You'll find Tufte's name in the references in the back of almost every data visualization book out there. And while he has written several books, from what I can tell Envisioning Information is the favorite among readers (if by a slim margin).

The author's Yale professorship, Phi Beta Kappa label, design awards and science-focused edge all testify that he knows what he's talking about. But the real strength of the book in my opinion is that anyone with any level of knowledge on the topic of data visualization(beginner to advanced) can appreciate the book.

I'm a relative beginner with data visualization and, as experts seem to like the book so much, I was expecting very theory-based, slightly pedantic textbook content. Instead, I found the book easy to read, relying heavily on examples that became "food for thought" - Japanese cartography, train schedules, scientific experiments - you name it.

Other books I've read on the topic have casually thrown out unnecessary "fluff" examples to partially illustrate a point; Tufte's examples build carefully on top of the points his words have already clearly illustrated. It's precisely this "food for thought" feeling that makes me think I'll return to Envisioning Information for reference in the future.

All the way back to Galileo sharing about Jupiter’s moons, science has relied upon visualizations to communicate its findings. Some things are just better depicted visually instead of through words. In contemporary society, information graphics have played an increasingly larger role as computers quickly translate data into a more accessible format. Newspapers and Internet websites have made them commonplace. Even though this book was written in 1990, before ubiquitous computing, it identifies the philosophical and graphical issues in mass presentations. Edward Tufte, the modern academic master of visualization, provides this text to teach us how to think about and make better visualizations.

Like the rest of his books, this work has a strongly artistic bent. Most of the visualizations involve some craftsmanship from a visual artist. In 1990, computer graphics, especially of massive datasets, were primitive compared to today. Still, the principles for what looks good – i.e., what communicates – remain constant. This book seeks to teach us how to read graphs by using those principles and how to communicate by incorporating those principles in our own graphs.

I’ve read a lot of books about visualizations, and Tufte is as good as it gets. This book is an appropriate introduction to reading and making graphs. Graphical interpretation of data is a mainstay of almost every academic field these days. While religions have been often rooted in the visual arts, modern scientific explorations have combined the artistry with data. These days, it’s hard to navigate a train station or a car trip without some sort of visualization. This book teaches us how to do so more effectively and how to leverage those insights to lead others more effectively. Anyone interested in better visual communication can benefit from books like this.

Edward R Tufte is a forward-thinking college professor who teaches courses with the kind of information provided in this book. Very well presented and each illustration or diagram deserves to be carefully inspected (use a magnifying glass!) because this is real information in a clearly understandable format. The method of printing and bindery of this book is the traditional old-fashioned way with moveable hot-type and many separate printings of each page for all of the colors. High-quality book to be read-through again and again! Examples of work range from ancient solutions to more modern from many different cultures to overlap and emphasize problem-solving and innovation.

One sour note is that when I received it in the mail the book needed to be aired-out due to a strange and funky odor that I think originated in the inks and paper. One day exposed to the heated air inside my car did the trick...

I was torn on the amount of stars to give this. It had at least one maybe two really inspiring ideas for data representation, for me. I don’t know if you are the type of person who is as easily inspired as I am. Bottom line, there are maybe two more unique ideas than you might find in any other data book. But for me, those two ideas are a lot to build other ideas on.

This is not only a beautiful book, it's also a proof of concept - it's densely packed and yet feels easy to read because the information is presented in such an elegant, logical, and aesthetically pleasing way. I bought this book because I want to learn more about how to share data in a way that's accessible to a broad audience, and this book definitely delivered. I have it displayed on the "methodology" shelf of my bookcase because I can't bear to tuck it between the others. Favorite illustrative examples by chapter: Criminal activity in the Gotti trials (Escaping Flatlands), Vietnam War Memorial (Micro/Macro), Japanese train schedules (Micro/Macro & Narratives of Space and Time), Neurometrics (Small Multiples), and the "exuberantly bad example" of color use in Primary Home Heating Fuels by Counties of the US (Color and Information).

I'm an engineer. I have read unfortunately few books on information design, against which I might compare this one.

However, this book is beautiful and enlightening. It's pleasant to hold, with heavy, smooth pages; it's enjoyable to flip through, idly glancing at images; but most of all it's totally comprehensible. Reading the book feels like taking a great college class: All of the material is relevant and motivated by compelling examples, which are available for your immediate inspection.

I've been examining my own creations in a new light, but I've also been seeing the world differently.

Great illustrations and rationale.

A technical, but also very entertaining book on the more functional aspects of design.

Even though it's full of illustrations, it's a very well-thought-out book and takes pause to take in the points made in it. Quite enjoyable, scholarly, and lively.

This is a short book, 126 pages. An interesting cursory exploration of the subject. However, it feels like it predates information technology (1990 predates the web by 5 years), and seems to have more in common with how to communicate elements of a hand-drawn map atlas if you were living in the 1700s than it has with using Adobe Illustrator to convey an idea for the web. I bought this book to see if it would help me as a web developer, and instead when it arrived I realized I got a weird coffee table book that feels like it was written in the 1960s, at the latest, to summarize that you can use different icons or pictographs of small size to communicate important ideas without words. (Sorry, I already gave away the story of the book.)

I know this review isn't going to get very popular marks, but, put simply, this book is probably good for professional or student pure designers, but it's useless for me. I honestly don't think the book targets web designers, but somebody here reviewed that it was "great" for web designers, so because of that remark I bought it. Sorry, but I don't see the applicability. But then, I only skimmed over the book before I put it back on Amazon Marketplace.

While one should normally never judge a book by its cover, in this case I think you should.

Un libro que merece la edición que tiene, ilustraciones, gráficos y esquemas a color. Tufte es experto en este campo de estudio.

except for the old book smell, which i like, the book is so clean, almost like new!

Sollte viel bekannter sein. Lesen kann ja bald keiner mehr, umso wichtiger werden grafische Aufbereitungen von Informationen und Zusammenhängen. Allerdings muss man auch diese interpretieren können. Und auch dabei kann dieses Buch helfen. Die Lebensgeschichte des Autors und seiner genauso begabten Ehefrau ist zudem interessant, aber nicht Thema dieses Buches.

Pas aussi bien que les autres ouvrages du meme auteur mais la barre était haute. Reste très intéressant (reprend les memes idées que les autres livres de Tufte)

Pretty good condition, it was listed as GOOD, accurate description, even better than my expectations actually. This delivered surprisingly fast, it was almost next day or day after during a Toronto snowstorm even.