Every now and then you may come into the situation that you have to present some sort of statistical data to your client. Of course you may use Excel’s graph tool to easily create a bunch of charts — but let’s face it, more or less all of those predefined designs suck. So you have to look for another option.
This tutorial will show you how to create visually appealing charts using Adobe Illustrator’s graph tool. Before we start, let us take a look at the potential outcome of this tutorial. In my case the graph shows the browser usage of Bartelme Design in January 2006.
In a first step open Illustrator and create a new document. Afterwards select the “pie graph tool” from the “tools” palette on the left. Note that by default only the “column graph tool” is visible. In this case just click on the respective icon for some seconds to unveil the other tools.
With the pie graph tool selected click somewhere on your working area. Illustrator prompts you to define the size of the chart — 200x200px should be fine. Now Illustrator will display a grid where you can enter your data. If you want to create a legend you just have to enter the respective label into the first row of the grid. In our case though we won’t make use of the automatically generated legend, so just enter the actual data. Click the “apply” button in the upper right corner to update the graph. You may now close the grid
By default Illustrator displays the different slices in shades of grey. But personally I prefer colored graphs — so we gonna apply some color: Select the “direct selection tool” from the tool palette on the left (Shortcut: A), click on a slice and select the desired color from the color palette. Note: If the color palette is not visible you may display it via “Window — Color” or by hitting the F6 key.
If you prefer flat graphs then you’re basically finished. In our case though we wanna make use of Illustrator’s 3D effects. Select the graph and open the “Extrude and Bevel” dialog via “Effects — 3D — Extrude and Bevel“. Choose ”Isometric Top“ from the dropdown menu, set the ”Extrude Depth” to about 25pt and confirm by clicking the OK button.
Afterwards your graph should look similar to the one on the screenshot on the left. Since you have just applied the effect rather than modified the object you may still change the graph’s data as well as the 3D settings.
Basically we are finished. Finally you may enhance your graph by adding a title, a legend or other descriptive elements respectively by adding some visual effects such as a drop shadow or something similar. Enjoy.
57 comments so far
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Koka March 04, 2006 at 08:02 PM
Coole Sache, vielen Dank fürs Tutorial!
Josh Illichmann March 04, 2006 at 08:03 PM
Wow, cool tut man, will note this and use it in the future :)
Cyril Seillet March 04, 2006 at 08:33 PM
haha very cool tuto. When I made my stats for my site I used photoshop.. and it was a bit longer… I didn’t thought to use illustrator… damn… ;)
Thank you Wolfgang
Paul D March 04, 2006 at 09:13 PM
The new Pages 2.0 does a similar job with 3D charts. Can you keep editing the chart data in Illustrator once you’ve extruded the pie?
Heiko March 04, 2006 at 10:13 PM
Klasse Tutorial Wolfgang, mit wenig Mitteln eine professionelle Statistik erstellen. Die abschliessende Grafik ist wirklich gut gelungen. Kompliment!
Wolfgang March 04, 2006 at 11:18 PM
You can still edit the charts after applying the 3D effect. And yes — Pages 2 does a great job in creating three dimensional charts.
Rene March 05, 2006 at 01:15 AM
A very helpful tutorial. Thanks for it.
Tom March 05, 2006 at 01:27 AM
Cool. Definitely a nicer way to create graphs than excel.
Frank March 05, 2006 at 02:35 AM
{ Wolfgana } Would you mind providing the blue background graphic that you used in your example
kitune March 05, 2006 at 02:46 AM
Cool!!!
Tom Richards March 05, 2006 at 02:53 AM
Would you mind going into detail on the effects you used to turn the drab, flat looking 3d pie chart into the final one?
CoXis March 05, 2006 at 03:24 AM
Thanx, i wrote my engineer work and i will make some graphs and this is very usefull. Maybe i use it.
One more you should add to this how to make a background or a title, or add some simple samples to use.
This would be better.
Thanx.
Julian Schrader March 05, 2006 at 03:45 AM
Thanks, nice tutorial!
I’m as well interested in further details — what about “creating graphs #2” ?
Wouter Postma March 05, 2006 at 04:42 AM
Thank you, very nice :).
ceejayoz March 05, 2006 at 05:31 AM
Awesome tutorial! I shall have to give it a try.
Milos March 05, 2006 at 05:38 AM
Fantastisch! Hättes du das Tutorial doch nur ein wenig früher veröffentlicht! Ich hatte vor kurzem eine umfangreiche Statistik zu erstellen… Naja, für’s nächste Mal weiss ich’s! Danke.
Hadley March 05, 2006 at 05:45 AM
That really is a beautiful graphic, but there are a number of perceptual problems with both 3d charts and piecharts. This page (Link has a good description under “Data Distraction”
Shekhar March 05, 2006 at 06:07 AM
Wow… excellent tutorial!
This is surely going to give a look to my paper tomorrow…
Thanks ;)
Jordan March 05, 2006 at 06:15 AM
Hmm when I extrude it in 3D mode all the slices slip up >_<
Jake March 05, 2006 at 06:24 AM
Am I the only one have problems not being able to replicate the above graph/image?
I followed the tutorial and am:
The end result looks amazing, please be more specific in the tutorial.
Jake March 05, 2006 at 06:31 AM
[Jordan] I think you need to select the entire chart (including the title name e.g. firefox, ie etc) for all the pieces to stay together.
Tom March 05, 2006 at 07:41 AM
Before doing the extrude you need select the entire chart but you also need to remove the default black stroke from the pie chart pieces or else it won’t look right.
Josh March 05, 2006 at 09:34 AM
Wow! Thanks! I actually have to create a 70-page annual report for a huge corporation, and this is just what I wanted to see. Except, Veerle beat ya to it :)
Tom S. Weber March 05, 2006 at 03:49 PM
Another great tutorial for Adobe Illustrator!
Hugh March 05, 2006 at 04:22 PM
I second the motion for a more detailed tutorial. I am also having difficulty replicating the graphic show in the tutorial.
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease provide more detailed steps on how to accomplish the end result image.
Thanks in advance
Gregory March 05, 2006 at 04:34 PM
I would also like to ask for a more detailed tutorial. The pie chart looks wonderful but I also am not able to create it based on the provided steps in this post.
spudart March 05, 2006 at 05:03 PM
Hey, the graph looks great. But you just jump from that 3-d to the really nice one with the highlights without explaning it. How did you do that? Please explain how you got the final nice one.
You say “adding some visual effects such as a drop shadow or something similar” but you don’t go into details.
Please explain how you made that highlight on the edge. Thank you.
Wolfgang March 05, 2006 at 07:35 PM
Well, obviously I’ll have to publish some sort of follow-up tutorial :)
Kelter March 06, 2006 at 03:06 AM
That’s all cool — How about the next step. XML Powered graphics. It’s all pretty easy using XML with Macromedia Fireworks or Adobe Illustrator. Check out the PDF here for importing XML into AI to spit out the graphics — sidestepping Excel.
Link
Enjoy.
Thomas March 06, 2006 at 06:38 AM
[Wolfgang] You are awesome. The sooner you post the follow-up to this tutorial the better.
The pie chart looks amazing — I look forward to more descriptive steps on how to create it.
Jason Beaird March 06, 2006 at 11:37 PM
I think I speak for a lot of designers when I say I often overlook Illustrator and just go at it with Photoshop for tasks like this, but I’ll definitely think Illustrator when I think graphs from here on out. Great tutorial!
Timo Kleemann March 07, 2006 at 12:35 AM
Awesome tutorial, has helped me a lot! Thanks, Wolfgang!
adrmis March 07, 2006 at 01:23 AM
Really useful tutorial. I thought about it few days ago.
doni March 07, 2006 at 06:29 AM
Wow! Die schauen super aus! danke
George March 07, 2006 at 09:02 PM
I feel like a kid before Christmas while I wait for the present of tutorial 2. When or when can we have it?
Tom March 07, 2006 at 11:16 PM
Very cool indeed! Adobe has another really cool tool that’s often overlooked. Adobe SVG. SVG would make this a snap! …and allow it to be online.
The problem of course is the incompatibility with Firefox…However that’s been very recently fixed and will continue to be worked on, I’m sure.
…though I suppose you couldn’t get the cool beveled glossy effect….
just reminds me of an application for SVG. Does anyone use SVG these days?
Jonno Riekwel March 08, 2006 at 07:35 AM
Nice, Thnx!
Rick March 08, 2006 at 09:21 AM
I’m having “wet dreams” every night antisipating for tutorial 2 (the more detailed version) on how to create these graphs.
Avasilcai Daniel March 09, 2006 at 10:25 PM
Sehr einfach und gut tutorial, ich brachte so was jetzt,
das ist meine werk : Link
Danke.
p.s. ich konte noch nicht mache die 3d wie deine, aber momentan fur mich passt 2d.
Frank March 11, 2006 at 04:09 AM
Nice graph … but besides that: Congratulations, you seem to have a sophisticated readership — considering the fact that less than one third of your visitors uses IE :-)
Koka March 13, 2006 at 04:24 AM
Kannst du mir weiterhelfen? Weshalb sieht mein Ergebnis nach dem 3D-Filter immer so aus: Link
Vitaly Friedman March 14, 2006 at 06:44 PM
Great article, Wolfgang. Thanks. I hope my readers will appreciate your article, too.
radistka March 14, 2006 at 07:48 PM
Cool, indeed, i’ll try it out
Rose March 21, 2006 at 05:50 AM
Great work. Love it :)
Thank you
David Lin March 21, 2006 at 01:24 PM
Death to pie charts! Pie charts convey numbers by using angles. Unfortunately, angles are very difficult preceive accurately/precisely by the human mind. Now if accuracy and precision are not of utmost importance, then go right ahead. There are only a couple things worse than pie charts: 1) two pie charts 2) 3D pie charts!! While adding a 3rd dimension may make you chart “look cool,” it significantly deminishes its ability to convey the data.
comstrate March 24, 2006 at 04:52 PM
Hi Wolfgang, its a really useful tutorial!
Thanks for your work.
Brandon March 26, 2006 at 08:31 AM
Great tutorial. Thanks for the tips Wolfgang!
Dan March 31, 2006 at 12:35 AM
Great tutorial, thanks!
EricAllen April 03, 2006 at 08:05 AM
Danger.
Please read Tufte’s “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information”.
Pie charts are problematic-determining relative values by areas is difficult, especially if fine distinctions between items need to be made.
Adding 3d effects compounds the problem. The 3d stricture applies to most other charts as well-it’s very easy to mistake the 3d area for the value and get the relative value comparison wrong.
Sliker Hawk April 03, 2006 at 08:04 PM
Nice charts and a nice tutorial. Thanks!
Good site, by the way.
Sliker Hawk April 03, 2006 at 08:04 PM
Nice charts and a nice tutorial!
Good site, as well.
——-
Salfrico September 22, 2006 at 12:24 AM
This is way cool!!
i_design October 12, 2006 at 11:45 AM
Sleek indeed and very effective if you would like to distort some data.
Praca October 14, 2006 at 10:17 PM
Amazing tutorial! Really apreciate that – thanks!
R. Neuendorf October 22, 2006 at 02:21 AM
Wow, ich wusste gar nicht, dass das in Illustrator so einfach ist. Jetzt bin ich wenigstens nicht mehr auf die langweiligen Word-Charts angewiesen. Den Hintergrund und die hinzugefügten Lichteffekte finde ich auch toll. Kannst Du das auch mal erklären?
Drixer November 01, 2006 at 02:45 AM
Very cool, I’ve never used the graph tool in Illustrator, now I’m gonna need to fire it up to see everything it’s capable of. :)
eMule Forum December 10, 2006 at 02:36 AM
I would also like to ask for a more detailed tutorial. The pie chart looks wonderful but I also am not able to create it based on the provided steps in this post.
Cheers