An effective way to create and customize pictographs
You can convert your data into a highly visual pictograph in a few steps. Choose from Displayr's vast range of pictograph icons, or use any image on the internet. Customize everything from color, font, direction of fill, hover text, and size. Create a single icon pictograph, repeated icon pictographs, pictograph bar charts, and more.
Insightful, interactive, and flexible pictograms
Transform your pictogram into an insightful data story or a live infographic. Easily add filters and conditional formatting and use drag and drop to overlay text boxes, arrows, shapes, and background images. Go as far as your imagination will take you!
Easily publish, embed, or export your pictograph to PowerPoint
Create your interactive infographic or market research report in Displayr with the aid of pictographs. And when you're done, publish your work with just one click. Tell better data stories with interactive reports featuring pictograms. Export to PowerPoint and PDF. Just switch your data to update your pictographs.
Don't just stop at making pictographs; Displayr is the complete tool for all your analysis, visualization, and reporting.
Make your pictographs in 3 easy steps
Step 1
Sign up to Displayr for free to create your pictograph.
Step 2
Follow the instructions to connect, type, or paste in your data and pick or upload your icon. Here you can easily customize fonts, colors, backgrounds, add conditional formatting and do more advanced analysis.
Step 3
Publish your pictograph as an interactive dashboard, export to PowerPoint or as a PDF with one click.
What is a pictograph?
Pictographs are an awesome data visualization that can be both visually engaging and informative. As their name suggests, they use pictorial symbols to illustrate statistical information and enable users to swiftly understand the represented data as a result of their visual nature. This makes pictographs one of the most popular and effective ways for data analysts to communicate data stories.
They have also been referred to as pictograms, pictogrammes or pictos. A pictograph is most commonly seen as a pictograph bar chart which uses multiple custom icons to represent the values in each bar.
They typically consist of a graph title, two columns and titles for each column, icons or images that represent the categories of the collected data set, and a key or legend that helps viewers easily understand what the images represent.
Pictograph bar charts can be used for both count and proportional data. Pictographs can also come as single icon pictographs or repeated icon pictographs.
Single icon pictographs are used to highlight a single number usually to draw attention to the stat in infographics, dashboards or reports. A single icon pictograph is also a cool way to visualize a percentage or proportion of something. However, if you would like to show count or volume data, try a repeated icon pictograph instead.
While the usage of pictograms have been criticised by data visualization purists, there is a reason why they are so popular. For instance, pictographs are a great way of creating a memorable data visualization. It’s part of the reason why they are one of the first data visualizations introduced to children to aid in learning.
If you want to make an impact and create a visually engaging pictograph, try Displayr’s pictograph maker. You can customize the pictograph maker to use whatever icon you like. Our pictograph creator also lets you choose appearance options like color and size. Have them stand on their own for maximum impact or integrate them into a larger infographic.
“Displayr is extremely powerful and extremely intuitive. It can do vastly more analysis more efficiently than any of the tools I’ve tried in the past."
Ron Gailey
President – Americas, Mobile Digital Insights
Don't limit yourself to just pictographs
Ready to make more fantastic visualizations? Apart from using pictograms, you can visualize your data through other awesome features in Displayr.
Whether it’s pie charts, Venn diagrams or histograms, Displayr can help illuminate your data into whatever story you want to tell!
And just like pictographs, you can customize colors, sizes and fonts and have a play with the software's cool features.
Even better, combine different visualizations to create a truly impressive infographic or presentation. What are you waiting for?
Elevate your data analysis and reporting
Instantly visualize what you are learning. Displayr is a robust, collaborative analysis and reporting tool built for humans, not robots. SQL, R, and no-code work together so you can analyze, illustrate, and build your report simultaneously in the same app.
Pictograph FAQs
What is a pictograph best used for?
A pictograph is a type of visualization that uses picture symbols to illuminate statistical information. They are often used in pictorial, representational signs, instructions, or statistical diagrams. This means they represent data with pictures that are related to that data. They are particularly useful for highlighting data stories from statistical information from subjects such as geography, leisure and tourism. This is because they make presenting data visually engaging and easy to understand.
What are the key components of a pictograph?
Pictographs typically consist of a graph title, two columns and titles for each column, imagery or iconography to represent the subject of the collected data set, a key or legend that helps a reader understand what the images or icons represent.
What are the key steps to make a great pictograph?
To start creating a pictograph, you need to first collect the data and then choose a relevant symbol or icon to depict each data category that will be showcased. In addition, you need to develop a key or legend, and assign a numerical value to each relevant icon. Then, start laying out your pictograph, such as creating two columns to place your categories and data. Lastly, add the icons with reference to your pictograph key.
What is the purpose of the pictograph key?
Icons and images are employed to represent data in pictographs. These images or icons have a key (or legend) where one icon represents a certain frequency. A pictograph key allows us to quickly understand what each picture stands for. As a result of the key, data can be portrayed in a tabular form within a pictograph.
When were pictographs first used?
The first known pictorial signs appeared in 30,000 BC, in the form of cave paintings. Since 9,000 BC, pictographs have been used by civilizations all over the world, and became more mainstream around 4,000 years later, when they were started to develop into logo-graph writing systems.
What are pictographs also called?
Pictographs are also known as pictograms, pictogrammes, and have even been referred to as ‘pictos’.
How can I make a pictograph for free with Displayr?
To start using Displayr’s pictograph maker, first sign up here, confirm your email by clicking on the confirmation link that you’ll receive, and then follow the prompts to create your first pictograph.
How do you create a pictograph in Displayr?
• Click Visualization
• Select Pictographs
• Select the type of pictograph you want (i.e. Pictograph Bar, Single Icon, Repeated Icon)
• Click Add Data or Drag across your variable from Data Sets
• Click OK
• Customize your pictograph using the options in the right hand menu
