While tables are usually read linearly item by item, graphics are read holistically, as a whole. That makes tables appropriate for displaying specific data, but not for showing comparisons and relationships, which are clearer in graphics.

In a case where the publication is interested in de-emphasizing or even conceal relations —in an annual report, for instance—it is better to show data in a table than in a graphic, where comparisons are clearer. 

This information design piece shows the production of corn in Munchkin farmers—characters from children’s tale The Wizard of Oz—from 1895 to 1902. Both the table and the line chart show the same data, but the acute decrease in production in 1900 is much more visible in the chart.

A review of this line chart can reveal another rhetorical device: the use (or lack) of context. The chart on the left shows the severe decrease in corn production in 1900 and nothing else. The chart on the right shows the context of the fact. By showing how the production of other crops (rye, wheat) was constant throughout those years, the chart makes it clear that the decrease in corn production was caused by a factor that did not have an effect on other crops. The insertion of a caption describing the events of 1900 (how Dorothy removed the Scarecrow from the fields and took him to the Emerald City with her, leaving the crops to the mercy of crows) adds further context, connecting the events to the drop in corn production in a cause-effect relation.

The use of comparison brings context to data, and it can reveal aspects that would remain hidden otherwise. In the same way, the use of captions and label should be done cautiously, for it can change the perception of the data completely.