This section is more prescriptive than part 1. Part 2, addressing the theory of data graphics, presents guidelines, caveats, exemplars, and examples of abominations in its six chapters. Chapter 3, “Sources of Graphical Integrity and Sophistication,” finds explanations for mediocre graphics in quantitatively ignorant illustrators and the widely held belief that readers cannot digest any but the most simplistic graphics. Chapter 1, “Graphical Excellence,” is an unabashed celebration, whereas chapter 2, “Graphical Integrity,” acknowledges the power of graphics to mislead and distort. The book's chapter titles and two main divisions support Tufte's description of it as “a celebration of data graphics.” Part 1, addressing graphical practice, consists of three chapters showing how well-conceived graphics can convincingly communicate verbally complex relationships. Minard's graphic is used to illustrate Tufte'sĭata-ink concept-reinforcing the most appropriate visual focus by maximizing the proportion of “a graphic's ink devoted to the non-redundant display of data-information.”
He gives the reader a sense of the origin of statistical graphics in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and presents several classic examples of visually efficient, innovative graphics, including Charles Joseph Minard's dramatic map and time-series chart portraying the attrition of Napoleon's army in its unsuccessful Russian campaign during the winter of 1812-1813. His text is lively and mildly glib, and his approach is both practical and scholarly. Tufte, who writes well, has mastered the art of integrating words and pictures. The result is a well-organized, superbly produced book that is a pleasure to look at and to read. Before microcomputers and laser printers made self-publishing practicable, Tufte decided to bypass conventional dissemination channels, establish Graphics Press, and hire his own designer, typographer, artists, and printer. The book has many merits, both physical and intellectual. Visual display might well become this century's most influential treatise on data graphics.
In demonstrating the aesthetic and practical advantages of good design at a time of growing interest in computer-supported visualization,
Despite this corporate indifference, Tufte's growing following among graphic artists, statisticians, geographers, journalists, business analysts, and social scientists has created a significant submarket eager for such improvements as scales that represent range and overall designs that attract the eye to relationships in the data.
#Visual displays of quantitative information software#
Second, these rules and Tufte's convincing supporting examples of good and bad charts and maps set a standard of excellence that developers of software for data graphics might readily adopt.Īlthough this book has been available since 1983, software vendors seem inclined to follow the cumbersome, rigid graphics successfully peddled to eager but noncritical buyers of SAS/GRAPH and Microsoft Chart. First, the book contains many logical, straightforward rules about visual focus, graphic contrast, scaling, and other important design concepts that could serve as a knowledge base for an intelligent system for producing statistical charts. Edward Tufte's well-illustrated book-length essay on the design of statistical graphics warrants the attention of computing professionals for two reasons.
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