IMAGE PROCESSING: Tableau

Image processing is next level of analysis which allow users to display required images in place of actual text value. Image Processing in tableau can be performed on any amount of data.

In Tableau, Image processing can be done in two ways

· Using Mark Card (with the help of Shape)

· Using Coordinate system of Tableau (with the help of background image)

Mark card method

Implementing the image processing on products and sales data using Mark card.

Steps: -

1. Connect the Superstore Data in the Tableau

2. Drag the product category in column shelf.

3. Download images of your choice (I used Flaticon.com) and save images in folder name “Shapes” in My Tableau Repository and named as ‘Sample superstore’.

4. In the mark card select shapes.

5. Right click shapes in mark card and click on more shapes. A window pops up like this. Also drag the product category in the shapes mark card. It will assign different default shape to each product.

6. Click on the drop-down arrow and we will see the super sample store folder where we have saved images.

7. Click on the sample super store folder and then click on ‘Assign pallet ‘we can select product category and the next image we want to assign to that category. It will assign image then we can click on apply.

8. Drag sales in the row shelf and sales in the mark card with text.

Image Processing Using Coordinate System

Tableau underlying language will make use of coordinate system to build any visualization. With the help of same system (x axis, y axis) we can perform Image processing.

Steps: -

1.) Drag sales in row shelf and profit in column shelf.

2.) Download a logo/image you want to show in the system.

3.) In the analysis tab uncheck ‘aggregate measure’. A scatter plot appears

4.) Click on Map tab > select background images > select sample superstore.

5.) In background images window > click on add image.

6.) Click on browse > select the image you downloaded earlier and click on open. That how image will appear in preview.

7.) We can adjust the x axis coordinate e.g., Left = -1000 and right = 5000 and y axis as top = 2000 and bottom = 10,000. accordingly whatever position you want for your image. Then click on Apply

8.) Options in background images if check ‘always show entire image’ it will display complete image irrespective of the maximum values on x axis and y axis values. It will dynamically increase the value of x axis and y axis.

9.) Final Output

10.) Hiding image temporarily using check box in the background image window. Uncheck the check box and apply.

Key points: -

· Always the background images are advantageous when compared to mark card because using Mark card we cannot define image with dynamic sizes.

· Always use Mark card to perform KPI based image processing.

· Image processing is executed at Tableau level.