MIP Logo

Images with Bar Graph

This post was originally published on The Data School blog between 2018 and July 2025, before our program was renamed to MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. References throughout this article to “The Data School” or “DS” all refer to what is now MIP’s Analytics Career Accelerator. The program, its people, and its commitment to launching outstanding analytics careers remain the same – just under a new name.

If you are having trouble viewing this article, please report it here

Getting images as axes values in bar graphs

This is a tiny tutorial teaching how to add images under bar graphs.

Step 1: Add the respective measures as rows and columns. In this case I’ve used the dimension as Columns and measure as Rows.

Step 2: Add a new measure ‘sum(0)’ as a new row item. At this point you must have something that looks like below.

Step 3: Store the images you wish to add to Tableau in the Documents folder. You can find the Document folder
C:Users*****YourName*********DocumentsMy Tableau RepositoryShapes

Step 4: On Tableau, in the Marks card for ‘sum(0)’, set it as Shape type. Double click on Shape in the Marks Card.

Step 5: Click on the Reload Shapes button to ensure the newly added images show up here on Tableau.

Step 6: Under ‘Select Shape Palette’ select ‘Custom’. Then, assign the required shapes from Custom Palette to your Dimension values. It should look like in the below image

Step 7: Hide all the headers and adjust the image sizes on the ‘sum 0’ Marks Card to your requirement.

Here’s a link to the dashboard with this example.

So there it was, a small tutorial on how to add images to bar graphs as axes.

Share this post