5 Free Resources for Creating Infographics
Easy-to-use tools to make your content stand out
Why Infographics?
As information becomes increasingly abundant online, it gets harder to catch people’s attention among such an overwhelming amount of data out there. An effective way to break the clutter and get your piece of content noticed on the web is using infographics — which combine information and cool graphics to convey data in a visually appealing fashion.
It has never been so easy to share what we learn. The internet has made available an immense amount of data at an incredibly fast pace. Although people share written content online, what really stands out in social networks are images.
According to this Forbes’ article, 65% of us are visual learners who learn from what we see.
This animated infographic explains why images are significantly more effective than text, according to studies published by names such as Google and Wharton School of Business.
Almost 50% of our brain is involved in visual processing.
Color increases readers’ attention spans and recall by 82%.
People remember 80% of what they see and do versus 20% of what they read and 10% of what they hear.
Douglas Karr, Founder of The Marketing Technology Blog and President and CEO of DK New Media, describes an explosion of popularity with visual content. Randy Krum, Founder and President of InfoNewt and author of Cool Infographics, attended the SXSW 2014 in Austin, TX, and expects infographics “to continue to grow into an even bigger presence next year”, he says.
You don’t need to be a graphic designer —or hire one— to create eye-catching visuals. Here are 5 free tools that any newbie can use to create great infographics in no time.
Free Infographics tools
1. Easel.ly
Simple, easy-to-use resource that helps you share your data online with high visual impact. It features several infographic templates and design objects which you can customize by quickly dragging and dropping elements from the library. You can also choose to upload your own background and start from scratch.
2. Piktochart
Interesting tool that helps you create and share infographics in a few easy steps without requiring any design experience. You start by selecting the format you want to create —infographic, a report, a poster, or a presentation and choosing from one of the free templates available on the website. A “pro” library offers over 100 professional themes, exclusive graphic resources, and advanced functionalities for a monthly fee starting at 29 dollars.
3. Infogr.am
Offers the ability to upload images and videos to create cool infographics, which you can easily edit through an Excel style software that automatically updates the design to feature your data. Once done, share your infographic on social media, publish it on the Infogr.am website, or embed it in your own webpage. A “pro” version, available for 18 dollars a month, offers additional features such as exclusive themes, and password protection.
4. Venngage
Enables you to easily create and publish infographics by choosing templates, themes, charts and icons from the gallery, customize an existing theme, or upload your own images and backgrounds. The premium version costs 19 dollars a month and offers interactive and animated charts as well as call-to-action widgets such as buttons, links, and coupons.
5. Visme (formerly EWC Presenter)
Allows you to create infographics, presentations, animations, and other interactive content by selecting a preset template or starting from a blank canvas. You can customize every element of the design and share online, embed to a website or download. Definitely worth checking out!
Need inspiration?
Hongkiat.com, Cool Infographics, and Daily Infographic have lots of examples that will get you inspired to start right away. Below you will find great interactive infographics that will give you more ideas.
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