Infogram vs. Vellum

Infogram is perfect for creating engaging and professional-looking infographics, data visualizations, and social media content with no technical knowledge required. I have worked with NGOs with no technical or design staff that need to get their message out there or raise awareness about something. Infogram is easy and quick to use and the results look great. Infogram is not heavyweight data visualization software, it's best for summarizing and explaining the results of data analysis to an audience or breaking down complex concepts to make them understandable to the general public.

Vellum is perfect for novels, novellas, short fiction anthologies, and any lightly illustrated fiction. It’s excellent for most non-fiction. It’s great for e-Books and Paperbacks. I haven’t tried using the file for hardcover but it is likely good for that as well. Vellum wouldn’t be the right tool for coffee-table art books, picture books or children’s illustrated books.

Incentivized

• It is specifically made for the creation of infographics and it excels in this field.
• It provides the novice user with many beautiful templates, easing the learning process.
• It integrates with many databases, making the infographic dynamic always up-to-date.

Incentivized

• Professional, Tasteful Formatting
• Table of Contents management
• File Management
• Ease of switching elements (i.e. Chapter, Acknowledgement, About the Author etc.)
• Beautiful Style Sheets
• Generating uploadable files quickly and painlessly
• Previewing for a variety of formats and devices

Incentivized

• I gave it a 10 for a reason....
• Some graphs could have more features to change their appearance (but perhaps then it wouldn’t be as simple)
• Should have a better way to copy and paste to another app

Incentivized

• Could improve ability to change the look of a design element like Ornamental Break.
• Doesn’t currently output in Smashwords .doc format (but does EPUB).
• Spell Check is rudimentary but accurate - still, it’s much better to use Word or Grammarly.
• If style uses initial drop cap, it doesn’t handle one-letter words well (I, A, O) - repeats letter in sentence. This may be standard practice, not sure.
• There are a couple dozen styles. I would gladly pay for a “Style Pack” to add on additional styles.

Incentivized

I have personally always had quick, friendly, and helpful responses from the Infogram team.

Infogram's most unique strength is its focus on infographics, providing a great number of templates and at the same time connecting such graphics with data sources. Prezi is great for presentation, but it provides static infographics. Illustrator and Photoshop have some possible ways to integrate data into their graphics, but they are rudimentary compared to Infogram's abilities. Despite the huge power of Photoshop and Illustrator for creating specific images, Infogram is easier and more powerful in conveying data, making it the best option for infographics.

Incentivized

Up until purchasing Vellum, I’ve used Smashwords Meat Grinder template and Kindle’s PC-Only software. I had to buy a PC just to publish to Kindle - very expensive investment with modest return. Vellum is only for Mac. In fact, it would have been cool if it worked with a PC. But Mac is my ecosystem for writing, and the PC is a pain. I ultimately chose Vellum because it works with my MacBook.

Incentivized

• Has a free user option and it is faster and easier to build great graphical graphs.
• Now I don’t have to ask design guys to make me a fancier graph for a presentation.
• After the first graphs are made I can reuse them for the next month's presentation.

Incentivized

• Less time publishing means more time writing
• Beautiful books sell better than Times New Roman dreck
• I’ve stayed away from Google Books but will move into that market now

Incentivized