What’s on the Choosing a Chart poster
A 7-row table: Question · Chart.
The question you are answering decides the form.
- How has this changed over time? — Line
- How do these categories compare? — Bar
- What is the distribution? — Histogram or box plot
- Do two variables relate? — Scatter
- What are the parts of a whole? — Stacked bar (rarely pie)
- Where is it, geographically? — Map
- How do many pairs relate? — Heatmap
Avoid pie charts beyond three slices, and never use a 3-D chart: the perspective distorts the values it is meant to show.
Questions about the Choosing a Chart poster
- What’s on the Choosing a Chart poster?
- A 7-row table: Question · Chart. The question you are answering decides the form. How has this changed over time? — Line; How do these categories compare? — Bar; What is the distribution? — Histogram or box plot; Do two variables relate? — Scatter; What are the parts of a whole? — Stacked bar (rarely pie); Where is it, geographically? — Map; How do many pairs relate? — Heatmap. Avoid pie charts beyond three slices, and never use a 3-D chart: the perspective distorts the values it is meant to show.
- Who is the Choosing a Chart poster for?
- Choosing a Chart belongs to the Computing section rather than to a school year, because computing is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning data can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Choosing a Chart poster?
- Name the question first. The chart type follows from it, not from the data type. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Choosing a Chart belongs on the wall where that computing work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Choosing a Chart?
- ACID, The CAP Theorem and Correlation & Causation sit alongside Choosing a Chart in the Computing section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.ACIDThe CAP TheoremCorrelation & Causation
- Is the Choosing a Chart poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Choosing a Chart downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Computing section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Choosing a Chart poster print at?
- Choosing a Chart is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Choosing a Chart loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Choosing a Chart on the same wall.
Browse every Computing poster, or start from the full catalogue.