How to create a graphical abstract
Graphical abstracts are becoming more and more important. Journal publishers such as Elsevier encourage you to create a concise visual summary of the main findings of your research.
But where to start? What steps should you follow to create the perfect graphical abstract for your article? What tools can you use?
On this page, you’ll find an overview of tips, tools and inspiration to create your own graphical abstract for your next article. Let’s show the world what your research is all about!
Digital tools to create graphical abstracts
You can use almost any graphical tool you want to create a graphical abstract. You could even use just pen and paper, if you like – the story is the most important part of the visual, not the artistic quality. Use the tool you know best, or feel the most comfortable with!
Here is a list of tools to get you started:
- Adobe Illustrator: adobe.com
- Affinity Designer: affinity.serif.com
- BioRender (for life sciences): biorender.com
- Canva: canva.com
- Diagrams: diagrams.net
- Infogram: infogram.com
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- Paint.NET: getpaint.net
- Piktochart: piktochart.com
- Venngage Infographic maker
- Whimsical: whimsical.com
Illustrations and icons to use in infographics
- Figshare (plants and more, for biologists): figshare.com/authors/Plant_Illustrations
- Freepik: freepik.com
- SMART (life sciences): smart.servier.com
- The noun project (icons): thenounproject.com
Photos to use in graphical abstracts
- Burst: burst.shopify.com
- Cathopic (catholic pictures): cathopic.com
- Flickr: flickr.com/
- Picography: picography.co
- Pixabay: pixabay.com
- Reshot: reshot.com
- Unsplash: unsplash.com
- Visual Hunt: visualhunt.com
Color schemes for graphical abstracts
- Adobe Color CC: color.adobe.com
- Coolors.co: coolors.co
- Pictaculous: digitalinspiration.com/color-palette-generator
- Website color schemes: canva.com/learn/website-color-schemes
- 100 brilliant color combinations: canva.com/learn/100-color-combinations
Creating graphs and maps for graphical abstracts
- Choose and design the perfect chart: chart.guide
- Choosing the right chart: infogram.com/page/choose-the-right-chart-data-visualization
- D3.js: d3js.org
- Dataviz catalogue: datavizcatalogue.com
- Datawrapper: datawrapper.de
- Flourish: flourish.studio
- LocalFocus: localfocus.nl
- Mapbox: mapbox.com
- Mapme: mapme.com/stories
- Snazzy maps (Google maps styles): snazzymaps.com
Books that can help you create better visuals
- Infographic designers’ sketchbooks, Steven Heller & Rick Landers
- Storytelling with data, Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic
- Trees, maps and theorems, Jean-Luc Doumont
- Visual thinking, Willemien Brand
People on Twitter talking about information design
- Twitter list: Dataviz world leaders
Blogs about information design
- Chartable (Datawrapper)
- Cool Infographics (Randy Krum)
- Flowing Data (Nathan Yau)
- Infographics for the People (John Grimwade)
- The Information is Beautiful blog (David McCandless)
- Junk Charts (Kaiser Fung)
- Nightingale (on Medium, mostly paid articles)
- The Storytelling with Data blog (Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic)
- The Visme blog on infographics
- Visualising Data (Andy Kirk)
Wrapping up
Did we miss something? Which indispensable resource did we miss? Make sure to let us know at koen@baryon.be!
Also, feel free to check out our other resource guides:
Read more:
This chart is trying to trick you
The original chart in this example is trying to suggest a strong correlation between sugar intake and obesity in the US between 1980 and 2000. It does so by carefully choosing the vertical axis ranges and scaling so both lines nicely fall on top of each other.
Research visuals: all the resources you’ll ever need!
If you want to start creating clear and attractive visuals about your research, but don't know where to start, this page is for you! Here's a complete overview of tools, resources and inspiration you can use as a starting point for your designs.
Small datasets to practice your data visualization skills
When you're teaching data analysis or data visualization, or when you're learning new data visualization tools and techniques, you might be looking for datasets to practice with. Here are some great starting points.
Behind the maps
In the 30-day Map Challenge, you are challenged to design a new map every day around a certain topic. I participated in November 2020, and wrote this post to share my thought processes, data sources, tools and results!
Data visualization resources: all the links you’ll ever need!
You want to start creating clear and attractive data visuals, but don't know where to start? No worries, here's a complete overview of tools, resources and inspiration you can use as a starting point for your designs.
Storytelling with Data: Dataviz book review
The Storytelling with Data book has been on my wishlist as long as I can remember, because so many people recommend it as one of the must read dataviz books. So let's see what the fuzz is all about - here's my review!
We are really into visual communication!
Every now and then we send out a newsletter with latest work, handpicked inspirational infographics, must-read blog posts, upcoming dates for workshops and presentations, and links to useful tools and tips. Leave your email address here and we’ll add you to our mailing list of awesome people!
