Last week I shared with you my first infograph, a Seasonal Produce Guide. After figuring out how to create such a fun poster I thought maybe there might be some others of you who would like to know how to easily create an infograph for yourselves using something most of you already have on your computer–PowerPoint.
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As you can tell from my Pinterest boards, infographs are fabulous for Pinterest. One, they are tall so they are more likely to be seen on Pinterest. Two, they are aesthetically appealing and filled with lots of statistical information making them more likely to be pinned. Three, infographs are more persuasive and memorable because they are an image not just more text. So, without further ado, let’s create an infograph.
1. Open a new PowerPoint document.
2. Format the size of your PowerPoint. To do this go to Design/Page Setup or File/Page Setup depending on the year of your PowerPoint software. On the toggle menu labeled “slides sized for” select “custom.” Then enter the following:
Width: 6.25 inches
Height: 6.25 inches
Number of Slides From: 1
Then select “ok.”
3. Select the background style and color scheme for your Infograph. Although it’s completely up to you, I highly recommend a solid color background for this tutorial as you will be piecing together the slides and a patterned background may not match up perfectly.
4. Create 4 or 5 slides.
5. Build your infograph. Spread your images, charts, statistics, and resource links across the 5 slides. For ideas on how to arrange these images, you may want to check out some of these tutorials:
- PSD Tutorial for 35 Great Examples of Infographs
- Net Magazine on How to Create Great Infographs
- Co.Design with 10 Steps to Designing an Amazing Infograph
6. Save the slides as png images. To do this go to File/Save As and select “other formats.” Where it says “save type as” toggle down and select “PNG Portable Network Graphics Format.” Name the file and save the file where you can easily find it and select “save.”
7. Go to your web browser and open Pixlr. Select “Open image from Computer.”
8. Find your saved images and select the first slide.
9. Adjust your zoom in the bottom left hand corner of your slide window by clicking on the percent and typing in 20.
10. Extend the height of your image by going the Image menu and selecting “Canvas size…”.
12. Now comes the fun of adding the rest of your slides to create your infograph. Go to the File menu and select “Open image.”
13. Select the next slide. Once the new slide window opens, use Ctrl+A to select the entire slide.
14. Use Ctrl+C to copy the entire slide. Return to Slide 1. Use Ctrl+V to paste slide 2 onto slide 1.
15. Select the move tool in the toolbar. Move slide 2 to its desired location.
16. Repeat steps 12-15 until you have lined up all the slides for your infograph.
17. Save your infograph to your computer by going to the File menu and selecting “Save.” Save your image as a PNG file to your computer.
That’s it. You’re done. Now your infograph is ready to be uploaded to your blog, website or handout. Have fun being creative!
