Pie Chart Maker

How to use Pie Chart Maker

1. Enter your categories and values.
2. Sort largest to smallest and group small slices into ‘Other’.
3. Label slices directly rather than relying on a legend.
4. Download the chart.
5. Use for part-of-whole with two or three categories; use a bar chart for comparison.
6. Values must sum to a meaningful whole, or a pie is the wrong chart entirely.
7. Direct labels beat a legend — they remove the lookup the reader would otherwise do.

Why pie charts are hard to read

People judge length accurately and angle poorly. Cleveland and McGill established the ranking experimentally in the 1980s: position along a common scale is read most accurately, then length, with angle and area well down the list. So two slices of 23% and 26% are nearly indistinguishable in a pie and obviously different as bars. The problem worsens with every additional slice, and a pie with ten categories communicates almost nothing.

When a pie is actually right

When the message is part-of-whole rather than comparison, and there are two or three slices. “Two thirds of our revenue comes from one product” reads instantly as a pie and requires thought as a bar chart, because the pie’s whole is visually explicit. That is a narrow but genuine use. A donut is the same chart with a hole, which frees the centre for a total — often the most useful number on it.

Making one readable

Sort slices largest to smallest, starting at twelve o’clock and going clockwise, so a reader can follow the ranking. Label slices directly with both the category and the percentage rather than using a legend, which forces the eye back and forth. Group anything below about 5% into ‘Other’ — slices that small cannot be read and their labels collide. And make sure the values actually sum to a meaningful whole, because a pie of things that do not add up to 100% is a category error rather than a design flaw.