A cursory glance of the Web will reveal to any person the popularity of infographics as a medium of conveying information concisely and memorably. An infographic is basically a visual depiction of complex information in a way that makes it easier to process and remember. They are being used widely in business, education and even for personal blogs and websites. While creating such infographics might seem like a task left to professional designers, there are tools available that make the job easy as pie. This article discusses five highly popular tools that can be used to develop infographics absolutely free.
Canva
Canva is basically a free infographic creating tool that offers a decent set of tools and features to get most of the infographic work done easily. Canva offers a nice range of design formats and users can execute their designs on the basis of photographs and blog templates as well as other designs. With Canva, the designs can be used in multiple applications including multimedia presentations as well as infographics for official reports. Canva also offers additional design features to enhance the quality of the presentation. Photographs and charts can be embedded into the infographic to present information in different ways. The interface is extremely user-friendly and makes it highly convenient for the user to navigate through the tools to create the infographic in a step-by-step manner. Infographics created with Canva are an efficient blend of text and graphics customized according to the purpose and medium. Users can also access additional features by signing up for a paid version of the service.
Infogr.am
Infogr.am is a free infographic producing tool that is mainly used to develop charts, maps and graphs for a variety of uses. Some of the features of the service also allow users to embed photographs and videos into the infographic which adds to the attractiveness of the information presented. Users are provided with the opportunity to enter and edit the data within the Infogr.am service and it does not have to be prepared beforehand. A data entry area is provided that is similar to a spreadsheet which makes entering data very easy. The data is transferred to the infographic in real time and users can observe the infographic taking shape in response to the data that is being entered. The users can tweak the infographic until they are satisfied with the final product. Infogr.am offers the facility to publish the infographic on the user’s website and even to share it through social media platforms.
Easel.ly
Easel.ly offers a number of free design templates for users to choose from; however, these are not as numerous as those offered by other infographic services. On the positive side, the templates that are available are aesthetically pleasing and can be used for a variety of contexts and purposes. The user interface is quite user-friendly and it takes virtually negligible time for even first-time users to produce their first infographic. All the design features and tools have been displayed conveniently on the dashboard and can be accessed easily, which drastically reduces the time taken to design an infographic. This helps the user to produce infographics that are attractive as well as informative and comprehensive. At the end of the day, it really does not matter that the range of design templates is limited. Easel.ly more than makes up for it thanks to the extremely professional appearance of the templates and their utility in presenting the required information efficiently.
Piktochart
If you want to develop infographics mainly for business purposes rather than for blogs or academic use, then Piktochart would be a good choice for you. For those with less time on their hands, Piktochart offers a number of convenient and attractive templates that are suited to a business context. Users can choose from a basic infographic template as well as presentation, poster and report formats. For those with more time and the need to prepare a completely customized infographic, Piktochart offers that facility as well. After users have selected and formatted the basic template for their infographic, a number of other features become accessible that can be selected and incorporated into the basic template design for maximum visual impact. In this regard, Piktochart is similar to other similar tools available online. The basic version of the Piktochart service is available for free. Additional features are available with a paid version that can be subscribed to for only $15 a month.
Venngage
Venngage has to be one of the most well-organized infographic tools available online. It is a free service that offers a convenient and user-friendly approach to creating infographics. Users typically pass through three stages to create a single infographic. In the first stage, the user selects a design template. The design templates have been organized into convenient and useful categories ranging from statistical and process templates to geographical and timeline designs. This ensures that information can be presented in multiple ways and in flexible layouts. In the second stage, users can insert charts and other visual aids into the infographic. This enhances the appeal of the infographic since the user is able to present a large amount of information concisely in the form of a graph or chart. In the third stage, text can be added to identify the infographic and the layout can be modified to suit the context and purpose. More templates are available with a paid service that costs $15 per month.
Conclusion
Creating infographics is becoming a necessity as people come under pressure to process more information in limited time. Overall, there is no dearth of tools that users can use to create attractive and informative infographics. It is a fact that most of the advanced features are available only at a premium. Nonetheless, the free versions of the services discussed above offer a reasonable number of features to allow one to create a decent professional infographic with facility. Not only do these plans offer a good range of options, they are also extremely easy to use and learn for even those who are new to creating infographics.
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