CHARTS & GRAPHS > DOT PLOT

Dot plot maker

Create and share your own dot plot with our dot plot maker, and customize it to your liking.

Creating your custom dot plot with online and offline tools from Datylon.

Free online dot plot maker - Create and share your own dot plot - no coding skills needed!

Free online dot plot maker, no credit card needed.

Make a fully customizable and reusable dot plot.

Keep your dot plot design private or public.

Unlimited designs and online views.

Organizations that trust us globally

Fully customize your dot plot design with our dot plot maker
STYLING PROPERTIES

Fully customizable dot plot

All elements in your dot plot such as labels, data marks, and axes can be styled to the smallest detail matching the most demanding design requirements. Background, dots size, stroke width, position, alignment: all tools are at hand to unleash your creativity and get the message of the dot plot across.

Make your own custom dot plot
Easily organize your data by loading and storing it in the dot plot maker
DATA SHEET MANAGER

Organize your data

Load and store your xls, xlsx or csv data into the dot plot maker and link it with one or more charts in your designs. Manage your data sheets in workbooks and keep everything nicely organized and secured.

Start making your online dot plot
Create captivating presentations with our dot plot maker
OUTPUT

Easily share your chart

Bring the right message across using your dot plots. Import them as SVG or PNG in PowerPoint, Google Slides, or other tools and have your presentation look professional and on-brand. You can also easily embed them into your website or application.

Get started with our dot plot maker

The power of proof:
Customer case studies

See how our happy customers are using Datylon to achieve amazing results.
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Targeted Reports to Empower Municipalities

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A customized reporting solution for the wealth management sector
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How L'Agence developed an outsourced customized reporting solution

L'AGENCE is a Swiss-based digital agency with a long-standing relationship with one of its main...

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How Explanation Design use Datylon to create a report with 250+ charts - Access to Medicine Report 2021
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How Explanation Design uses Datylon to create a report with 250+ charts

The 2021 Access to Medicine Index report was published early last year and got a lot of worldwide...

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How Datylon helped the Port of Antwerp design a concise KPI report
Product, Government, Report Design

How Datylon helped the Port of Antwerp design a concise KPI report

The Port of Antwerp, Europe’s second-largest port, and growing, is a busy landmark located in...

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Human Capital Media designs charts 4 times faster
Media/Publishing, Product, Report Design

Human Capital Media designs charts 4 times faster with Datylon

Human Capital Media, an award winning US Publishing company, uses the Datylon for Illustrator...

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More dot plot maker features

Enjoy full design freedom while greatly improving productivity. We believe that carefully designed dot plots are essential to making an impact with data. Datylon gives you a dot plot maker tool with powerful styling options.
Advanced styling options for charts such as colors and types

Advanced styling

Enjoy full freedom of design with our advanced styling options. Tweak all dot plot elements to perfection.

Multiple templates to start creating a chart

Chart library

Use our dot plot templates to get you started easily. 

Choosing form a different options of datasets for creating a data visualization

Efficient data management

Import, update and store the data in an organized way speeding up the dot plot design process.

Exporting possibilities for different platforms and graphic editors

Design for every platform

Use your dot plots in other applications and channels. Improve the impact of your communication.

Possibilities for collaboration by splitting design and data parts of data visualization among specialists

Re-use & collaborate

Save time and re-use or re-purpose dot plots with new data. Discover how charts adapt automatically.

Create a free dot plot in 6 steps

You do not have to choose between freedom of design or additional productivity. With the Datylon dot plot maker, you easily create impactful data visualizations, again and again. Unleash your creativity in six steps:

Sign in or create an account

Making an account on Datylon is free and it only takes a few seconds. You can use your email address or Google account to join our platform and start making your own dot plot.

Signing in or creating an account step

Select 'Create design'

Although you can start by editing a pre-made dot plot design on the Inspiration page, you can also create a dot plot from scratch with our dot plot maker. Just select 'Create design' and stay in the "Charts" category.

Creating a design from scratch or using a pre-made template

Select your default dot plot template

Default charts serve as a starting point to help you design your dot plot. Click on the dot plot card to see a set of default variations and select the one you want by clicking on it.

 

Selecting your dot plot template

Add your data

There are a few ways to add your data to the dot plot maker. You can just type or copy-paste your data into an empty or dummy data sheet. You can also add a locally saved file. You can find more detailed information on how to manage data in the Datylon dot plot maker in our Help Center article.

Adding your data manually, via cloud or from a local machine

Bind your data and style the dot plot

Data binding is the mandatory step to connect the data as dots to categories, serie, or data marks (e.g. dot plot axis). Make sure to check out our Help Center article to learn more about binding in our dot plot maker.

Export your dot plot design

Every design, publication, and inspiration chart can be exported to SVG, PNG or PDF file.

Get started now.

Exporting your dot plot design to pdf, png or svg file

What is a dot plot?

A dot plot shows one or more quantitative values per category by plotting one or more dots per category on a numerical (or date-time) axis.

A dot plot with only one value per category makes a comparison between those categories very easy. When the dot plot has multiple values per category, you can also compare within the categories. This results in a chart type that packs a lot of information in a small space.

Since the dots communicate information via their position on the axis, and relatively via their position towards each other, the start- and end-point of the axis should be based on the minimum and maximum values in the data. There is no need to start the axis at zero. 

By adding a connector between the dots, you can add an extra dimension to an already information-dense chart: The connector adds a focus on the delta between two values or the range between a minimum and maximum value.

datylon-graph-maker-comparison

Dot plots are a powerful tool for comparing data. They shine in revealing how data points relate to each other by placing them side-by-side as dots. While bar graphs are the usual choice for comparison, dot plots become a strong alternative when you have a lot of data for each category. This strength comes from their ability to save space. Unlike bars that take up a lot of room, each data point in a dot plot needs just one dot. This makes them very effective for following the "data-to-ink" rule, which means showing as much data as possible with minimal decorations.

Dot plot resources

Learn how to work with dot plots, discover great alternatives and pro design tips, or create your own dot plot in Illustrator. Find the best chart resources below and dive into the world of dot plots.
Dot plot resource page: dot plot definition, dot plot alternatives, dot plot variations and pro tips for dot plot design
Dot plot resource page: dot plot definition, dot plot alternatives, dot plot variations and pro tips for dot plot design

Dot plot - Resource page

Your starting point for making dot plots. The resource for everything around how to use and design dot plots and available built-in dot plot templates.

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What is a dot plot? Dive deep into the world of dot plots and learn what makes a really good dot plot
What is a dot plot? Dive deep into the world of dot plots and learn what makes a really good dot plot

A deep dive into... dot plots

Learn the history of dot plots and understand how they came to life. Consider what makes a good dot plot and what are the variations. Delve into the world of dot plots.

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How to create a fully customizable dot plot design in Adobe Illustrator with our chart maker plug-in Datylon for Illustrator
How to create a fully customizable dot plot design in Adobe Illustrator with our chart maker plug-in Datylon for Illustrator

How to make a dot plot in Illustrator

Learn how to draw and edit your own dot plot in Adobe Illustrator with our chart maker plug-in, Datylon for Illustrator.

Read more

Get inspired

Scroll and click on the images below to find inspiration samples of dot plots and other similar charts. With your Datylon account, you can use these designs, customize them and update them with your new data.

Master the art of data visualization

Leverage our experts' latest tips and best practices to create impactful visuals. Discover fresh techniques to unlock your data's potential.
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Check our free and paid plans

DATYLON REPORT STUDIO PLAN

Create free dot plots in an online editor

Datylon Report Studio is an online web application that allows to produce reports based on your on-brand templates. Powerful data management makes the process incredibly quick and easy. Allows to create unlimited designs and export them in svg, png or pdf format. 

DATYLON FOR ILLUSTRATOR PROFESSIONAL PLAN

Make dot plots in Illustrator

Advanced data visualization right within Adobe® Illustrator®! Use our plug-in for Illustrator and boost your dataviz power with an extra set of unrivaled graph design features. Build dot plots with the Datylon graph maker and add annotations, titles and illustrations using Adobe’s most powerful linework toolbox. Try it out for free with a 14-day trial.

DATYLON FOR ILLUSTRATOR PREMIUM PLAN

Advanced support and training

In addition to Datylon for Professional plan you'll receive an exclusive training sessions where our expert will guide you through the tool and help to unleash its full potential to maximize your results. Get your questions answered quickly with our one-day business day response to your support requests. No more waiting around – focus on what matters most, knowing our team is always here to back you up.

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Make your own
Pie chart
with Datylon Chart Maker

Unleash your creativity and design your charts with more freedom than ever before.

FAQ about our
dot plot maker

Is Datylon dot plot maker free?

Yes! If you want to create a dot plot or any other type of chart or graph, you need to register on Datylon. Creating your account is free and only takes a few seconds. But if you would like to use our chart maker plug-in for Adobe Illustrator, you can try it for free for 14 days. Check the pricing here.

Learn more about the differences between our products here.

How to create a dot plot?

It's very easy! If you want to create a dot plot online, you can create a free account on Datylon using this link. With your account, you're free to create any type of chart available. Click on "Create design" and find the chart type or chart template you're interested in. In this case, click on "Dot plot". You can also check our Help Center to learn more about how to create and style your dot plot.

Can I share my dot plot online?

Of course! When you create a new dot plot design, by default it's private. You can then publish the design and add it to publications. Every publication can be shared and embedded online. Just right-click on your publication and generate the code.

Can I print my dot plot?

Yes. Although you can export your dot plot design as a PDF (or PNG) and print it, it probably is more common to print reports and bigger layouts containing multiple charts and graphs. For this, you might want to use our robust chart maker plug-in for Adobe Illustrator - Datylon for Illustrator. The plug-in supports CMYK color mode or spot colors enabling on-brand color consistency. Learn more about the color modes available here.

What if I want a different type of chart?

Then with Datylon, you're in good hands! Datylon chart maker offers 120+ chart templates. Scatter plot, bar graph, pie chart, heatmap, treemap, and many, many more chart types are available in Datylon! Our chart types are carefully crafted to give you the full power of expression. Use our chart templates to get you started easily and quickly. Create your own to become even more productive and stay on-brand.

Can you help me make a dot plot?

Definitely! We're a bunch of data visualization experts ready to help you get started with our chart maker. As it is often with many online tools, at first the features of our chart maker might be overwhelming. There are different ways to get help. You can check our elaborate Help Center and see if your question can be answered there. If not, we're more than happy to show you around our tools and services! Use this link to schedule a free demo session!

Okay, but what about my privacy?

We take data security and privacy issues very seriously. Please check our privacy policy to learn more.

About data security:
If you save your data, charts or designs on Datylon's online platform (web app), it will belong only to your account and you will have full control over it. Your data is treated as confidential while Datylon keeps all online user data in secure servers.

If you publish a project on our web app, it can be accessed through a direct link with a unique ID. If you want to make sure nobody finds your visualizations, keep them unpublished and download them as PDFs, SVGs, or PNGs for private use.

Read more here.

Didn't find the answer? Check our FAQs.