Infographics Software?

March 9, 2009 9:43 AM

Infographics software?

What software is out there that I can use to create interactive infographics? (example1, example2)

posted by shotgunbooty to Technology (6 answers total)

Speaking as a designer for static media, my best but by no means authoritive or correct answer would be Processing and Flash.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 10:16 AM on March 9, 2009 [2 favorites]

Both of the links you provided are Flash based and as far as I can tell are using fixed data sets.

I've been using Google Charts (http://code.google.com/apis/chart/) with a combination of PHP/SQL for on-the-fly graphics. You could add extensive user-interactivity by way of HTML/JS. It is fast and free, although if you cross a hits/day threshold or expect to they ask that you notify them.
posted by Gainesvillain at 10:18 AM on March 9, 2009

Processing is widely used by the infovis crowd. It's just java underneath, but it's supposed to make it easier for people who don't want to go through the hassle of figuring out how java deals with graphics (which is truly a hassle).
posted by beerbajay at 10:54 AM on March 9, 2009

It looks to me to be either a Dundas or Infragistics-like chart, which can be rendered down to Flash, images with Javascript, and lots of other formats
posted by gregchttm at 1:54 PM on March 9, 2009

Crystal Xcelsius creates intereactive Flash animation "Dashboards" from Excel data.

There are multiple versions, but the lowest cost option is version 4.5, for about $200. It requires a bit of a learning curve, but it allows creation of customized, interactive charts and graphs. You can customize the interface with buttons, sliders, dials, and other means of relaying information.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 2:41 PM on March 9, 2009

You might also find this helpful: 20 Useful Visualization Libraries
posted by tickingclock at 12:09 AM on March 10, 2009 [1 favorite]