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Show Me the Numbers Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten
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September 5, 2025
Some people show you how to do something, some people explain how to do something, Few teaches you how to do it. For those who have not picked up how to create professional looking tables and charts by osmosis (like myself), this book teaches you how. It covers the techniques, the standards, the rules, and explains why they are important, in detail. So regardless of which software one uses to generate a graph, Few teaches how to think about the task in order to design and produce an effective outcome. He also distills the findings and observations made by others in the industry into actionable concepts for constructing graphs.
It is one thing to fill a book with examples of bad graphics and critiques and quite another to explain best practices and how to apply them. Few does the latter two, as well as providing comprehensive summaries which list the options for fulling various requests for charts.
His thesis is that creating clear, effective charts and tables is a skill that anyone can learn. Each segment begins with the fundamentals by naming and explaining each component of a chart or table on a very basic level. A chapter is included on human visual perception so that the reader can understand the reasons for the design choices.
Beware that Few is staunchly against 3D charts and pie charts. So if you want to learn about making those, seek elsewhere.
I checked this thick, well worn book out at the library. It was a lot of work getting through it, but it was worth the effort. For the first time I understand the how and why of professional looking charts and how to produce them myself.
It is one thing to fill a book with examples of bad graphics and critiques and quite another to explain best practices and how to apply them. Few does the latter two, as well as providing comprehensive summaries which list the options for fulling various requests for charts.
His thesis is that creating clear, effective charts and tables is a skill that anyone can learn. Each segment begins with the fundamentals by naming and explaining each component of a chart or table on a very basic level. A chapter is included on human visual perception so that the reader can understand the reasons for the design choices.
Beware that Few is staunchly against 3D charts and pie charts. So if you want to learn about making those, seek elsewhere.
I checked this thick, well worn book out at the library. It was a lot of work getting through it, but it was worth the effort. For the first time I understand the how and why of professional looking charts and how to produce them myself.
Displaying 1 of 1 review