicate with the figures.
An infographic is not just a graph or chart but a set of figures made of titles, short summaries, images and information written using bright colors to highlight the most important parts.
Who reads an infographic has an immediate glance on the situation represented without risking losing the most important parts that, inevitably, will be highlighted by the graphics.
Let's see how infographics can be created using some free and very easy to use web applications.
In general, to design an infographic just think with imagination.
It must be simple to read, without too many articulations and based on a suitable color scheme that is not annoying. Infographics can include timelines (timelines, flowcharts, annotated maps, graphs, venn diagrams and dimensional comparisons).
To create an infographic you can use a program such as Adobe Illustrator CS4 (see the tutorial) or a free vector graphics program such as Inkscape.
Some examples of interesting infographics can be found on this page from the sixrevisions website and on this one.
If, on the other hand, you prefer to create an infographic or a chart faster without having to engage too much with professional programs, you can use these web applications that present an editor where you only need to enter the data to see them represented graphically .
1) Easel.ly is a great free web app with which you can really build from scratch an infographic similar to that of the image, without too many technical skills of digital graphics. You can select themes and backgrounds, drag objects and text boxes. After registering on the site (essential if you want to save your work), you can start from scratch with a blank sheet or you can edit an existing theme.
All tools and objects for creating the infographic are accessible from the Easel.ly menu bar. The " Vhemes " button is used to open the collection of themes and select one according to the data to be presented: statistics by geographical region, chronological information or simple information reports. The images are saved in the account and can be reopened and edited, downloaded as JPG files and shared online or published on the site.
2) Infogr.am is a simple web application for creating interactive infographics and is perhaps the best currently available for free. The only thing to have are the raw data that go to create the graphs. After registering on the site, you can choose the design from a series of models which can then be customized through an editor. In the next screen, load the data that can be that of an Excel sheet to be uploaded online or you can manually fill in the table with a copy-paste.
3) Piktochart has one of the best tools for creating interactive charts and maps, even animated charts using icons, text frames, themes, photos and videos.
4) Canva offers many tools for drawing graphics and personalized images, including an infographic tool. There are hundreds of models and over a million images available to use.
5) Visme has tools to create interactive infographics using charts, widgets, shapes and icons, pop-ups and animations to make the graphics more beautiful.
6) Venngage offers hundreds of free and paid infographic models.
There are also practical tutorials to get started.
7) Cacoo is a very complete diagrammaking tool that allows you to create interactive flowcharts, UML diagrams, network diagrams and wireframes.
8) Kartograph is an excellent free tool to create illustrative and interactive maps.
9) Kinzaa has a convenient wizard to help you create infographic resumes and interactive landing pages for websites.
10) Adioma is an intelligent tool that automatically creates interactive infographics based on the data provided through an intelligent artificial intelligence that learns from use.
11) Graphs.net is a site where anyone can upload their infographics to allow others to use them for free.
12) Google DataStudio is a practical data visualization tool to create dashboards and reports with graphs and diagrams. It also offers users the extraction of data from other Google services, such as AdSense. It also allows you to transform the raw information stored in tabular or spreadsheet format, in different graphic modes. It does not serve much to create an inforgrafica but rather to create a pie chart, a bar chart or a map with an information layer. Graphs are beautiful, colorful, and can be created very easily from a table. On the site you can see several examples.
Also from Google is the interactive Public Data web page to view statistical information about the world.
Google also provides the Chart Editor application to create graphs and charts online
13) Creately allows you to easily create diagrams and flowcharts, where you just have to drag the shapes onto the work surface and write information.
Creately is very reminiscent of the Microsoft Visio program and is one of those programs for creating mind maps and diagrams on the PC. The end result is very professional and can be saved.
14) Visual.ly is the most powerful online platform for creating infographics by extracting data from Facebook, Twitter or other sources.
15) Vizydrop is a free tool for automatic data visualization that suggests interactive graphs based on the type of data entered.
16) Edraw is an application to create an infographic for Windows and Mac that allows you to create fully customizable interactive charts and maps.
17) Mind the Graph offers scientific illustration tools for scientific projects.
18) Icograms has some really advanced creation tools for making diagrams, maps and graphs using embedded models and icons or your own images.
19) Medialoot offers a multitude of designer tools that can be downloaded separately.
20) Stat Planet is a program to be downloaded for free on the PC.
It allows you to create an interactive view or a static image of world statistics. It can also be tried in its online version, without downloading anything, directly from the web browser. Stat planet allows to use some overall data, integrated with the world map. the data can also be imported from an Excel file.
21) Hohli is a very simple tool for creating graphs online. Just choose the type of chart, add the data, change the size and colors to see the finished chart.
22) Wordle is a way of creating word infographics .
It is a very easy-to-use online tool that allows you to view words in the shape of a Word Cloud where the most important terms are written big and the least important ones smaller. Wordle is a very powerful tool for viewing and synthesizing information and texts. Just paste any text like this post and see the word cloud generated. There are many designs to choose from and you can summarize poems, essays, treatises, speeches and articles to see which words are most used by the writer. The word cloud can also be printed.
23) Tableau is a free Windows only program that you can download for free. The program is quite simple to use and intuitive. The result is an editorial page that can be incorporated into a blog for publication on the internet.
24) Gapminder is a free application in Adobe Air that allows you to create graphic displays of data relating to global economic and social issues provided by the site itself. It is an important tool for statisticians.
25) Inkscape, already mentioned at the beginning of the post, is the best among free vector graphics programs. To create a real infographic one would perhaps have to learn this type of more complex but more complete software.
If what matters most are the graphs, in other articles I wrote:
- How to create charts with Excel
- Draw flow charts and create graphs, charts and diagrams
- Create an infographic resume
- Create timelines of events and photos
On the internet, there are several information websites that use the technique of infographics to summarize data, in a visual way, of all kinds, especially economic ones.
However, an infographic can be used for anything you want to synthesize, therefore, instead of presenting and sharing data and statistics in a table or in long lists, it becomes easier to communicate with the figures.
An infographic is not just a graph or chart but a set of figures made of titles, short summaries, images and information written using bright colors to highlight the most important parts.
Who reads an infographic has an immediate glance on the situation represented without risking losing the most important parts that, inevitably, will be highlighted by the graphics.
Let's see how infographics can be created using some free and very easy to use web applications.
In general, to design an infographic just think with imagination.
It must be simple to read, without too many articulations and based on a suitable color scheme that is not annoying. Infographics can include timelines (timelines, flowcharts, annotated maps, graphs, venn diagrams and dimensional comparisons).
To create an infographic you can use a program such as Adobe Illustrator CS4 (see the tutorial) or a free vector graphics program such as Inkscape.
Some examples of interesting infographics can be found on this page from the sixrevisions website and on this one.
If, on the other hand, you prefer to create an infographic or a chart faster without having to engage too much with professional programs, you can use these web applications that present an editor where you only need to enter the data to see them represented graphically .
1) Easel.ly is a great free web app with which you can really build from scratch an infographic similar to that of the image, without too many technical skills of digital graphics. You can select themes and backgrounds, drag objects and text boxes. After registering on the site (essential if you want to save your work), you can start from scratch with a blank sheet or you can edit an existing theme.
All tools and objects for creating the infographic are accessible from the Easel.ly menu bar. The " Vhemes " button is used to open the collection of themes and select one according to the data to be presented: statistics by geographical region, chronological information or simple information reports. The images are saved in the account and can be reopened and edited, downloaded as JPG files and shared online or published on the site.
2) Infogr.am is a simple web application for creating interactive infographics and is perhaps the best currently available for free. The only thing to have are the raw data that go to create the graphs. After registering on the site, you can choose the design from a series of models which can then be customized through an editor. In the next screen, load the data that can be that of an Excel sheet to be uploaded online or you can manually fill in the table with a copy-paste.
3) Piktochart has one of the best tools for creating interactive charts and maps, even animated charts using icons, text frames, themes, photos and videos.
4) Canva offers many tools for drawing graphics and personalized images, including an infographic tool. There are hundreds of models and over a million images available to use.
5) Visme has tools to create interactive infographics using charts, widgets, shapes and icons, pop-ups and animations to make the graphics more beautiful.
6) Venngage offers hundreds of free and paid infographic models.
There are also practical tutorials to get started.
7) Cacoo is a very complete diagrammaking tool that allows you to create interactive flowcharts, UML diagrams, network diagrams and wireframes.
8) Kartograph is an excellent free tool to create illustrative and interactive maps.
9) Kinzaa has a convenient wizard to help you create infographic resumes and interactive landing pages for websites.
10) Adioma is an intelligent tool that automatically creates interactive infographics based on the data provided through an intelligent artificial intelligence that learns from use.
11) Graphs.net is a site where anyone can upload their infographics to allow others to use them for free.
12) Google DataStudio is a practical data visualization tool to create dashboards and reports with graphs and diagrams. It also offers users the extraction of data from other Google services, such as AdSense. It also allows you to transform the raw information stored in tabular or spreadsheet format, in different graphic modes. It does not serve much to create an inforgrafica but rather to create a pie chart, a bar chart or a map with an information layer. Graphs are beautiful, colorful, and can be created very easily from a table. On the site you can see several examples.
Also from Google is the interactive Public Data web page to view statistical information about the world.
Google also provides the Chart Editor application to create graphs and charts online
13) Creately allows you to easily create diagrams and flowcharts, where you just have to drag the shapes onto the work surface and write information.
Creately is very reminiscent of the Microsoft Visio program and is one of those programs for creating mind maps and diagrams on the PC. The end result is very professional and can be saved.
14) Visual.ly is the most powerful online platform for creating infographics by extracting data from Facebook, Twitter or other sources.
15) Vizydrop is a free tool for automatic data visualization that suggests interactive graphs based on the type of data entered.
16) Edraw is an application to create an infographic for Windows and Mac that allows you to create fully customizable interactive charts and maps.
17) Mind the Graph offers scientific illustration tools for scientific projects.
18) Icograms has some really advanced creation tools for making diagrams, maps and graphs using embedded models and icons or your own images.
19) Medialoot offers a multitude of designer tools that can be downloaded separately.
20) Stat Planet is a program to be downloaded for free on the PC.
It allows you to create an interactive view or a static image of world statistics. It can also be tried in its online version, without downloading anything, directly from the web browser. Stat planet allows to use some overall data, integrated with the world map. the data can also be imported from an Excel file.
21) Hohli is a very simple tool for creating graphs online. Just choose the type of chart, add the data, change the size and colors to see the finished chart.
22) Wordle is a way of creating word infographics .
It is a very easy-to-use online tool that allows you to view words in the shape of a Word Cloud where the most important terms are written big and the least important ones smaller. Wordle is a very powerful tool for viewing and synthesizing information and texts. Just paste any text like this post and see the word cloud generated. There are many designs to choose from and you can summarize poems, essays, treatises, speeches and articles to see which words are most used by the writer. The word cloud can also be printed.
23) Tableau is a free Windows only program that you can download for free. The program is quite simple to use and intuitive. The result is an editorial page that can be incorporated into a blog for publication on the internet.
24) Gapminder is a free application in Adobe Air that allows you to create graphic displays of data relating to global economic and social issues provided by the site itself. It is an important tool for statisticians.
25) Inkscape, already mentioned at the beginning of the post, is the best among free vector graphics programs. To create a real infographic one would perhaps have to learn this type of more complex but more complete software.
If what matters most are the graphs, in other articles I wrote:
- How to create charts with Excel
- Draw flow charts and create graphs, charts and diagrams
- Create an infographic resume
- Create timelines of events and photos
