17
votes
Accepted
How do I create a tri-colored arc in Inkscape?
Start by drawing a circle using the Circle tool, whilst holding down Ctrl
Turn on "Snap to object centre" & "Snap to rotation centre" and create guides that snap to the centre of the circle
With ...
- 1,652
11
votes
Accepted
Should either the area or the length of a square be proportional to the data that is being visualized?
If you, the creator, is unsure, how will the reader know which it is?
Short answer: the value should be linked 1:1 to the amount of colour on the page. So in your example, it should be area. But ...
- 26.6k
11
votes
How to create a line graph around a circle
Put this into a file called CircularLinegraph.eps. You can then open it in any editor that understand EPS like illustrator, ghostscript, TEX, etc.
%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%%BoundingBox: 0 0 200 200
%%...
- 55.1k
9
votes
Accepted
Textual ways to represent percentage without numbers?
Your progress bar idea will work, but you need to find two characters with the same width: one filled, one blank.
There are sites, like this one, that may give you some ideas for what characters you ...
- 250
9
votes
How to Make a Beautiful Stacked 3D Plot
This type of graph is called a 'Waterfall Plot'
It can be used to plot arbitrary data in three axes (as in your example), but it is most commonly used to plot the results of a time-frequency analysis....
- 91
8
votes
Create a bar chart within a table in InDesign?
The cool way
There's a font for this called FF Chartwell (no affiliation), which I have personally used for different annual reports and white papers. All the data is editable as numbers via the ...
- 27.4k
7
votes
What software can create and annotate a 3D model's outline?
Well that image isn't very hard to draw*. But that seems to me a bit premature. I would first start by answering following questions:
Would you know how to draw that by hand. If yes then use a vector ...
- 55.1k
7
votes
Is there an automatic tool that can crawl a live site and generate both a visual sitemap and single-page screenshots?
If you're not afraid of coding you can do this with Python:
import gtk.gdk
w = gtk.gdk.get_default_root_window()
sz = w.get_size()
print "The size of the window is %d x %d" % sz
pb = gtk.gdk.Pixbuf(...
- 18.2k
6
votes
Accepted
How to create a customized color cycle picture?
With Gimp:
Step 1 with Blend tool:
Mode: Normal (default)
Gradient: Full saturation spectrum CW
Shape: Conical (asym)
Drag horizontally from center.
Step 2 with Blend tool too:
Mode: Multiply
...
- 13.8k
6
votes
Accepted
What is this type of graph/plot called?
It is called a Radar chart (wikipedia) although thats not necessarily super well known or a high consensus name. Thus people have come with different names over time. I've seen it called a spider web ...
- 55.1k
5
votes
Accepted
How to visualize combinations of data for a gene discovery application?
TL;DR? Scroll down for the examples.
This is an interesting question. A very complex case that I can only really suggest general ideas for without being on the inside, fully in the know.
It's ...
- 8,308
5
votes
Should either the area or the length of a square be proportional to the data that is being visualized?
I'd say the area. Optically, a square with a side two times as long shows as an area 4 times as big. Casual observers will relate to the area, even without reading your legend.
A nice example is this ...
- 24.3k
5
votes
What software can create and annotate a 3D model's outline?
My option regarding the free software is pretty simple.
For a real 3D model Blender https://www.blender.org/
For the anotations Inkscape https://inkscape.org/
You also could use for example Sketchup*...
- 33.3k
5
votes
Accepted
What is the name of this chart element?
A little late to this party, but in my neck of the woods, it is called a plotband.
- 10.8k
5
votes
How to Make a Beautiful Stacked 3D Plot
%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%%BoundingBox: 0 0 400 400
%%Title: Isometric Graph Drawing
%%Creator: Janne Ojala
%%CreationDate: 2019-04-17
%%EndComments
/up {dup translate} def
/down {neg up} def
/...
- 55.1k
5
votes
Two colors whose shades are perceived as equally dark?
Let us imagine that the numbers (100) are the number of photons shooting out of the screen into your eyes.
By simply comparing the values of color (100,100,100) vs (0,0,100) we see that the screen is ...
- 33.3k
4
votes
Should either the area or the length of a square be proportional to the data that is being visualized?
In my opinion the area (D), not each side (E).
If you are using a side of length 2, then the area would be 4 times the value and you would have a very overlapped graph. (E)
When you have a normal ...
- 33.3k
4
votes
Should either the area or the length of a square be proportional to the data that is being visualized?
We're not as good at judging differences in area as we are in length. We use length as a proxy and therefore tend to underestimate differences in areas.
For this reason, a circle that actually has 2x ...
4
votes
How to visualise two-dimensional scientific data-points in a chart... in grayscale?
When working with items which all must be 100% and the same color I look at the things which make the items distinctive:
size (including widths of strokes)
style (dashes, dots, etc)
fill (hollow, ...
- 197k
4
votes
Accepted
Illustrator data-driven maps
Doing this is pretty simple. All you need is:
A data file in a CSV form with names and values.
Each region shape to be filled annotated by the name.
Then all you do is a loop over each column, ...
- 55.1k
3
votes
Better way to display three pieces of data on one graph for a website
First, diagnosing the reasons why it's confusing:
Your different messages are competing with each other. First the viewer notices that Week 1 was much more productive than Week 2 - this is the most ...
- 26.6k
3
votes
Software for producing yearly cycle illustration
You can do this with excel, atleast if you approximate the design a bit. Excell is probably the only tool that a unspecified random crowd can be expected to be able to use.
The real problem is that ...
- 55.1k
3
votes
How to create an array of circles within a circle?
Particle System
My approach would be using a particle generator. But the only ones I know are for 3D images.
So I would use Blender, where you can define the number of particles.
As you need to change ...
- 33.3k
3
votes
Maths + Graphic Design - Did somebody try that?
Type designer Hermann Zapf created a typeface specifically for this purpose: AMS Euler. I guess it is both easily comprehensible and readable, if it is also beautiful to look at, you will have to ...
- 984
3
votes
How to visualise two-dimensional scientific data-points in a chart... in grayscale?
This is not a trivial problem; I am only going to give some general suggestions. My graphics are conceptional, would need some elegantifying to be optimal.
First: kudos for making the mesh in the ...
- 10.8k
3
votes
Accepted
Should graphs and charts be reversed for RTL-reading audiences?
There's no concrete rule. But here are some points to consider:
Most icons and such are positioned to the right and the text to the left on RTL websites.
Standardized graphs such as timelines and ...
- 12.8k
3
votes
Accepted
What is the "unambiguously correct" pictogram for database storage?
Well, from what I know the most used icon for data storage is:
[ image source ]
[ image source ]
[ image source ]
You could possibly get away with a cloud storage icon:
[ image source ]
..or a ...
- 4,945
3
votes
Illustrator data-driven maps
From a purely level-of-effort perspective, consider trying Tableau. I'm pretty sure you can pick it up faster than a script can be written. You can also export your charts/maps to PDF for fine tuning ...
- 91
3
votes
Create a bar chart within a table in InDesign?
Imho, I would use Illustrator graph tool.
Now, let's have some fun and bring some magic into INDD using GREP.
The idea is to create character styles that would apply a strike-through to space after ...
- 4,543
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible