Although the portmanteau term “infographics” has only been in use since the 1960s, information graphics have been used for centuries. Many scholars contend that Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics qualify as an early form of infographics, because they are visual representations of historical and cultural information. Academic researchers have also claimed that the earliest forms of information graphics can be traced back to 32,000 year old cave paintings!
Basically, it can be claimed that any graphic representation of information can be regarded as a type of infographics. It does not matter if the subject matter is the solar system, Ancient Egyptian funeral rituals, or sophisticated marketing data, if it combines information with graphics, it can be considered an infographic. While there is really nothing complicated about it, it has not always been so simple to create infographics of high quality.
Today, professionals, students, or anyone else with a desire to make clear, colorful, engaging infographics can do so without spending a dime. People can simply hop on Google and choose among several easy infographic makers online. Some of the best free infographic creators do not even require web users to set up accounts. Anyone with a Facebook or Twitter account can quickly sign in by using one of those two accounts, and choose among several different charts, graphs, and other visual aids.
While there are plenty of easy infographic makers from which to choose, infogr.am has to be one of the easiest. It is so user friendly that Facebook and Twitter users can sign in and begin learning it right away. Users also have the option of registering with the site, which is a process that takes about 15 seconds. Of course, there are several other easy infographic makers that are free, such as visual.ly, coolinfographics, Piktochart, and others.
If you have never tried any of the above online infographic creators, keep in mind that the fact that they are free is no indication of quality. Each one offers plenty of free tools and design options that will result in brilliant, lucid infographics. For those folks who crave more options, most infographics makers offer “premium” versions that require users to pay a modest fee for access to an even wider palette of tools and design choices.