Exemple de CSV
| City | MedianIncome | MedianRent | Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austin | 71576 | 1450 | 978908 |
| Denver | 77127 | 1650 | 715522 |
| Columbus | 58575 | 1150 | 905748 |
| Raleigh | 67266 | 1300 | 474069 |
| Tampa | 58922 | 1500 | 398173 |
| Boise | 66979 | 1350 | 235684 |
How to Create a Bubble Chart
A step by step walkthrough for turning a spreadsheet into a published bubble chart in PlotSet, from shaping three numeric columns to tuning the size scale and publishing.
Environ 9 minutesFour columns, one chart: how to create a bubble chart in PlotSet starts with a spreadsheet that has a label, two numeric axis columns and a size value. You will end up with a published chart where the bubbles are scaled by area, not radius, carry a size legend the reader can actually use, and still hold together once a handful of records turn out much bigger than the rest.
Budget about nine minutes if your data is already four clean columns. The part people spend extra time on is tuning the size scale so the biggest bubble does not swallow the smallest ones, so treat that as a bit of trial and error rather than a setting you flip once and forget.
Les données dont vous avez besoin
Four columns, one row per entity: a label, two numeric axis columns, then a numeric size column. No merged cells, one header row.
All three numeric columns need to be plain numbers. A percentage stored as text with a percent sign, or an income figure stored with commas as text, will not map to an axis or to size.
The size column needs an amount, not a category. If your source data only has a bucket like small, medium or large, you need a real count or figure behind it before a bubble chart can size anything off it.
Zero and negative values break the size encoding. Area cannot represent a negative number, so filter those rows out or move that variable to colour instead.
Keep the entity count in the tens, not the hundreds. The example above has six rows for clarity; the sweet spot for a real chart is roughly ten to sixty before bubbles start stacking on top of each other.
Les étapes
Le parcours exact dans PlotSet, d'un modèle vierge à un graphique terminé.
- 01
Open the bubble chart template
From the PlotSet dashboard, start a new project and choose the Bubble Chart template. It loads with sample data already mapped to X, Y, size and label, so you can see the four column shape PlotSet expects before touching your own file.
Chaque guide commence ici. Choisissez la catégorie, puis le modèle : c'est la même grille quel que soit le type de graphique visé. - 02
Shape your sheet into four columns
Put a label in the first column, then your two axis numbers, then the size value, one row per entity. If your source is a report with subtotal rows or merged header cells, flatten it first: the upload should be four plain columns and nothing else.
- 03
Bring in your file or connect a sheet
Use the data panel to import a CSV or .xlsx file, paste rows straight from a spreadsheet, or connect a Google Sheet so the chart can pick up later edits without a re-upload. PlotSet reads the first row as headers automatically.
La vue données, ici sur un projet de graphique en barres. Importez un CSV, extrayez les chiffres d'une image avec 'Magic Import' ou synchronisez une Google Sheet. Le panneau est identique pour tous les types de graphique. - 04
Map the label, X, Y and size columns
Confirm which column feeds each axis and which one drives bubble size. PlotSet usually guesses correctly when your headers are clear, but check it by hand if your sheet carries extra columns it might have picked over the ones you actually meant.
Les associations déterminent quelle colonne devient l'étiquette, laquelle fournit les valeurs et laquelle pilote la couleur. 'Auto Binding' les devine à partir de vos en-têtes : vérifiez-les plutôt que de les tenir pour acquises. - 05
Tune the size scale
Adjust the minimum and maximum bubble size until the largest entity reads clearly bigger without hiding its neighbours underneath it. Confirm scaling is set to area, not radius, and turn on the size legend so the reader gets two or three reference bubbles with real numbers attached.
- 06
Label the ones that matter and colour by category
Add direct labels to the handful of bubbles that carry the story and leave the rest to hover tooltips. Labelling every bubble on a chart with more than a dozen entities just creates clutter. If you have a category column, turn on colour by group to separate the bubbles visually.
L'onglet 'Preview' pour un graphique Bubble Chart. Tous les réglages de style se trouvent dans le panneau entouré en rouge : apparence, en-tête, pied de page et les options propres à ce type de graphique, chacun dans un onglet distinct. - 07
Publish the chart, embed it, or export an image
Publish for a live, interactive chart with hover tooltips and a shareable link, grab the embed code for a page, or export a PNG, SVG or PDF when you need a static image for a deck.
Partez du modèle Bubble Chart avec des données d'exemple déjà chargées, puis remplacez-les par les vôtres.
Ouvrir le modèlePublier, intégrer ou exporter
La dernière ligne droite est la même pour tous les types de graphique : 'Share' transforme le graphique en lien public actif et en code d'intégration, 'Export' l'enregistre sous forme de fichier statique.
Share : lien public et code d'intégration
Activer le code d'intégration et le lien public revient à publier le graphique. Le lien peut être envoyé à qui vous voulez sans risque, et le code d'intégration s'insère dans n'importe quelle page sous la forme d'une iframe qui conserve les infobulles au survol et l'interactivité. Si vous modifiez le graphique par la suite, cliquez sur 'Recreate' pour répercuter ces changements sur le lien comme sur le code.
Export : SVG, PNG ou JPG
Le bouton 'Export' génère une copie statique à la taille dont vous avez besoin. Le SVG reste net à toutes les échelles et peut encore être modifié dans un outil de design ; PNG et JPG sont les choix sûrs pour les présentations et les documents. C'est le multiplicateur d'échelle qui vous donne une image nette sur un écran retina.
Conseils de style pour un Bubble Chart
Confirm the scale is set to area, not radius
Radius scaling makes a bubble twice as wide look four times as big, which misleads the reader every time. PlotSet defaults to area scaling for bubble charts, but if you have adjusted the size settings by hand, check the scale mode again before publishing.
Draw the big bubbles first and add some transparency
Send the largest bubbles to the back of the stack and lower the fill opacity a notch, so a big bubble does not fully hide a smaller one sitting underneath it. This matters most once your dataset passes twenty or so entities.
Ship a size legend with real numbers on it
Two or three reference bubbles with values attached turn the size encoding from decoration into information. Without a legend, a reader can tell one bubble is bigger than another but has no way to say by how much.
Filter or flag outliers that span orders of magnitude
If one record is a thousand times the size of the rest, pull it into its own callout or filter it out and say so in a caption. Otherwise every other bubble on the chart shrinks down to a dot next to it.
Erreurs courantes en créant un Bubble Chart
One bubble swallows the whole chart
This is almost always an outlier in the size column, sometimes a totals row that snuck in with the real data. Sort the size column in PlotSet's data table, find the record that dwarfs the rest, and either filter it out or cap the maximum size in the scale settings.
Every bubble comes out roughly the same size
Check that the size column is actually mapped to a numeric field and not to the label or a category column by mistake. It also happens when the values in that column are stored as text with commas or a currency symbol, since PlotSet cannot size marks off text.
Labels overlap into an unreadable mess
This shows up once a chart has more than about fifteen bubbles with direct labels turned on. Turn off labels for anything but the handful of bubbles the chart is actually about, and let the rest surface their identity in the tooltip on hover.
En savoir plus sur le Bubble Chart
Vous n'êtes pas sûr que le Bubble Chart soit le bon choix ? Découvrez ce que c'est, quand l'utiliser et quand l'éviter.
Bubble Chart : questions fréquentes
Four columns: a label for each entity, two numeric columns for the X and Y position, and a third numeric column for bubble size. A category column is optional and adds colour grouping. All three numeric columns need to be plain numbers, not text with symbols or commas, or PlotSet cannot map them.
Créez votre Bubble Chart maintenant
Gratuit pour commencer avec plus de 300 modèles. Aucune carte bancaire requise.