Just a quick one.
I notice that I often apply a fade effect to the bars of my bar charts, to me it looks a bit nicer.
With fade…
Without fade…
Its not too important, I think the options are:
1. Fade is best
2. Solid is best
3. Ross, you wasting my dam time, you’re a moron!
What do you think?
I think solid is best, but a lighter shade than the bold blue you’ve blasted our eyes with. A shade towards the lighter edge of your gradient bars.
If there’s to be a fill effect, I prefer a horizontal shade to a vertical one:
http://tinypic.com/m/9bfwye/4
But I think a less in-your-face solid fill would probably work best…
(Oh, and do feel free to have that picture printed on a skateboard, poster or trucker hat should you wish…)
rofl, lmao, thats what I though, I’d love a base ball cap with that on, classic!
We must club together and buy Ross a copy of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information…
I cant get that book Gordon, on account of it being pink!
I prefer the plain bars (agree with Jon about the colour). Using the “fade” is just eye candy: better to keep effects like that for times when you need an extra dimension of data.
Hi all, newbie alert!
I agree with Mike, the fill used here is probably a bit strong, over exaggerated, just like a “before” shot of a bloke who lost 5 stone with some fad diet! Try make the comparison look a little better ;)
Think fade works in places.
Great blog by the way
PaulMc
I think solid is best, with lighter colors. Also, I have been adding subtle drop shadows to my bar charts. This makes them pop better than gradient. I do not like gradient because it might be mistaken for being meaningful, when in fact, it is not.
But the issue with the drop shadow is that I cannot figure out how to add it using VBA. All I get is a “black” drop shadow, not a nice gray semi transparent drop shadow. (Format Data Series >Shadow >Presets #1)