3 best open source infographic tools recommended by design professionals

 In Blog, Design

Creating infographics has never been easier with the wide number of Infographic tool available in store. With a handful to choose from, you may also get stuck while choosing the best that fits your needs and requirements.

Let us run you through a brief on Infographics and why it is necessary:

Infographics (information + graphics) as the name suggests is an amalgamation of a pictorial/graphical representation along with data, which can provide meaningful, clear and attractive information to the viewers.

Infographics have long been used for many years, and the increase in the number of Infographic tools has made it, even more, easier for non-designers to create infographics. One must also know, Infographics are effective due to the visual elements present. Since data that is represented pictorially is processed by the human brain faster, information is passed on significantly and clearly within no time.

Infographic tool can be used as effective storytelling and visual aids.

Firstly, before creating infographics one must gather data, understand it and put it up in an appropriate manner. Later designers can come up with relevant infographics and can redesign based on their requirements. But at any time, the three Infographic tools that are highly recommended for use are Canva, Visme, and Piktograph.

Now let us discuss the three apps in consideration, their working, features and few of their snags too, in detail.  

Piktochart

Piktochart began early in the year 2011 and is most widely used by designers and non-designers equally. Founded in Penang, it is used for making creative and informative content using Infographics.

Features:

  • Currently, around 1.5 billion people (approx.) use this infographic tool for their tasks, presentations, work and organizational purposes.
  • Piktochart has a very easy to use interface and takes very less time even for a non-designer to understand the basic working and features of the infographic tool.
  • It lets you access data from survey results making it a great option for visual and interactive design.
  • It has 14 charts/ graphs as templates
  • The standard version is free of cost while the premium starts from $24/ user/month.
  • The most important feature as the name itself suggests is that this tool is best suited for creating charts and maps.The map can zoom into your region of interest state-wise, and for the chart, building spreadsheets are incorporated to enter data and depict them as infographics.
  • Also, the manipulation of the section and templates can be done functionally using piktochart.

Cons:

  • One of the main disadvantages of this infographic tool is that it does not support rich media such as videos or audios to engage viewers.
  • Most infographic templates are only available in premium versions.
  • Does not have advanced slide features to enhance animations, transitions and other add-ons for presentations.
  • They are stored as JPG, PNG & PDF forms, and does not conserve animations and interactives in the presentations.
  • It doesn’t have a library of the content block.
  • Few of the infographic templates are average and are less or not attractive enough.
  • Does not allow for team collaborations.
  • Also, one cannot search the templates using any search option and becomes tedious for the user to scroll down and look out for the infographic templates of their choice.
Canva

Developed in 2012 shortly after Piktochart came into the market, this a simple and easy to use Infographic tool founded in Sydney, Australia  It allows non-designers to create attractive designs as static content.

Features:

  • Although the Standard version is free of cost, the premium costs about $ 9.45 per month of the user to avail access to all infographic templates.
  • This infographic tool can be widely used to design social media elements, cards, posters, information, etc. which is the highlight of this infographic tool.
  • As of now, the standard version hosts about 32 templates.
  • Simple and easy to use interface that is easily understood by non-designers easily. Designers can also use this to come up with best infographics for their needs.
  • Users can also create call-to-action buttons with their infographics.
  • Team collaboration option enables teamwork, and members can make additions and deletions to their presentations.

Cons:

  • The main disadvantage of Canva could be, that it cannot be used for element designing.
  • There are very less professional infographics available, though you can come up with your own template through Canva. Also, there is no keyword search option.
  • It can only store static files of infographics, presentations, and reports.
  • They are stored as JPG, PNG & PDF forms, and does not conserve animations and interactives in the presentations.
  • There is no option to drag and drop templates across the frame and data cannot be visualised.
  • It does not support animated infographics and third party content.
  • There are no options to generate charts and graphs.
  • Graphics templates cost about $1 for every frame regardless of your purchase for your previous presentation.
  • It cannot be used to generate leads or gauge analytics.
Visme

Visme launched in 2012 along with Canva in the US. This is one of the best and emerging tools widely used for Infographics.

Anybody who wants to design can easily translate their ideas into meaningful and effective infographics.

Features:

  • Though this infographic tool looks very flat and unexciting, the functionality is great and the tool is robust for creating animated infographics.
  • The standard version, again is free of cost and the premium starts from $19 per month.
  • It also has chart building features like piktochart and consists of 16 charts/graphs, 34 data widgets and interactive maps.
  • It can be also used to create Banners, ads, Social media posters and templates that are attractive, than the ones available under Canva.
  • Pre designed drag and drop blocks for content are available.
  • Advanced slide features such as transitions, pop-ups and other animations are supported by Visme.
  • It also has an organised folder system that arranges all the projects systematically.
  • Keyword search has saved time for many users from the tedious process of scrolling through templates
  • Also allows third party content to be embedded in presentations, such as videos or audios, information from blogs,etc.
  • Analytics of audiences, and lead generation can be gauged.
  • Most of the graphics and templates are free in the standard form.

Cons:

  • The main disadvantage of Visme is that, it is not easy for non designers to understand the working of this infographic tool.
  • Also, you can create only 3 projects for free with the logo of Visme, that might not be suitable for corporate purposes.
  • Changing, cloning and moving sections across sections is tedious.

Our view:

Conclusively, these infographic tools have their own advantages and pitfalls.

Visme overall has great functionality and can be used to create interactive and informative infographics, whereas Canva can be used as an all-round tool that can design layouts and is suited for social media purposes.

Piktochart is the best recommended for creating maps,charts and graphs.

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