In displaying a bar chart, I see three options for explicitly including the item-by-item data:
1) not including any specific data values
2) printing the data values on the outside of the bar
3) printing the data values inside the bar
Example of "outside the bar":
Example of "inside the bar":
Which of these techniques do you prefer? Do Tufte/Few/etc. have stated opinions on it? I'm guessing Tufte would say "no numbers" is best ... as the value, its position, and the length of the bar all act to "show the data," and that having all three is redundant. But I have to say that seeing the explicit values helps me to focus on the data, and not just glaze over the bars' lengths. So I guess the more specific question: Do you prefer to put your values inside or outside the bar?
