The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition
A modern classic. Tufte teaches the fundamentals of graphics, charts, maps and tables. "A visual Strunk and White" (The Boston Globe). Includes 250 delightfullly entertaining illustrations, all beautifully printed.
A timeless classic in how complex information should be presented graphically. The Strunk & White of visual design. Should occupy a place of honor--within arm's reach--of everyone attempting to understand or depict numerical data graphically. The design of the book is an exemplar of the principles it espouses: elegant typography and layout, and seamless integration of lucid text and perfectly chosen graphical examples. Very Highly Recommended.
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition Accessories
 Envisioning Information
Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
Beautiful Evidence
The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within, Second Edition
Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data
Visual & Statistical Thinking: Displays of Evidence for Decision Making
Show Me the Numbers: Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)
Turning Numbers into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving
The Design of Everyday Things
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition Reviews
The fourth book, Beautiful Evidence, might leaving you scratching you head as to how to use the information in preparation for your next business presentation. The second book is Envisioning Information, and the third is The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition. He deserves his reputation, however. Good content, but potentially redundant. Although it is not a book for everyone, there is a very interesting discussion (albeit short) of Minard's Napoleon's march chart (made famous by Tufte) in The Grammar of Graphics (Statistics and Computing). If you want an introduction to Tufte that gives you a chance of putting the advice into practice at work, you must read this one first. If you become a convert, the other three are also excellent, but offer less practical application for the everyday business person.
Beware the inexpensive paperbacks - they are excepts from the hardcovers. They are carefully crafted by individuals with great skill and expensive software. I have attended one of the author's talks (easy to find on the web), and have all four books. (For instance, I am a statistician and data miner, not a graphic designer). One criticism of Tufte is that it is not obvious how to go about doing many of the graphics in his books. To go for the most recent, would be a mistake for most readers. The books are beautiful, and his ideas have great merit.
Provides many helpful ideas, as well as some `do and don't's. Some overlap with the other book (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information / Envisioning Information). Stimulates the visualisation of information with illustrations on every page and easy to read text.
However I was expecting something more practical. Maybe it's not a guide but a book with some nice historical data and references. It has a lot of useful insights. Superb graphs and pictures. Yes I would recommend you to buy it. This book is great.
I can say, though, that after reading Tufte's books, my life is not the same. He won't supply you with handy templates for making projects look snappier. No, he won't do your homework for you. It is by no means a new theory.
This work (I refer to all of his booksthey really are one unit together) is certainly one of the great accomplishments of the last twenty years. This book is the groundworks of a theory of seeing, of communicating through images. Throughout human history man has communicated through history. The complaints of the detracting reviewers are baseless if you understand the nature of this book.
Not only that, through his breadth of examples and the depth of his analysis, the reader is made to realize that visual information/visual communication are at the heart of our human identity. Expecting that is like expecting a philosophy book to think for you. It is rare that a supposedly technical book really changes a reader's life. But Tufte shows with unparalleled visual eloquence what makes one image successfully communicate while another fails.
After reading this book, I have never looked at printed matter in the same way again. Tufte's definition of successful display and its inherent subtlety are so deeply human that they can be carried over to general rhetoric and aesthetics if not farther.
Although this book gives a lot of simple advice on how to effectively communicate quantitative information, it is not just a recipe-like book, as it also makes you think about a data graphic as something that is telling a story with numbers. For all other readers, I highly recommend it. In fact, you may start to see the limitations in the office suites themselves. So, for those who just want some fast rules to use in their favorite software, this book may not be enough, or even the most recommended one. Tufte's book is a very fine book on data graphics. This is by no means a problem with the book, it is just that the text is not at all software-oriented. Beware that not all advice given is easily applied using common office suites.
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