Truthful Art, The: Data, Charts, and Maps for Communication

“If I were smarter, had more patience with academia, and had more focus, I might turn out to be more like Alberto, closer to the brilliance that he applies to the nature of information architecture. His title explains a lot: truth represents a most fundamental of attitudes, in questions asked, answers given and journeys taken. This [book] is a must on your thoughtful shelf of understanding.”

— Richard Saul Wurman, founder of the TED Conference

“Alberto Cairo is a great educator and an engaging storyteller. In The Truthful Art he takes us on a rich, informed, and well-visualized journey that depicts the process by which one scrutinizes data and represents information. The book synthesizes a lot of knowledge and carefully explains how to create effective visualizations with a focus on statistical principles. The Truthful Art will be incredibly useful to both practitioners and students, especially within the arts and humanities, such as those involved in data journalism and information design.”

— Isabel Meirelles, professor at OCAD University (Canada) and author of Design for Information

“As soon as I started immersing myself in The Truthful Art, I was horrified (and somewhat ashamed) to realize how much I didn’t know about data visualization. I’ve spent most of my career pursuing a more illustrative way to present data, but Alberto Cairo’s clarifying prose superbly explained the finer points of data viz. Since Alberto warns us that “[data is] always noisy, dirty, and uncertain,” everyone in this business had better read his book to find out how to properly construct visualizations that not only tell the truth, but also allow us to interact meaningfully with them.”

— Nigel Holmes, founder of Explanation Graphics

“To communicate data clearly, you have to think about it clearly. The Truthful Art dives deep and provides an enlightened introduction to the ‘power tools’ of data experts: science, statistics, and visualization.”

— Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, research scientists, Google

“The Truthful Art is essential reading for my visual communication students and for anyone (at any level) who cares about telling a story visually. Get this book, read it, act on it. If you’re looking for help to put your data visualization on the right track, this is it.”

— John Grimwade, assistant professor, School of Visual Communication, Ohio University