Very inspiring book with great examples. It is not a description how to do it yourself (unfortunately) but it provides enough clues to get a feeling for the raw data behind a graph, which helps much to decide if a graph is good or bad. Tufte's books are quite expensive, if you only buy one take the first in the series and try to get the poster of Napoleon's march to Moscow. ( )

Very inspiring book with great examples. It is not a description how to do it yourself (unfortunately) but it provides enough clues to get a feeling for the raw data behind a graph, which helps much to decide if a graph is good or bad. Tufte's books are quite expensive, if you only buy one take the first in the series and try to get the poster of Napoleon's march to Moscow. ( )

Look this one over. It's amazing. ( )

A classic in the field by the acknowledged expert. Still fascinating to browse pages. Lots of practical information within. ( )

I recently bought a copy of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte (Graphical Press LLC, Cambridge, USA). Tufte's website gives quite a bit of information on his publications.

Edward Tufte has written several books, generally on the effective graphical display of data. This volume is the first of a series of four, and was originally published in the late 80s (I have the second edition, fourth printing, 2006), before the appearance of Microsoft's PowerPoint application. As I shall discuss in a later article, Tufte is vehemently opposed to the use of PowerPoint. (My own opinion is that PowerPoint enables one to quickly prepare a presentation: how effective the presentation depends largely on how much forethought has been devoted to the presentation before composition starts). More on the PowerPoint debate in a later article, perhaps.

Here, Tufte provides a clear and frankly beautiful exposition on the display of information. In Part 1, he presents examples of graphical excellence, including something of a historical treatment. Significant here is what must be his favourite chart, Minard's chart of Napoleon Buonaparte's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812. Tufte just loves this chart, not only does it feature in this book, but it reappears five times in Beautiful Evidence, the fourth book in this series - I will review this book as well. Tufte follows these examples with a chapter extolling the need and virtue of Graphical Integrity, in which he gives a variety of examples of dubious data presentation.

However, it is in Part 2 that we see the real meat of the text, and we are provided with clear guidance for best chart design, through six chapters. I have to say that for me at least eventually his strictures against too much ink on charts go a little too far, and deviate far enough from normal styles of data presentation that they become rather harder to comprehend.

Overall this book would score the highest marks for presentation, content, and general interest. Very highly recommended. ( )

A good book, but I expected more from it. Lots of pictures and comparisons of the ways to present data. ( )

"The Visual Display of Quantitative Information" by Edward R. Tufte

Rarely do I find a book that I would call beautiful, but this meets the criteria, both as a physically appealing book, apropos to the purpose of the book, and an informationally dense, and well presented one. A favorite quote of mine, from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, where the protagonist says; "I remember... remarking about the analytic craftsmanship displayed." This was my reaction to Tufte's book.

The book manages to decompose graphical presentation of data into categories other than the x- and y-axes, and instead talks about multifunctional elements and data density. The book reimagines the nature of numerical information using a graphical design perspective, with a healthy dose of common sense as to how graphs are used, and a veritable treasure trove of examples of both good and bad design.

This book, along with "How Buildings Learn," by Stewart Brand, is a rare example of a narrow focus with an incredibly broad appeal. This book is not for the narrow specialist in constructing the sometimes obscurely complex graphics displayed, but rather for anyone who is interested in the data presented to them, and certainly anyone who produces this data in any form.

“Visual Display…” has my minimalist self at odds with my usability self. I find Tufte’s approach quite compelling …though perhaps sometimes it goes a little (eensy weensy) too far. As in, some of his pinnacle examples left me quite befuddled. All in all though, another gorgeous production by Tufte with a plethora of rich examples to explore. I wish I could frame every page and hang on it on the wall. ( )

This is sensible, artistic advice about displaying statistics in a clear, understandable manner. I've been wondering about the bar graphs in the Book -- are they displaying my little bits of information in a clear, unambiguous, and effective manner? Turns out they are okay, but can be improved. So they will be, in accordance with this excellent analysis of using design to maximize communication. Highly recommended. ( )

This book has a huge reputation behind it. It’s been labeled “a visual Strunk and White” and a “timeless classic”. With some caveats, I think the praise is well deserved. Tufte has an unrelenting clinical eye for quality in graphics, and throughout the book he shares his judgments with the reader, explaining what is it that makes Minard’s graphic of Napoleon’s Russian campaign so effective, and what makes so many of our newspapers’ graphics so lame. His guided tour through the history of displays of quantitative information is entertaining and tremendously insightful.

I’ve heard people accuse Tufte of vagueness in his advice, of basically arguing that to create appealing displays you need to (a) become a genius like himself, and (b) then everything else will follow. That might be a fair criticism in other books of his –I’ll get there eventually-, but not this one.

I've written more thoughts on this book on:
http://catenary.wordpress.com/2006/10... ( )

Excellent and innovative reference for visual displays. ( )

If ever a title did a disservice to a book, this is it. Even I was nearly put off, and I am a data nerd par excellence. This books is fascinating, thought-provoking and very beautiful. Tufte goes on to repeat himself in many subsequent volumes, but this, his first book, says it all.Key concepts: ink-to-information ratio, and chart junk. I have plagerised Tufte's ideas and expressions in teaching civil servants and data analysts in countries from Indonesia to Ethiopia.
( )

This book has changed the way I judge and make graphical representations of data.

Two lessons emerge from Tufte's masterpiece:
1. Eliminate from a graph anything that doesn't add information
2. Maximize the amount of information per square inch

Don't let the antiquated looks of the book deceive you: keep reading till the end and you'll find that Tufte's teachings are as valid today as they were 30 years ago.

I do wish, however, that this second edition incorporated more advice specific to computer-generated graphics. I'm particularly disappointed because this edition was published as recently as 2001, many years after the personal computer became THE tool for graph making. Without such applied advice, and given the old look of the examples and the large format of the volume, I'm afraid this book will be regarded by many as a geeky coffee-table piece. ( )

I was a little disappointed in this classic work on charts and graphs. On the one hand, it was clearly a revolutionary kick in the pants to a field that had no prior organization. On the other hand, as a person who makes charts and graphs as a regular part of his work (academic researcher), I found some of the advice to be misguided. His efforts to redesign clunky box plots, although admirable, end up with not *enough* ink. The little offset lines to indicate quartile ranges are just silly. And for someone who talks about the data being much more important than the design, he barely talks about data at all.

Perhaps his later work is more useful. I'll have to check it out and see. ( )

"The classic book on statistical graphics, charts, tables. Theory and practice in the design of data graphics, 250 illustrations of the best (and a few of the worst) statistical graphics, with detailed analysis of how to display data for precise, effective, quick analysis. Design of the high-resolution displays, small multiples. Editing and improving graphics. The data-ink ratio. Time-series, relational graphics, data maps, multivariate designs. Detection of graphical deception: design variation vs. data variation. Sources of deception. Aesthetics and data graphical displays. (The [book now available for purchase] is the second edition of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Recently published, this new edition provides excellent color reproductions of the many graphics of William Playfair, adds color to other images, and includes all the changes and corrections accumulated during 17 printings of the first edition.)"

A great many endeavors depend on communication. A very efficient way to communicate is through graphs. We spend much time in school learning to interpret graphs, but very little time learning how to create graphs that communicate clearly and efficiently. Tufte fixes all of that. In an odd way, this is a life changing book -- not in a philosophical sense but in a very practical sense.

I used to spend a lot of time building ducks. Now I spend as much time destroying ducks. Read, and you'll understand what I mean. ( )

If you make presentations of data to people, you must read this. ( )

Tufte is the word in the industry for visual design. ( )

Really useful for anybody who has to design charts and tables. I find myself agreeing with his advice and disagreeing with many of his examples of what constitutes good design, though. ( )

Like many "cult" books, its genius is making and obscure subject utterly fascinating. Contains a number of iconic images, particularly the graphic of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. ( )

An ex- undergraduate professor of mine included this in her course reading list. She constantly raved about this book. The graphics are neat in that they are not distorted in any way. I haven't read the book though.

Very well written and considerably helpful. Carefully edited. Some of the exemplary diagrams are faulty in other, previously identified ways. And too much respect is paid to the figure of Playfair, sometimes leaning on an implicit argument by authority (e.g. aspect ratio). Healthy questioning of fundamental truths and necessary praise of information density in an age of visual dumbing-down. Helps avoid limiting creativity in graphical design because of constraining tools.

Please comment in my profile if you know of software tools that support directly or indirectly the principles advocated by Tufte. ( )

Der Klassiker über die richtige und ökonomische Visualisierung von quantitativen Zusammenhängen, mithin soetwas banalem wie “Zahlen”, in der verbesserten zweiten Auflage. Mag das Buch im Kern 20 Jahre alt und manche der angeführten Beispiele noch viel älter sein, so sind die daraus zu ziehenden Lehren zeitlos. Wenn man nur eine Lehre aus diesem Buch mitnimmt, dann die von der Maximierung der “Data-to-Ink-ratio”, d.h. dem Verhältnis von abgebildeter Datenmenge zur verwendeten Menge an Druckerschwärze. Wie alle Bücher von Edward Tufte handwerklich perfekt produziert und ein Vergnügen darin zu blättern. ( )

http://www.archidose.org/books/tufte.... ( )

I had heard many people rave about this book, and after I read it I realized that it deserved the hype. The book is a discussion on the best way to present data sets to an audience through the use of charts and graphics. It's something that's really essential to scientists and engineers, and yet we receive no real training in it, which is a shame. Tufte's book is a setp in the right direction.