Piktochart is a Malaysia-based startup that focuses on helping customers build infographics fast. Like really fast. I first saw the beta product in Beijing when I met the founders, Goh Ai Ching and Andrea Zaggia. It looks sweet and promising. Eventually, they entered Startup Arena for our Startup Asia Singapore conference and I knew I had bring them in. They won fifth place, which isn’t too bad for a product that was only just ready to demo back then. Now Piktochart is ready for the anyone who loves create interesting graphical presentations. Whenever I’ve done this in the past, it has taken a lot of time. Time that I might have saved if Piktochart were available then.
Logging into Piktochart can be done via Facebook or Twitter, which makes it easy to get started. The interface is simple. You select a theme and dive straight into building your infographic. The interface looks a like a stripped-down version of Photoshop or Keynote. So for folks who aren’t familiar with the functions, it might look a little messy. But once you get used to it, it’s ok. The usual font, color, layer options are placed at the top. On the left, you can find all the necessary shapes and graphics for your infographic. What I like is its sexy and intuitive drag-and-drop interface.. I quickly made the graphic, pictured above, just to test how Piktochart works. That image took me just about five minutes.
The free version allows you to play around with three themes and download the infographic as image file. The pro version, which cost about $9.99 per month, for a limited time only (no deadline given though), will offer over 20 themes, with additional themes as time passes. The pro version also allows you to download the file as HTML or raw data.
It is a little annoying that you can’t find the pro pricing details though. Clicking the “upgrading to pro” button brings you directly to Paypal, which to be honest is quite an unpleasant surprise. But for now I shall stay happy as a free user. The free tools are enough to design a decent infographic in minutes. Give Piktochart a try and let us know what you think.
Disclosure: We sometimes enlist Andrea Zaggia’s expert services to help us with technical issues from time to time on our site.
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