Archive for chart tips

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Less is more, more is more

Always ask yourself: “what can I remove from this chart”? Remove Excel defaults, remove grid lines, make the chart smaller, use soft colors, remove irrelevant labels, remove the legend (by directly labeling series), remove series that you don’t really need, remove frames, remove decimal places, remove visual fluff.
Then ask yourself: “what can I add to […]

10 x 10 tips to improve your (Excel or not) charts: Line charts

Following the 10 x 10 post series on tips for better charts, these are the 10 tips for line charts:

Don’t use line markers unless you really need them to identify b&w printed charts;
Don’t use a legend; directly label the series, instead;
If you can’t easily see the pattern of each series you may have too […]