How to Make an Infographic: A Step-by-Step Guide

Making an infographic means turning information or data into a single clear visual that people can understand at a glance. It works because the eye extracts meaning from an image extremely quickly, so a good infographic communicates in seconds what a paragraph takes minutes to explain. This guide walks you through the whole process, from goal to published graphic, and the tools that help. You can make a simple one in under an hour with a template.

What is an infographic?

An infographic is a visual that combines data, text and design to explain a topic clearly and quickly. It packages information, statistics, a process or a comparison into a format that is easy to read and easy to share.

The speed claim is worth grounding, because it is usually stated without evidence. Research led by Mary Potter at MIT found that people could identify the subject of an image seen for as little as 13 milliseconds, far faster than the 100 milliseconds earlier studies had suggested. The same work notes that the eyes move to a new fixation about three times a second, and that deciding where to look next takes 100 to 140 milliseconds. That is the real design constraint: you have roughly a third of a second to make someone stop and stay, and only the largest, boldest element on the page is doing any work in that window.

Infographics earn their place because they do several jobs at once:

• Simplify complex information into something digestible at a glance
• Boost shareability and engagement, since visual content travels further on social media
• Build authority, by presenting research and data in a credible, branded format
• Earn backlinks, because other sites like to reference and embed a well-made infographic

That last point matters for SEO: a strong, original infographic is one of the more reliable ways to attract links back to your site.

Types of infographics (and when to use each)

There are several types of infographic, and the right one depends on what your data is doing. Choosing the type before you design saves you rebuilding it later. Here are the main ones:

• Statistical: best for presenting numbers, survey results and key figures with charts.
• Timeline: best for showing how something has changed or developed over time.
• Process: best for explaining a sequence of steps or a workflow, in order.
• Comparison: best for weighing two or more options side by side.
• Geographic: best for data tied to places, mapped by region or country.
• List: best for a set of tips, reasons or items that do not need charts.
• Hierarchy or flowchart: best for showing structure, ranking or decision paths.

Match the type to your content and the design gets much easier, because the structure is already decided. A timeline of numbers wants a timeline layout, not a list.

Not sure which fits? Look at what your data is doing. If it is mostly figures and percentages, you want a statistical layout. If it explains how something happens, a process layout. If it pits options against each other, comparison. If the story is really about change over time, timeline. Picking the type is a decision about the shape of your information, not about which template looks nicest, and getting it right up front saves a rebuild later.

How to make an infographic, step by step

Making an infographic follows a clear sequence: set your goal, gather data, choose the type and layout, design it, build it, review it, then publish. Here are the eight steps.

Step 1: Define your goal and audience

Start by deciding the single message your infographic needs to land. Every infographic should have one clear takeaway, the one thing you want the reader to remember. If you cannot say it in a sentence, the infographic will try to do too much.

Then define your audience. Who are they, what do they already know, and what do they need from this? A graphic for busy marketing directors looks different from one aimed at students. The goal and the audience together shape every decision that follows, so pin them down before you touch a design tool.

Step 2: Gather and verify your data

Collect the information your infographic will present, and check it is accurate before you use it. An infographic built on shaky data undermines the very authority it is meant to create. Reliable sources include government data such as the Office for National Statistics, established research bodies, and reputable data platforms.

Verification deserves more than a passing mention, because infographics are one of the main ways bad statistics spread. A figure gets designed into a graphic, the graphic gets embedded on other sites, and the number outlives the study it came from. Before a number goes in your file, run it through four checks:

1. Find the original publisher. If your source is citing someone else, follow the chain until you reach whoever actually collected the data.
2. Check the date. A great many widely-shared design and marketing statistics are more than a decade old and are still presented as current.
3. Check what was actually measured. Survey respondents predicting an outcome is not the same as an outcome being measured, though the two get cited identically.
4. Check the sample. Who was asked, how many, and where? A survey of 500 people in one country is fine, as long as you say so.

Cite your sources on the graphic itself, usually as a small line at the bottom, with the publisher and the year. It builds trust and lets readers verify the figures. As you gather, simplify: pull out the few numbers that support your one key message and leave the rest. An infographic is a highlight reel, not a spreadsheet.

Step 3: Choose the right type and chart

Pick the infographic type and the chart formats that fit your data. This is where the earlier types list becomes a decision. The chart choice matters just as much, because the wrong chart hides the story instead of telling it.

Choose the chart that makes your point obvious at a glance. If a reader has to study it, the chart is doing the wrong job.

Step 4: Choose a layout or template

Pick a layout that matches how your content should be read. The layout is the skeleton everything hangs on, and it should follow a natural top-to-bottom reading flow. As a rough guide:

• Single column works for linear content like a process or timeline
• Two columns work for comparisons, one option each side
• Multi-section grid works for mixed data grouped into themes

Starting from a template is the fastest route, especially if you are not a designer. It gives you a structured grid to drop your content into, so you can focus on the message rather than building from a blank page.

Step 5: Design it: colour, typography and visuals

Design your infographic so the visuals carry the message and the design guides the eye. This is where it goes from information to something people actually want to look at. A few essentials:

• Colour scheme. Use a small palette, two or three colours, and pull from your brand guidelines so the graphic looks like it belongs to you. Colour should organise the information, not decorate it.
• Typography. Stick to two fonts, one for headings and one for body. Keep them legible at the size people will actually view the graphic.
• Visual elements. Use icons, charts and illustrations that genuinely aid understanding, in one consistent style. Mismatched icon styles make a graphic look thrown together.
• Visual hierarchy. Make the most important thing the biggest and boldest, then step down from there, so the eye knows where to start.
• White space. Leave room to breathe. Cramming everything in is the fastest way to lose the reader; negative space is what makes an infographic scannable.

A quick worked example: say you are visualising a survey where 68 percent of small businesses plan to increase design spend. Rather than burying that in a paragraph, make the figure the largest element on the page, pair it with a single supporting icon, and let one line of text explain it. The one big number does the work; everything else supports it. That is the difference between an infographic that communicates at a glance and one that reads like a report someone flattened into a picture.

Making your infographic accessible

Accessibility is where infographics quietly fail, because a chart is an image and an image cannot be re-read by a screen reader or resized by the viewer. Two rules cover most of it.

The first is not to let colour carry meaning on its own. That is a formal requirement, not just good practice: WCAG success criterion 1.4.1 Use of Colour, at Level A, says colour must not be the only visual means of conveying information or distinguishing elements. There is a useful nuance in the W3C guidance that most articles miss. If two colours differ in lightness as well as hue, and the contrast between them reaches 3:1, that lightness difference itself counts as the additional distinction. So a light green against a dark red passes, while a mid-green against a mid-red does not. If you cannot get there, add labels, patterns or shapes.

This matters because of who is reading. Colour vision deficiency affects roughly 8 percent of men and 1 percent of women, or about one in twelve men, and which colours get confused depends on the type:

The second rule is contrast. Text sitting on a photograph, a gradient or a pale tint is the most common readability failure in infographics. These are the published minimums:

Two practical notes. The W3C guidance on text contrast treats these as hard thresholds that are not rounded, so 4.499:1 fails. And under the rules on non-text contrast, a chart is exempt if the same information is also given as visible labels and values, which is often the easiest fix: label the bars and the contrast of the fills stops being load-bearing. Whatever you do, publish real alt text or a short text summary alongside the image, because none of the content inside a PNG is readable any other way.

Step 6: Build your infographic (tools and assembly)

Assemble the pieces in a design tool. This is the step where you actually make it: drop your data, text and visuals into your chosen layout and refine until it flows. Keep your icon and illustration style consistent throughout, and align everything to the grid so it looks deliberate rather than scattered.

Keep the text minimal, and be more specific than the usual advice to write simply. The Government Digital Service, which writes for the whole UK population, sets out its plain English guidelines in numbers you can apply directly: split sentences over 25 words, and keep paragraphs to no more than five sentences. In an infographic you should be well inside both.

The objection is usually that a specialist audience can handle denser copy. The evidence points the other way. GDS cites research into legal language finding that 80 percent of people preferred sentences written in clear English, and that the preference got stronger the more educated and specialist the reader. Nobody has ever complained that a graphic was too easy to read. If a sentence can become a chart or an icon, make it one.

Step 7: Review and refine

Before you publish, run a quick quality check. Step back and look at the whole thing as a first-time reader would. Ask:

• Does it communicate the key message at a glance?
• Is every figure accurate, dated and attributed to the original publisher?
• Are the fonts, colours and spacing consistent throughout?
• Would it still make sense in greyscale?
• Does the text meet the contrast minimums above?
• Is anything cluttered or trying to say too much?

The greyscale test is the fastest accessibility check there is: desaturate the file, and if you can no longer tell two data series apart, colour is doing work it should not be doing alone. If something does not earn its place, cut it. The best infographics are ruthless about what they leave out, because clarity comes from subtraction, not addition.

Step 8: Publish, share and promote

Export your infographic and get it in front of people. This is the step most guides skip, and it is where the work pays off. A few practical points:

• Export in the right format. PNG or JPG for web and social, PDF for print or download. Match the dimensions to where it is going.
• Publish it on your site or blog, ideally in a post that adds context around it.
• Write real alt text, describing what the graphic shows rather than just naming it, and consider putting the key figures in the surrounding copy too.
• Share it on social media, resized for each platform’s preferred dimensions.
• Embed it in email newsletters where it fits.
• Add an embed code so other sites can share it easily, which is how infographics earn backlinks.

For social specifically, a tall vertical format tends to work on feeds, while a square crop suits Instagram. Sizing for the destination is the difference between a graphic that gets shared and one that gets skipped.

The best tools to make an infographic

Plenty of tools can help you make an infographic, and the right one depends on your skill level and budget. Here is a neutral round-up of the main options:

Tiers and prices change often, so check the current plan on the vendor’s own site before committing. AI infographic generators have also arrived, and they can produce a rough draft from a prompt or a data set in seconds. They are handy for a starting point, but the output usually needs a human eye to fix layout, accuracy and brand fit, and it will not check its own figures.

If you can start with a template, you do not need design skills to make a decent infographic. Where a professional makes the difference is polish, originality and staying genuinely on-brand across a lot of graphics.

Infographic design tips and common mistakes

Most infographic problems come down to clutter and inconsistency. Here are the tips that matter and the mistakes to avoid:

• Give it one clear focal point. Mistake to avoid: several competing messages that leave the reader unsure what to take away.
• Keep the text minimal. Mistake to avoid: paragraphs of copy that turn a visual into a wall of words.
• Use two to four colours and two fonts. Mistake to avoid: a rainbow palette and five typefaces that make it look chaotic.
• Keep icons in one consistent style. Mistake to avoid: mixing flat, outline and 3D icons in the same graphic.
• Design a clear reading flow. Mistake to avoid: a layout with no obvious starting point or direction.
• Cite sources with a publisher and a year. Mistake to avoid: unattributed or undated stats that readers cannot trust.
• Check contrast and the greyscale test. Mistake to avoid: pale text on a pale background, or two data series only a colour apart.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best tool to make an infographic?

For most people, a template-based tool such as Canva is the easiest starting point. Venngage and Piktochart are strong for data-heavy graphics, while Adobe Illustrator suits fully custom professional work. The best tool depends on your skill level, budget and how polished the result needs to be, so check current pricing before you choose.

How long should an infographic be?

An infographic should be as long as it needs to make one clear point, and no longer. A standard vertical infographic is often around 800 to 2,000 pixels tall, but the real rule is focus: if you are scrolling past three screens of content, it is probably two infographics, not one.

What size should an infographic be?

A common infographic size is roughly 800 pixels wide by 2,000 pixels tall for a vertical format, but the right size depends on where it will appear. Match the dimensions to the destination: taller for blog and Pinterest, square for Instagram, and platform-specific sizes for other social feeds.

How do I make an infographic for free?

Several tools offer free tiers that cover the basics. Start from a template, add your data and text, adjust the colours to your brand, then export as a PNG. Free plans generally cover simple graphics, with paid tiers adding more templates and export options, though what each tier includes changes regularly.

Can I make an infographic without design skills?

Yes. Template-based tools are built for non-designers, giving you a ready-made layout and matched colours and fonts to work within. Stick to one key message, keep the text minimal and use the template’s structure, and you can produce a clean, professional-looking infographic without any formal design training.

How much text should an infographic contain?

As little as possible. Let visuals and data carry the message, with text limited to short headings, labels and brief supporting lines. The Government Digital Service’s plain English guidance is a useful yardstick: split sentences longer than 25 words and keep paragraphs to five sentences at most. In a graphic you should be comfortably inside that.

How do I make an infographic accessible?

Do not use colour as the only way to tell information apart, which is a Level A requirement under WCAG 1.4.1. Meet the contrast minimums of 4.5:1 for small text and 3:1 for large text and chart elements. Label your data directly rather than relying on a colour key, run a greyscale test before publishing, and always add descriptive alt text, because nothing inside the image file is readable without it.

Start making your infographic

A good infographic comes down to two things: clear data and clear design working together. The best place to start is your goal, decide the one message you want to land, then choose a template that fits your data and build from there.

If you would rather have professional, on-brand infographics without the production time, that is exactly what a design subscription handles. Design Cloud’s graphic design service produces polished infographics and data-led visuals, and our editorial design work covers data-heavy reports and white papers. Book a demo to see how it fits your team.