Piktochart Tutorial

Written by: Esther Lu, Reed Scriven, Allen Brown, Bryan Tor,
Nirupama Chandrasekhar | Fall Quarter 2021

Contents
 Why use Piktochart?
 Starting Out
 The Tabs
 Getting Started
Why Should You Use Piktochart?
Piktochart is an online infographic application which allows
users without intensive experience as graphic designers to
easily create professional-grade infographics using themed
templates. The program provides tools to add interactive
maps, charts, videos and hyperlinks.

However, Piktochart is limited by the variety of its

templates. If you’re looking for a truly unique design for your
infographic, then Piktochart may not be your first choice.
There are also a few issues with editing the size of items on
the infographic, as well as relatively minor restrictions on
what you can do with the free version of Piktochart.

Use Piktochart here.

Starting Out
Once on the site, click “Sign Up” where you will be prompted
to create a username and password. If you already have a
Facebook account or Google account you can simply sign in
to Piktochart via your Facebook username and password or
Google username and password.
The Tabs
 Once inside, on the left hand side of the window you will see
nine tabs:
 Dashboard
 Infographics
 Presentations
 Posters
 Reports
 Flyers
 Social Media
 Custom Sizes
 Saved Templates
 Inspire Me
The Dashboard is where you will find your saved work if you
create a project in Piktochart. You can Edit or Preview your
work. To save your work to the Dashboard, click on the save
button in the top right of the editor. You can also preview
your work, download it as a png image, or share it on social
media.

The Template List is sorted by the types of media you can create
using Piktochart. The inner editor is the same for all of them.

Saved Templates is an option for paid users that allows for custom
templates made by you or your team members to be saved here.
Teams can be formed by adding members in an "Admin" role or
"Member" role with a maximum of 4, including yourself, for free
users or you can pay for Pro to include more members. This
allows for several users to edit the same Piktochart, if they all have
a piktochart account.

Inspire Me is an option to look at the creations of other people

who've used Piktocharts, as an inspiration for how the software can
be used! It's very helpful if you're not sure about how to layout your
media!

Getting Started
1. Begin by opening up a template for any type of media.
The same editor is used for all types of media!
2. Next to the canvas page is a small set of icons, marked in
the image below. The button with the plus sign is to add
another page to your canvas, if needed. The up and down
arrows flanking the box with the page number in it, is how
you move pages around each other, if you want to change
the order of the infographic's pages. The box with an image
of two boxes inside is a cloning device, so you can clone the
selected element (text box, image box, logo, pattern, etc.)
on the page. The box with the 'x' in it is to delete the
selected element (text box, image box, logo, pattern, etc.)
on the page.
3. In the graphics tab on the left side of the screen, there
are options for Shapes and Icons, Lines, Photos, and Photo
Frames. These are all elements provided by Piktochart to
use on your page. Add one to the canvas, and resize and
rotate it to familiarize yourself with the controls.
4. Design Components are a series of organized content
that will make your visual look better in a more efficient
way. It can be lists, comparisons, or simply put - content! To
use, select one of the types. insert the design component by
dragging it to the canvas, and edit as you wish.
5. You can also upload files from your computer to use as a
graphic. Another resource to find transparent custom icons
or images to place on your infographic is TheNounProject.
6. Backgrounds can be applied by simply clicking it once. In
some templates, images will be on top of the background
and you won't be able to see the changes.
7. You can add text like you add any other visual element.
To gain access to the text-edit options, like font, font size,
paragraph styles, and colour, click on the textbox, and look
up to the top of the page, as marked in the image below.
8. Under "Color-Scheme, you have the option to give the
page a set of theme colors (which will change all the
default boxes to a complementary color-schemescheme,
instead of requiring you to change every element yourself).
Free users can choose from the Built-in Color Scheme
options whereas paid users can make their own custom
color schemes that can be saved and used for later
projects.

9. Under "Tools", you can add embedded maps, charts,

videos, and tables. You can import your chart data from an
external source, using a .xlsx formatted or a .csv formatted
data, from chart-making softwares like Microsoft Excel and
LibreOffice Calc. You can also embed videos from Youtube
and Vimeo with just a link. You CANNOT import any map
data from websites like Google Maps or OpenMaps,
however.
10. In the top right corner, you can save your project and
click "Download" to export your project. There will be an
option to "Download as Blocks", which you should only tick
if you want to print out your infographic on multiple sheets
of paper. If not, exporting as an image or pdf without blocks
is the best way to export a purely digital image. There is
also a limited amount of download credits. Each Workspace
starts with 2 free download credits. 1 credit is equal to 1
download and this count does not reset. To obtain more
downloads, you can buy a specific amount of more
downloads or pay for Pro to get unlimited downloads.
11. You can also click "Share" if you want to publish
your graphic online. When making the link public, you can
change the title which will be reflected in the link URL and
cannot be changed after being made public. You can also
share through social media on Facebook, Twitter, or
Pinterest or use the embed code to embed it into your
website of blogpost.