ChartGizmo blog

ChartGizmo is totally free to use but is pretty costly run. We have server costs, application maintenance costs, admin costs, legal costs etc etc etc. It all adds up to a pretty penny.  If you’re interested, the Google adverts are bringing in a few pence a day. So I’m not getting rich using them, but they go towards hosting the tutorials and downloads.

We would really appreciate it if you would do one of several things:

1. Tell everyone about this great free chart maker on forums you hang out at, in news letters, word of mouth. Just shout about ChartGizmo as loud as you can from the rooftops if you like.

2. Link back to ChartGizmo from your website. Why not blog about us and link back to us from your blog. Add us to your social bookmark site of choice. Hell, why not video yourself making your chart design and put it up on youtube.

3. Write us feedback.

The more buzz we get going about this free chart maker software, the better we can make it in the future. The more designs we can add and more functions too.

Please help us to help you make this the best free online chart builder on the net. We can keep it free with your support.

This week we have made the new release

The following new features are available:

* New chart type is available: Scatterplot.
* Flash charts for Pie, Bar, Bar 3d, Line and Scatterplot format types are available.
* Chart comment has been added.
* Manual is available.
* “Remember the user” functionality.

We are waiting for you suggestions and wishes for driving evolution of chartgizmo.com.

Making good charts and graphs is not rocket science. Actually it’s quite easy, if you remember some basic stuff:

• Charts and graphs make statistics visible. They show trends —what happened in the past and what might happen in the future.

• The best charts are simple. When they are simple, they attract attention and deliver information quickly and clearly. They explain numbers. They help readers to understand data.

• There are only four basic types of chart: fever, bar, pie and table. One of these types will be the appropriate graphic form for almost any numbers you want to display.

• Fever charts are best used to track the progress (say the price, or the quantity) of an item over a period of time.

• Bar charts show the relationships between a number of items at one time.

• Pie charts divide an item into its component parts, or percentages.

• Tables show the actual numbers, arranged into an orderly form that clarifies their relationships.

What not to do

There has always been a tendency to overdo charts, showing off, dazzling the reader or viewer with the latest devices and effects available. Computer software offers an array of three dimensional effects,

backgrounds, typestyles and icons that often clutter the result and make charts hard to decipher. So:

• Don’t use the third dimension. Why do you want your chart to jump off the page or screen? I’d rather it stayed there and let me read it!

• Don’t use a busy background to indicate what the subject of the chart is. A photo of nuts and bolts to show the reader that the chart is about industry? NO! Plain backgrounds allow the information to be seen, and read.

• Don’t use lots of colors to dress up a chart in an effort to make it look bright. What is this, the tiedyed sixties? Too many colors distract the eye, and confuse the meaning.

• Don’t use type that’s too small, or too big for the final size of the chart you are preparing. And ornate, decorative fonts have no place in charts.

Nigel Holmes

P.S. You can use this recommendation for creating charts in chartgizmo.com

Our service has been moved from old home PC to the new high quality server.

We have a lot of Japanese users in last days. Unfortunately Japanese characters in charts don’t work.

This bug has been fixed today.

New features:

• New chart types (Pie 3D, Bar 3D, Line 3D, Ring)
• Deleting of data columns
• Chart painting improvement
• Chart comment option has been added
• Plot color option has been added

Also lot of bugs have been fixed.

We are waiting for you suggestions and wishes for driving evolution of chartgizmo.com.

We don’t expect ever to see so many users in first days after launching. We submit link to chartgizmo.com to several blogs reviewing new startups on 24.06, and waiting for several visitors. Reality surpass all our expectations:

It is more about 150 users in 4 days.

We looking into logs and working hard to fix all bugs found by these people. Big thanks to these pioneers.

We wondering  how many bloggers over the world post and review our site.

It was one of funniest days in our lives.

We finally launch first public version of chartgizmo.com!

We  have lot of commercial software development experience, but never make something from scratch. We decide to begin with simple product first. Initial development and installation of server related thinks takes about 2 months of part-time work of two people.