Creating great infographics online: Piktochart

Piktochart Tutorial

<blockquote>
  <p>Creating great infographics online: Piktochart</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Infographics, these trendy little graphics, conveying useful complex information, while still pleasing your eye. <br>
Their popularity in the last years rose rapidly. Admittedly, it’s a really useful medium to get an idea or information across, while still being visually informal and even putting a good dose of humor into it. <br>
But on the other hand, creating infographics with classic design tools can be often quite time consuming.  <br>
Luckily there is a great alternative which might be just the right solution.</p>

<h2 id="introducing-piktochart">Introducing Piktochart</h2>

<p><img src="https://magic.piktochart.com/assets/login/piktochart-fullcolor-logo-037a1ddd4d2f401d437cdcb949ce374f.png" alt="Piktochart" title=""></p>

<p>Piktochart.com is a great tool for creating visually appealing infographics, fully customizable, yet straightforward to use, even for non-designers. <br>
<em>Piktochart</em> comes with a Pro pricing plan and a free plan. Although limited, the free plan gives you a broad selection of assets to use in your infographics and plenty of tools to play with.</p>

<p>Let’s take a look at it and create our first infographic.</p>



<h2 id="create-your-first-infographic">Create your first infographic</h2>

<p>For now, let’s start with the free plan. You can always decide later if you would like to upgrade.</p>

<p>After you’ve created your account ( you can log in with <em>Google+</em> or <em>Facebook</em> too ), you will have a selection of themes and templates to choose from.</p>

<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62482708/SitePoint/Piktochart/B.jpg" alt="The Startup Way Template" title=""></p>

<p>For this introduction, I’ve chosen “<em>The Startup Way</em>” template from <em>Anna Vital</em>.  <br>
It’s a great template if you want to indicate the various steps of a certain process.Next, we will name our infographic document. I’m naming mine here <em>How to become a Super Hero</em> </p>

<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62482708/SitePoint/Piktochart/2.jpg" alt="Name your Infographic" title=""></p>

<p>Now the document view appears, this is where you will create your magic! <br>
On the left you can find the essential tools for inserting new elements, text, graphics and more. <br>
Piktochart also lets you upload your own graphics, so you will probably take use of that feature.</p>

<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62482708/SitePoint/Piktochart/A.jpg" alt="Essential Tools" title=""></p>

<p>On the top you can find the transform tools, which you can use to transform single elements, give them colors, or change their styles. </p>

<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62482708/SitePoint/Piktochart/C.jpg" alt="enter image description here" title=""></p>

<p>There is also the document setup panel where you can add, remove and tweak blocks, and also change the dimensions of the infographic.  <br>
But for now, we will use the default dimensions.</p>

<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62482708/SitePoint/Piktochart/I.jpg" alt="enter image description here" title=""></p>

<p>When you have your document opened, it should look something like this:</p>

<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62482708/SitePoint/Piktochart/3.jpg" alt="enter image description here" title=""></p>

<p>Let’s clean up it a bit so it’s ready for some customization. <br>
Delete the existing icons, as we don’t need them.</p>

<p>Let’s give it a different background now. I’ve chosen here a dark background for some nice contrast. <br>
Piktochart Infographics are made out of blocks, so you can resize their height and change their background to your likings. I gave all the blocks the same black background pattern. <br>
If you choose a pattern though, you will notice that it will create seams between the blocks.</p>

<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62482708/SitePoint/Piktochart/E.jpg" alt="Seams between the boxes" title=""></p>

<p>To get rid of those, align the height of the blocks by clicking on the bottom borders of the specified block and drag it up and down until you see that the seam is not noticeable anymore. <br>
You will need to give it a few tries, to understand it better, but once you get the hang of it, it should be really easy for you later. </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Note: You can also resize the block by clicking on the small cog wheel on the left when the block is selected. 352 px worked for me without creating any seams between the blocks. </p>
</blockquote>

<p>Once you have set up the background, tweak the different elements so they should fit with whatever you have in mind. <br>
In this case, I have made the lines following the canvas white, in order to have enough contrast with the black background. Same goes also for the text. <br>
I used the Gothic Pro and League Gothic font, as it’s just right for a stylish Batman &amp; Gotham Theme. <br>
After these little cosmetic changes, we should have a pretty good starting point:</p>

<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62482708/SitePoint/Piktochart/F.jpg" alt="enter image description here" title=""></p>

<p>Let’s fill it up with some content now. <br>
On the left toolbar you can insert graphics, icons and also upload your own images.  <br>
The Search Bar will help you find the desired graphics, which in my case here is a dollar sign and an angry emoticon. <br>
I also uploaded an explosion icon to use here.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Note: You can change the color of icons and graphics imported from the <br>
  Piktochart libraries, but you cannot do the same with imported images, <br>
  so make sure to give them the right colors in the external image <br>
  manipulation program you use.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>After updating the text, it should look like this:</p>

<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62482708/SitePoint/Piktochart/G.jpg" alt="enter image description here" title=""></p>

<p>Let’s do the same for the next elements. You will probably need to import images, so take advantage of that to customize your infographic. Also be careful with the lines, they can be very annoying to get aligned right, as the corners are technically images, while the horizontal and vertical lines are dynamic elements. You can tweak their appearance and thickness on the transform tools toolbar at the top.</p>

<p>As you can see, it’s starting to fill up now:</p>

<p><img src="https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62482708/SitePoint/Piktochart/H.jpg" alt="enter image description here" title=""></p>

<p>I noticed that it still lacks color and variety, so I changed one or two background colors, added some lines and spiced it up with some more muted colors. <br>
I also added a block at the bottom, together with a final text.</p>