Infographics are one of the modern forms of presentation of information, which are condensed in a particular abbreviation. It is a type of that is extremely popular and can be found on websites, in newspapers, magazines and other media. They usually show a graph with a story process or statement accompanied by numbers. Thus, it is typically a combination of numerical and graphical information.

In general terms, we can talk about infographics that are static (they are images) or those that are multimedia in some way (they contain video, map or audio) or interactive (for example, you can switch between different graphs, browse information, etc.). This dimension is closely linked to the tool in which they are produced.

In general, data visualization is one of the essential forms of information work, which has an important communicative and interpretive dimension. The creation of infographics combines the need to put the necessary information into a graphically beautiful environment with the need to interpret the data, the captured process or the graph in some way, i.e. to extract a certain amount of information or a particular aspect of it, which is further worked with. Creating a good infographic requires understanding the problem at hand, i.e., what is to be visualized.

An infographic's basic idea is to combine some quantified data (often captured by a graph) with other information. Compared to a diagram or a simple chart, they can work more with story context, compare things to each other, or offer a basic interpretation. An infographic is almost always a shortcut - it doesn't allow you to present all the results of your research. It's not a scientific paper, not a book, not even a conference poster. It forces you to abstract and display what is important. In this respect, infographics can be seen as a form of creative technique - they work with imaginative reflection on information, looking for what's essential and connecting different ways of thinking about an issue.

In journalism (and marketing) infographics are used as a means of communication with readers, where we count on the fact that only when the visualized information interests the reader will they continue reading. The information conveyed is thus selective and abbreviated. On the one hand, it must entice, but at the same time, it should show an adequate view of reality.

When creating the infographic itself, there are two possible approaches to the interaction between the infographic and the text - you can first create an infographic that summarises what you would like to write in a nutshell. Based on the infographic, one can then get down to writing. It's an extended collage method, where you put the most essential facts and results on one page and creatively piece them together.

Nowadays, the second option is more commonly used when you create a professional text first and then make an infographic from it. This serves as a kind of promotion of the research findings, topic or issue and can have (unlike an academic text) a comprehensive social character. This type of data that the media likes to work with is easy to share and promote. Thus, contemporary scholarly text production is beginning to include work with infographics like posters appearing alongside regular papers at conferences.

Finding some clear and on how to create infographics is not easy, but here we offer at least a few points to consider:

• It is advantageous when you can work with a story, and the infographic can report on an objective phenomenon and relate it to a particular person's emotions and narrative.
• Work with charts correctly; don't try to manipulate them.
• It is beneficial if the infographic contains information about the sources and contact details of the creators, especially nowadays towards social networks.
• Discretion in colour and design is recommended.
• It's good to try to offer something more than the norm - if you're making a digital object, don't be afraid to think about content that goes beyond the limits of a paper edition.
• Try to be consistent - even significant content should retain an integral feel. If infographics are to be aesthetically pleasing, you often need to redesign charts or images rather than simply copying them.
• Infographics can work with graphs and numbers, but they don't have to - for example, they can show the process of how something happens, work with the development of an idea, or show how something works.

In what to create:

• Infogr.am is a simple tool for creating infographics that works with several basic templates and has many supported (often interactive) charts. You can also insert maps (only in the paid version), images, text, and videos (YouTube).
• Piktochart is a more robust and comprehensive tool with many templates, icons and layouts. In the free version, there is no option to export in quality higher than 1200x1938 px, there is no way to get rid of the Piktochart sign, and exporting to PDF does not work.
• easel.ly is based on the drag-and-drop method and is fundamentally different in concept than the two above. The simplicity is more like a graphical editor with a charting tool. It allows you to upload your objects and change the area's dimensions on which the elements are applied.
• Canva is a simple graphic editor designed primarily for creating banners and images for social networks. However, it can also be used to create simple infographics or posters.

As already mentioned, one of the essential elements of infographics can also be charts. When you want to create a graph from a particular dataset, it's a good idea to follow these steps:

• Consider whether the data is valid and representative of what you want to do with it.
• Choose the correct type of chart - sometimes it's not important which type you use, but often the wrong choice of chart will make it impossible to understand and clarify.
• Create the chart itself.
• Carefully describe the axes, chart title, and legend and create a chart label. For axes, it is a good idea to consider whether a linear scale is always ideal and to try to indicate units (i.e. what the graph shows).
• Choose a suitable colour layout (fill or solid lines) to make the chart legible. And understandable.

Another essential thing to keep in mind when working with charts is data manipulation. Often, you will see a shift in the axis and a change in scale, which together can show a significant visual difference between two values when, in fact, it is negligible (for example, if you move the start of the graph to 50 for values 51 and 52, 52 will appear twice as large as 51, even though they are separated by about 25 times less).

Standard mischief is the interleaving of functions that are inadequate to the situation - for example, you may have data on March 5 for the last three years of a two-degree increase in temperature per year; it is impossible to predict for the next twenty years ahead from that data. The last point to mention is the handling of the axis - an unstressed change from a linear to a logarithmic scale, or perhaps the omission of some months from a bar chart, can have a fatal effect on the result and its interpretation by the reader. There are several similar manipulative techniques (whether intentional or unintentional). As great a tool as graphs are for better visualization and analysis of selected problems, it is a good idea to use great care and caution when working with them.