Tufte Data Graphics Aesthetics Skill for Muse
Data graphics with Tufte's discipline: proportion, thin lines, direct labels.
- What
- Data graphics with Tufte's discipline: proportion, thin lines, direct labels.
- Cost
- Free
- Needs
- none — this is a knowledge-only skill (a single SKILL.md file). Optional: the sibling tufte skills (tufte-data-ink-ratio, tufte-chartjunk, tufte-tables-and-text-tables) for the full Tufte set.
- Install
- Copy the installer prompt below into your Muse — your agent does the rest.
Edward Tufte's aesthetics of data graphics, drawn from Chapter 9 of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information: beauty as a by-product of clarity plus rich content, never a layer of decoration. The operating rules: default graphics to horizontal (~1.5:1 — the book's actual prescription, with Tufte's own skepticism of golden-ratio worship noted), thin lines with a strict weight hierarchy (data heaviest, scaffolding lightest), friendly-graphics craft (words spelled out, reading left-to-right, labels placed directly on lines instead of legends, color-blind-safe palettes, modest upper-and-lower serif type), integration of words, numbers, and drawing into the surrounding prose, and matching the format (sentence, table, graphic) to the data's size and the reader's task. Discovered via skills.sh. Honest note: an academic-flavored knowledge skill — no code, no tools, no data-integrity auditing (that belongs to its siblings, tufte-data-ink-ratio and tufte-chartjunk); use it to judge or refine a finished chart for a report or presentation, not to clean your data. Skill Harbor never reviews the code, review it yourself before use. Not verified.
Curated by Skill Harbor — free, open-source skill (MIT) by @jpoindexter.
Version:
Install
Prerequisites: none — this is a knowledge-only skill (a single SKILL.md file). Optional: the sibling tufte skills (tufte-data-ink-ratio, tufte-chartjunk, tufte-tables-and-text-tables) for the full Tufte set. Install "Tufte Data Graphics Aesthetics Skill for Muse" for me. Apply Edward Tufte's data-graphics aesthetics (from VDQI Chapter 9): horizontal proportions, line-weight hierarchy, direct labels over legends, serif type, and word/number/drawing integration — for judging or refining finished charts. Repository: https://github.com/jpoindexter/tufte-skills/blob/main/skills/tufte-aesthetics-and-technique/SKILL.md 1. Fetch the SKILL.md file from the repository path into a temporary folder and summarize what it does in one or two sentences. 2. Safety check: review the SKILL.md for anything suspicious (unexpected network calls, shell commands, credential harvesting). This file should contain zero secrets in code; credentials only via the secure vault. Verify that holds here; STOP on any red flag and tell me. 3. Install it as a skill: copy SKILL.md into the agent's skills directory, in a folder named "tufte-aesthetics-and-technique". 4. Verify with no network calls: frontmatter valid, files in place. 5. Report what was installed, where, and what I still need to do myself (e.g. bring a chart or report to review). GitHub is optional: if I have a GitHub account or the gh CLI, you may use it; otherwise public access is fine. Rules: don't touch anything outside the temp folder and the install target. If anything looks off, stop and ask me.
Questions
How do I install a build?
Every product page includes a copy-paste install prompt. Paste it into your Muse and it sets the build up for you — no manual configuration.
Where does my money go?
Straight to the seller. Skill Harbor never processes payments: checkout happens on the seller’s own page, usually Stripe.
What does the ✓ next to a creator’s name mean?
It means we confirmed the identity of the person behind the listing. It says nothing about the code itself — always check a build before installing it.