It turns out that the dissatisfaction we experience looking at one PowerPoint chart after another is because they’re invariably bad. Occasionally we see something good – a clean, simple graphic that lets the data speak for itself. Edward Tufte wrote The Visual Display of Quantitative Information to explain why and show us how.

The book itself is a work of art; hard cover, beautifully typeset, and full of examples that illustrate and inspire.  This summary is no substitute for the real thing.  Get the book.  Also, this post won’t make a lot of sense without having read the book first.

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