Creating Your Own Infographics (The Graphically-Challenged People’s Guide)

Infographics are everywhere, and are quickly becoming a favorite tool of online businesses looking to share and gain knowledge in bite-sized digital portions.  For the business owner, infographics have wide-ranging appeal and numerous benefits.  They spread like wildfire on social networks, increasing backlinks and brand awareness, and they provide valuable information to visitors looking to learn more about a topic without getting bogged down in research.

But how do you actually go about creating one?  Some of the best infographics designers charge a hefty fee which not all startups can afford.  But fortunately, some enterprising entrepreneurs have brought the craft of infographic design to the web-–and currently, many of the options available are free while the services are still in beta.

It’s worth noting that all infographic services generally require you to start with a template of some kind. This design acts as the foundation and “roadmap” for the information you want to share.  If you’d rather not start with a premade template or theme, you may need to look into hiring a graphic designer to create a custom look.

Here’s a rundown of four of the best services, along with the pros and cons of each.

Piktochart

Piktochart is my favorite infographic creation program and I’ll tell you why.  It’s pretty much flawless-–from inputting your data to the sheer number of themes you can use (many of them in different industries such as health, pets, and even golfing).  They also have several video tutorials that walk you through each step, so that you can create a nice-looking infographic within about half an hour.

They have a free basic version which limits you to only three themes, but also an annual or monthly subscription which opens up over a hundred different themes (and more are being voted on and added all the time).

Piktochart Pros:

• Easy drag-and-drop interface lets you add your own images, choose from different color schemes, and create a chart based on the data you’ve collected.
• 100+ beautiful themes spanning several professions and industries with several customization options on each.
• Intuitive, easy to learn, and includes support tutorial videos to walk you through the process.

Piktochart Cons:

• Although you can upload your own icons, the sets that come with the infographics are fairly limited.
• Your infographic will not be unique in the sense that many other uses will also be using that template as a basis for their own design.
• There’s no way to share your finished infographic through the site itself. You’ll need to announce it through your own social networks  to promote it.

Infogr.am

Infogram takes a slightly different approach than Piktochart in its creation of infographics. It too has different themes you can apply, but far fewer than Piktochart.  Here, the focus is on entering simple information in creating a chart (Excel-style), and then exporting that information into one of a handful of themes.

The method of entering your chart data is a bit different than you might expect, especially if you’re not familiar with Excel, but it does convert the information into some stunningly beautiful charts!  It’s also totally free while still in beta.

Infogr.am Pros

• You can save your charts separately from your infographics in case you’d like to apply the data to different looks and see which one you like best.
• Lots of different types of charts available-–including familiar pie, bar, donut, and more.

Infogr.am Cons

• It’s still a work in progress and it’s entirely web-based, which means that if there’s a script the browser doesn’t like, it will refuse to render your completed infographic (not saying this actually happened to me or anything!).
• Few templates to choose from.

Easel.ly

Easel.ly has a drag and drop visual editor for creating infographics, and over a dozen themes to choose from (called vhemes-–a combination of visual + themes).  You can drag and drop a wide variety of objects, including people, vehicles, arrows, shapes, and other assorted pictures onto your canvas, and resize, rotate, and change their color, making basic infographic creation a snap.

Easel.ly Pros

• Lots of different chart options, including “roadmaps”, versus charts, and more.
• Simple drag-and-drop web-based interface makes it easy to customize your design
• Lots of objects to choose from to complete the look of a theme

Easel.ly Cons

• Limited number of basic theme designs
• Some browser incompatibilities

Visual.ly

Visual.ly only has a handful of themes but is one of the oldest and most well known infographic creation services.  Rather than giving you a drag-and-drop interface to design your image on, Visual.ly lets you compare and contrast different information and puts the result into a graphical format.  For example, you can compare your Twitter account to a celebrity’s or “monsterize” your Facebook.

Visual.ly has also partnered with specific companies, such as Amstel beer and CBS’s Sherlock Holmes, to create promotional-style graphics.

Visual.ly Pros

• Infographics are built for social sharing. In some cases you may need to sign in to your Twitter or Facebook account and authorize the Visually Create option to design your infographic.
• Lots of creative options, such as the Visual Resume, let you infographically present your job qualifications.

Visual.ly Cons

• If you don’t want to allow access to your social networking accounts, you’re severely limited in what types of images you can create with Visual.ly.
• Less than a dozen themes to choose from (but more brands are being added).