How to Make Quick and Easy Infographics with Infogram

Infogram is a useful resource to easily make infographic posters without any graphic design programs. The best part about Infogram is that each poster is hosted on its own website, meaning that digital posters can include interactive graphics, animations, and multiple slides. Below is a list of steps and useful info to get you started on Infogram.

Infogram is "freemium."

The Basic plan on Infogram is 100% free. According to their site, this Basic plan includes:

37+ interactive charts types
Up to 10 projects
Up to 5 pages per project
13 map types
Publish your content online
Import data
Object animations

Infographics made under this free plan CANNOT BE DOWNLOADED! The only way to share them is to share them is to embded the content to a website or publish the content as its own website on Infogram. Additionally, all content published online is public. There are no private links under the free Basic plan. Privacy control is only availble for paid plans such as the Pro plan, starting at $25 a month. There is a student discount availble but it is only 30% off year-long plans.

Getting Started

After you create an account, you will be presented with a list of free templates to choose from. Pick the one you are interested in using for your project. The templates can be changed within the project itself!

The Dashboard

Infogram Dashboard Infogram's dashboard consists of 5 parts:

[Project] Library
Analytics
Manage Teams
Branding
Content Library

The middle three are only availble for paid plans so for this tutorial we will only be focusing on the 1. Project Library and 5. Content Library.

The Project Library

All projects are stored under the first tab simply titled "Library."" For clarification, we wil be calling this the Project Library. The Project Library presents different types of templates to begin a new project with: Infographics, Reports, Dashboards, Whiteboards, and Responsive Web and Mobile Layouts.

Projects can be tagged and sorted by these tags in addition to other filters such as Public, Privately Shared, or Draft. One's personal PDF's, Powerpoints, and Doc files can also be uploaded as new projects to work on!

The Content Library

Homepage of content library The Content Library stores icons, images, and gifs that will be used in any projects. Under the free Basic plan, up tp 10 pieces of content can be saved in the library at a time. However, there is no limit on the number of favorites. Content can also be deleted after its use to save room.

In addition to storing content, this library is also a search engine. It is connected with Upslash, Noun Project, and Giphy to quickly provide results of public domain images that can be modified and used for projects.

Creating an Infographic

screenshot of Global Feminisms infographic with a word cloud of song genres from class playlist Creating an infographic on Infogram is as easy as dragging and dropping new elements. Functionally, the platform works similarly to Canva with its template-based interface. However, Infogram suprasses Canva with its ability to automatically create charts and graphs based on spreadsheet data. This data can be imported or inputted directly within Infogram. The best part is that these data visualizations are packed with animated funtions that can be added with the click of a button, no javascript knowledge necessary!

For example, if you wanted to show a set of bar graphs racing to the top, one would simply need to set the chart type to Bar Race. There are 37 charts and diagrams avaible to add under the free Basic plan including line, bar, donut, scatter, bubble, pyramid, funnel, word clouds, and treemaps.

"Elements" can also be added to an infographic such as timelines, notes, call-outs, venn diagrams, flow charts, and numbered plans. These elements help to add a visual theme to the words and data being discussed on the infographic.

Final Notes

Inforgraphic is great to use if you need to create an interactive infographic on a website. The infographic can be embedded into your own website or be a website itself through live hosting from Infogram. However, under Infogram's free plan, infographics cannot be downloaded as editable PDF's--to do so requires the $25/month Pro plan. If you will need the graphic as a PDF, Infogram may not be the best platform for you to use. Nonetheless, the variety of colorful charts, diagrams, and templates available on Infrogram are still useful for infographic inspiration!