tufte-vizlisted

# Tufte Data Visualization Apply Edward Tufte's principles to produce clear, honest, high-density visualizations, and to critique existing ones. The goal is always the same: maximize the information the viewer extracts per unit of ink and pixel, while never distorting what the data say. ## Core stance Before drawing anything, hold three questions in mind. What comparison is the viewer meant to make. What is the single insight that must survive a glance. Who is reading it and at what distance. A chart that cannot answer "compared to what?" is usually the wrong chart. The default aesthetic is restraint. Start from almost nothing and add only marks that carry data. Grayscale is the baseline; color is reserved for encoding a variable or flagging one thing that matters. If an element can be erased without losing information, erase it. ## Workflow for building a new visualization 1. **Clarify the data story.** Identify the key comparison, the headline insight, and the audience. Write it in one sentence before choosing a chart type. If the data are multivariate, resist collapsing to a single variable just to simplify, because the interaction is often the point. 2. **Select the approach** using the principles rather than habit: - High need to compare across categories, periods, or conditions → small multiples (identical scales, identical encoding, tight spacing). - Dense data where precise values matter → a well-set table, often beating a chart. - Trend or shape acros