Visualization VocabularyDataviz vocabulary
Diagram: Chernoff faces
Drawing: Adrien Taudière (CC0)
ggplot2 example: Chernoff faces
Adrien Taudière (CC0); R code ↓; data: gapminder (Bryan 2025) (CC BY 4.0)
Wikidata image: Chernoff faces
Avenue (Public domain); Wikimedia Commons; item Q1070295

chart

Chernoff faces

Multivariate display in which each variable drives one feature of a drawn human face.

figures de Chernoff

Représentation de données multivariées où chaque variable règle un trait d'un visage dessiné.

Indexé tel quel par Tufte (VDQI) ; sous « faces » seulement par Wilkinson, Cairo (The Functional Art) et Milestones. Chernoff 1973. Terme français et définitions d'après Wikipédia (« Figures de Chernoff », « Chernoff face »).

Classification

  • chart
  • glyphs
  • the name evokes: nature, eponym

Channels

  • length; main: value of a variable (nose size, eye spacing)
  • tilt/angle; secondary: value of a variable (eyebrow slant)
  • curvature; main: value of a variable (mouth curvature)
  • shape; main: value of a variable (shape of the face and eyes)

Attestation

Scientific literature

OpenAlex: 176 papers since 1978, 18% in the last five years; mostly in Computer Science, Social Sciences, Mathematics; Wikidata

R packages

R code of the ggplot2 example

library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(gapminder)
library(ggChernoff)

## One face per continent and year: the smile codes the median life
## expectancy, the space between the eyes the median GDP per capita.
faces <- gapminder |>
  filter(year %in% c(1952, 1977, 2007)) |>
  group_by(continent, year) |>
  summarise(life = median(lifeExp), gdp = log10(median(gdpPercap)), .groups = "drop")

p <- ggplot(faces, aes(x = factor(year), y = continent, smile = life, eyes = gdp, fill = continent)) +
  geom_chernoff(size = 24, colour = "#262626") +
  scale_fill_manual(values = continent_colors, guide = "none") +
  scale_y_discrete(limits = rev) +
  scale_smile_continuous(range = c(-1, 1), guide = "none") +
  scale_eyes_continuous(guide = "none") +
  labs(title = "Median life expectancy rose on every continent",
       subtitle = "Medians by continent: the wider the smile, the longer the life expectancy; the wider apart the eyes, the higher the GDP per capita",
       x = NULL, y = NULL,
       caption = "Data: Gapminder, via the gapminder R package") +
  theme_lex_viz(grid = "", arrows = "")

Sources (14)

27 occurrences in the corpus; indexed by 2 books

Show the 14 sources

Cite this entry

Stable addresshttps://dataviz.adrientaudiere.com/en/term/chernoff-faces.html

ReferenceTaudière Adrien. 2026. Chernoff faces. In Visualization Vocabulary, version 1.0.0. IdEst. https://dataviz.adrientaudiere.com/en/term/chernoff-faces.html

BibTeX
@incollection{taudiere2026-chernoff-faces,
  author    = {Taudière, Adrien},
  title     = {Chernoff faces},
  booktitle = {Visualization Vocabulary},
  year      = {2026},
  version   = {1.0.0},
  publisher = {IdEst},
  url       = {https://dataviz.adrientaudiere.com/en/term/chernoff-faces.html},
  note      = {CC0 1.0}
}

Page created on 2026-10-13. Text last changed on 2026-11-12. Images last changed on 2026-11-09. Numbers computed on 2026-10-22.