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What Tufte is missing is that a pie chart does immediately convey one additional piece of information that a bar chart can't without closer inspection: that the

What Tufte is missing is that a pie chart does immediately convey one additional piece of information that a bar chart can't without closer inspection: that the individual wedges add up to some meaningful whole. With a bar chart, you need some kind of explicit labeling to indicate that the bar represents a total, whereas with a pie chart it's implicit. It's inherent from the topology: as a circle, the pie chart is closed, implying that there is no additional data and that only the ratios are important. A series such as a bar chart or table is not closed, carrying the implication that it might simply have been truncated for reasons of space or clarity. A series-style chart also may or may not be presenting absolute values rather than ratios, and further inspection is needed by the viewer to distinguish which is the case.

ugh 15y ago
Meh, that’s only convention. It’s certainly not worth the downsides.
ChuckMcM 15y ago
I get what you are saying, basically that the 'pie' itself is a sum of units. However, I expect that Tufte would tell you to include that information more succinctly (or densely). I actually re-did the graphic in Corel Draw to show this but darned if there is a way to upload here, so I've put it in a google 'drawing' : https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/11hLh7DarPLrRHwVOQAC6SemnARNkWEw4Bd0MPpzpj2c/edit?hl=en_US https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/11hLh7DarPLrRHwVOQAC6Semn... which may or may not come through. The top bar, which bounds the bars with the axis label 100% conveys the same 'from a whole' concept that the pie does in less space. Its also commutive across all three bars :-)
pbreit 15y ago
I think you're overstating the value of a pie chart's to ability to communicate that the parts make up a whole. I agree with the OP and Tufte: something else is nearly always better than a pie. Not too fan boy Apple too much but it is one of the few that uses pie charts effectively. But it is normally with only 2 or 3 pieces and usually to reinforce the difference in share.

ugh 15y ago

Meh, that’s only convention. It’s certainly not worth the downsides.

ChuckMcM 15y ago

I get what you are saying, basically that the 'pie' itself is a sum of units. However, I expect that Tufte would tell you to include that information more succinctly (or densely). I actually re-did the graphic in Corel Draw to show this but darned if there is a way to upload here, so I've put it in a google 'drawing' : https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/11hLh7DarPLrRHwVOQAC6SemnARNkWEw4Bd0MPpzpj2c/edit?hl=en_US https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/11hLh7DarPLrRHwVOQAC6Semn... which may or may not come through. The top bar, which bounds the bars with the axis label 100% conveys the same 'from a whole' concept that the pie does in less space. Its also commutive across all three bars :-)

pbreit 15y ago

I think you're overstating the value of a pie chart's to ability to communicate that the parts make up a whole. I agree with the OP and Tufte: something else is nearly always better than a pie. Not too fan boy Apple too much but it is one of the few that uses pie charts effectively. But it is normally with only 2 or 3 pieces and usually to reinforce the difference in share.