— Lectori salutem · A greeting to the reader —

About The Chartmaker’s Library

A reading-room dedicated to the patient study of chart-making instruments, that the working reader might choose well and waste no afternoon at the wrong workbench.

The Chartmaker’s Library keeps its catalogue in the manner of a small private library — each chart maker shelved only after it has been opened, handled, and read against its neighbours. We are independent reviewers of data-visualisation software, and we treat the craft as the quiet discipline it has always been: a question of judgement, proportion, and the steady hand that draws one line where another would have drawn three.

Our method is unhurried. A tool is taken up, set to real work on real figures, and held against the rubrics we have settled upon over many seasons — clarity of output, fluency at the keyboard, fidelity to the source data, and the small civilities of price and support. Where two instruments seem near-equal in their merits, we set them side by side and weigh them, by candlelight so to speak, before any verdict is committed to ink.

Our Curation

Plain commentary is the house rule. We praise where praise is earned and note shortcomings where they appear, with no flattery offered for its own sake. Some of the outbound links on these pages are affiliate links, which is to say the house may receive a small consideration when a reader proceeds to purchase; this arrangement is disclosed in plain terms and has no bearing on which tools we recommend or in what order they are shelved.

A chart is an argument made visible. The instrument that draws it should be chosen with the same care one would give the argument itself.

The reader is welcome at any hour. Correspondence may be addressed to [email protected], and is read with attention. We are grateful for your visit, and we hope the catalogue serves you well.