Introduction
This article describes how to create a Pictograph Bar Chart.
A pictograph bar chart uses multiple icons to represent the values in each bar. Pictograph bar charts can make a visualization more recognizable and interesting. They can be used for both count and proportional data.
An example of a count pictograph:
Method
A pictograph bar chart can be created by selecting Create > Charts > Visualization > Pictographs > Pictograph Bar. Similar to other visualizations, we can enter data for this in three different ways. However, unlike a standard bar chart, only one-dimensional tables will be shown.
Data Source – select a table output. If a two-dimensional table is selected (e.g. a crosstab between two questions), you can specify a row or column to chart using the options under Row or Column Manipulations.
Representing the input data with icons
Options to customize the pictograph bar chart can be found in the Chart tab of the object inspector. The default setting are configured for count data. However, pictograph bar charts can also handle proportional data. In the example below, we set the Units per icon (scale) to 0.03 and untick the checkbox to hide unfilled icons.
Other customizations
Appearance can be customized when the number of icons is large. Setting the maximum icons per row will wrap the icons into multiple rows. In the first pictograph about attributes, this option was set to 25. By default, the same amount of space is left for each category. However, the value for Weight-conscious is much smaller than the value for Traditional. To avoid having extra white space around injured soldier icons, we unticked the checkbox for fixed number of rows per bar.
Icon colors can be set for each category in the input data using color palettes (under Data Series). However, if custom icons are used, then url(s) must be provided for appropriate colored images.
Category labels for each bar can be customized with options found under Categories (Y) Axis. You can choose to show or hide these labels. You can also control the alignment, font family, font color, and font size of the category labels. The position of the category labels (right or left of the icons) is determined by the direction of fill.
Data labels show the values in each bar. They can be positioned near the category labels (e.g. the first pictograph about soldiers), or next to the bar (e.g. the second pictograph about tv series ratings), or below/above the icons. Prefixes or suffixes can also be added to provide extra information.