: How to add numbers to an Illustrator Scatter Graph? How does anyone know how to add numbers to data points of a scatter graph in Illustrator? I can make the scatter graph but I have no idea

@Berumen635

Just create a graph in Illustrator and then set the type to scatter, my advice is to copy paste the data into the data dialogue from Excel, you may have to create a second column that duplicates some of the data to set them as labels of each point to numbers. The other option would be to export the graph in Excel as a vector file, all depends on what your user case is for this particular task.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Yeniel278

Making your own scatter chart is not hard. While its not nesseserily worth doing on your own in a porduction setting, its one of those things, that is conceptually easy to do that works as a foundation. A good thing to know how to do as a halfway between stuff that is worth doing and can not had without doing a lot of work. So a good exercise to bridge the gap between challenging charting design and not so challenging ones.

Ok lets get started, you might want to start with a simpler example as your first exersise if this seems daunting. So you might go read these asnwers on GD.SE first:


How to create a vector curve programmatically? Gives you a good foundational overview of the relevant approaches.
Import vector data into illustrator Another good overwiew that talks about the 3 methods you could use. Note the import in question is a scatter graph of sorts.


Ok lets get cracking. I will be using EPS as it has the lowest common demonimator and is perhaps easiest to develop by a illustrator user. An eps constist of 3 parts header that defines the size of your document the commands and the end.

Just start typing into a eps file and once you have the basic pieces there you can drop as a linked file into illustrator. Illustrator will notice the changes and update your image as you go, which is a very good feature when developing your graph.

%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%%BoundingBox: 0 0 500 500
%%Title: Scattergraph Demo for GD.SE
%%Creator: Janne Ojala
%%CreationDate: 2017-05-03
%%EndComments

%Lets define how to draw your symbol marker
/SYMBOL { 3 dict begin /t exch def /y exch def /x exch def
0 0 0 1 setcmykcolor
x y newpath 4 0 360 arc fill
0 0 0 0 setcmykcolor
x t stringwidth pop 2 div sub y 1.5 sub moveto t show
end
} def

%Define font to use
/str 10 string def
/Helvetica findfont 5 scalefont setfont

10 10 (10) SYMBOL

%%EOF


Ok so now your data goes in like this:

posx_1 posy_1 text_1 SYMBOL
posx_2 posy_2 text_2 SYMBOL
...
posx_n posy_n text_n SYMBOL


But thats slightly unpractical. Altough you can just copypaste the data from excel and do a find and replace. But we can put this data in a list:

[
24 5 (A)
56 45 (B)
66 38 (C)
77 56 (D)
88 90 (E)
]


So its easier to input stuff finally:

%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%%BoundingBox: 0 0 200 200
%%Title: Scattergraph Demo for GD.SE
%%Creator: Janne Ojala
%%CreationDate: 2017-05-03
%%EndComments

%Lets define how to draw your symbol marker
/SYMBOL { 3 dict begin /t exch def /y exch def /x exch def
0 0 0 1 setcmykcolor
x y newpath 4 0 360 arc fill
0 0 0 0 setcmykcolor
x t stringwidth pop 2 div sub y 1.5 sub moveto t show
end
} def

%Define font to use
/Raleway-Black findfont 5 scalefont setfont

/DATA [
24 5 (A)
56 45 (B)
66 38 (C)
77 56 (D)
88 90 (E)
120 87 (F)
140 90 (G)
112 82 (H)
146 33 (I)
112 100 (J)
170 180 (K)
] def

DATA length 3 div 1 sub -1 0 {DATA exch 3 mul cvi 3 getinterval aload pop SYMBOL} for

%%EOF


Now just copy your data in the data section and put parentheses around last row. And here is what it looks like, tune to your hearts liking.

Vote Up Vote Down