
Graphic Presentation (1939) - stared
https://archive.org/stream/graphicpresentat00brinrich#page/n0/mode/thumb
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nothrabannosir
> _How charts ought not to be made_

[https://archive.org/stream/graphicpresentat00brinrich#page/2...](https://archive.org/stream/graphicpresentat00brinrich#page/22/mode/1up)

75 years later, it seems bad habits die hard.

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elijahmeeks
I found that part really interesting since the requirement for a zero baseline
today is limited to bar charts (see Few) whereas this insists you use it for
line charts as well (which most modern data viz textbooks will say is okay
because you judge the length of a bar chart but the position of a point in a
time series).

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leephillips
This senseless insistence on beginning the vertical axis at zero is repeated
in Huff's popular book, _How to Lie with Statistics_ , where he also claims
that failing to adopt this rule results in "misleading" graphs.

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mjcohen
It depends on whether you want to show relative or absolute change. Huff's
warning about scales not starting at zero occurs when the chart has a caption
such as "A massive five percent growth!"

In my experience, not starting a scale at zero often DOES produce a misleading
graph.

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brudgers
By capturing abstractions over graphic formats it reminds me a bit of
Alexander's _A Pattern Language_ and its relationship to buildings. The
chapter on _Quantitative Cartoons_ gave me one of those "that thing has a
name" moments and afterwhich a previously unremarkable piece of the cultural
furniture becomes remarkable because we get a new way of seeing.

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LiweiZ
A quick skim through the preview of it reminds me of how improved technologies
bring ideas to our daily life. Only with the matured tools, we see more and
more applications of many of the ideas from the book. The time/energy cost of
bringing them to us was too high.

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sboak
It's fascinating to see a book approaching data visualization from first
principles, without any preconceived notions or the baggage and confusion of
modern tools and techniques

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freekh
Wow! This is truly incredible!

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pgrote
It really is. the Genealogy and Genetics section was eye opening.

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cariaso
wow, more Tufte than Tufte and much earlier.

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elijahmeeks
You must not know Tufte very well or not have looked very closely at this
text. It includes numerous recommendations to use decorative elements in
charts, and that kind of thing horrifies Tufte.

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iGoPro_HD
Just looking at the previews of these makes me want to go back, and watch the
making of these. Truly fascinating.

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fizixer
off-topic but I was looking for a reader of my pdf-to-image converted
documents. This reader looks really nice (and in-browser too).

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Qwerty404
it's interesting!

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corysama
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