

Ask HN: Google Analytics Charts - grep

What software do you use to create beautiful charts?<p>As for example: Google Analytics charts, how would you do that? What other web apps do you know that have beautiful charts?
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dacort
In no particular order: <http://g.raphaeljs.com>,
<http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis>, <http://highcharts.com>,
<http://www.fusioncharts.com/> (Flash)

[edit] Some commentary: I've used Fusion Charts in the past (on
tweetstats.com) and it provides some good looking and easy to implement
charts. That said, it's Flash but it was the best looking option around when I
implemented it back in late '07. Since then, there's been a nice rise in JS
charts. gRaphael is amazing, but somewhat buggy and lacking documentation.
Highcharts seems very complete and well-documented. I only came across
Protovis recently, but it seems pretty darn awesome.

~~~
noelsequeira
A few more:

<http://www.amcharts.com/> has an extremely comprehensive stock chart in
addition to decent flash charts

<http://www.rgraph.net/> is an html5 charting library you might want to look
at.

I've worked with Fusion Charts for a while now, and their charts 1) have a
very comprehensive API 2) are plain beautiful, especially the 3D charts.

JS charts look very promising, and I'm really excited about Highcharts and
gRaphael.

If you're looking for something similar to the map component that Google
Analytics uses, take a look at <http://www.ammap.com/> or
<http://www.fusioncharts.com/maps/>

@dacort - Thanks for pointing me to protovis. Expected it to be more of a
hobby project (from the url), but was blown away by how comprehensive it is!

~~~
cjy
Plug: For dynamic US state intensity maps I created the tool
<http://www.flashusamap.com/statistics.php>

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jnoller
Flot (<http://code.google.com/p/flot/>) has treated me fairly well, but a
coworker swears by highcharts.

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jcruz
Google Chart Tools lets you generate images for static charts, or create
interactive charts using their javascript library:
<http://code.google.com/apis/charttools/index.html>

Also, check out RGraph for HTML5 canvas graphs <http://www.rgraph.net>

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DMiner
They use Flash.

[http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gall...](http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/gallery.html)

Open flash chart ,an open source project: <http://teethgrinder.co.uk/open-
flash-chart/>

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kilian
I made Grafico: <http://grafico.kilianvalkhof.com> it's an opinionated SVG
charting library with excellent documentation and lots of customizable
options.

~~~
endtime
Very nice...btw, the example entitled "Line graph with multiple lines and a
watermark" is just showing the grid and labels in Opera 10.54 on Windows.

~~~
kilian
Thanks, I'll look into it! Opera is a fickle beast ;)

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agbegin
I'm on the ZingChart team - we render charts in both HTML5 and Flash. So far
we've gotten great feedback. Our charts are JSON driven and can plot huge data
quickly [demo] <http://www.zingchart.com/labs/blog_charts/10k_points.html>.

<http://www.zingchart.com> <http://www.twitter.com/zingchart>

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dimarco
I use HighCharts(<http://www.highcharts.com/>) at press9. Javascript, very
nice charts.

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revorad
Plug: Give my startup Pretty Graph a try (<http://prettygraph.com>). We are
trying to build the best web-based graphing tool. Still in very early stages,
and looking for early users. I was going to make a review post here soon, but
since you asked now I thought I should mention it anyway.

~~~
endtime
Are your charts all images, or can you generate SVG/VML charts?

~~~
revorad
By default, our charts are images for cross-browser compatibility and speed,
but we can produce SVG too (not VML at the moment).

~~~
endtime
I'd recommend SVG+VML...making an image chart startup may be a little like
going into the horse-and-buggy industry just as the Model T is coming out.

~~~
revorad
Ha! I'm aware of that. However, I think the format of the graph output is
_not_ the most important/unsolved/annoying problem in making graphs from my
users' perspective. The key difference here between our product and the other
libraries and apps mentioned in this thread is that we are primarily building
an end-user application, not just a library for developers to use (although
our API will also allow that).

I may be proven wrong and have to move to SVG/VML, but only time will tell.
For now our focus is to build the best tool to put any kind of data in and get
pretty graphs out.

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ElbertF
I used <http://pchart.sourceforge.net> on <http://wappalyzer.com>. It doesn't
look like the developer actively working on it anymore though.

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lvvlvv
You can make static-PNG charts with <http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net> or
<http://volnitsky.com/project/mplw>

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imusicmash
if you're on a .Net platform, you may want to take a look at Dundas Data
Visualization <http://www.dundas.com>. Just try to avoid the defaults :) We
use these for data vis at <http://allegiance.com>.

Also, Theresa Neil posted a good list of 28 data vis tools here
[http://www.insideria.com/2009/12/28-rich-data-
visualization-...](http://www.insideria.com/2009/12/28-rich-data-
visualization-too.html)

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treskot
<http://visifire.com>, I've been using this cool set of open-source charts.
Look no further if you are searching for beautiful charts.

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FlemishBeeCycle
<http://www.jqplot.com/> is one that I've been using lately.

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grep
Thank you all.

