Fathom Information Design
banner
fathom.info
Fathom Information Design
@fathom.info
We build platforms and products for understanding data. https://fathom.info/
We just launched a desktop version of Rowboat!

* Open much larger files (offline!)
* Own Desktop as a one-time purchase.
* Use a double-clickable app that’s even faster than the web version.

Browser or desktop, your data never leaves your machine.

Read more: www.fathom.info/notebook/251...
November 10, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Following the completion of his summer 2024 internship, we now welcome Andy back as a full time member of the team.
October 20, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Voitko sanoa uudelleen? Outside of the studio, Mark’s been studying Finnish and Paul’s learning type design. We’re delighted by these unique Finnish cheatsheets they designed using Paul’s work-in-progress font Lilliput.

#typedesign #finnish #typography #languagelearning #liliput
October 17, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Rowboat makes it easy to explore data by filtering down to different subsets.

In this UFO sightings dataset (rowboat.net/f/uzu782mq), ppen the Find tool and filter the “datetime_time” column with “7/4” to see how many sightings happened on July 4th.
October 2, 2025 at 1:48 PM
We recently made a round of visual updates to Rowboat to make it even easier to spot geographic regions where data is more highly concentrated.

To get more out of your own geographic data, head to www.rowboat.net
September 23, 2025 at 6:16 PM
We updated Rowboat’s Chrome extension to open HTML tables and links to .csv, .tsv, and .xls spreadsheets in your browser with a simple right click.

Just locate the dataset you want to examine, right click, and select “Open Table in Rowboat” to start exploring.
September 17, 2025 at 8:00 PM
In our latest blog post, Chase gives us a lesson in wet-bulb temperature calculations, conversing with coworkers while running, and the perks of opting out of the MBTA for your morning commute.

You can read more here: www.fathom.info/notebook/250...
August 22, 2025 at 5:37 PM
A few weeks ago, we survived another "Fathom Song Guessing Game" — my favorite day of the year when we all get to know each other a bit better via our musical selections.

This year's theme was UNLEASH THE BEAST.

We have since managed to re-leash our beasts, and the office is back in order.
August 12, 2025 at 3:34 PM
📸 Rowboat's header snapshot feature makes it easy to discover insights and instantly share your findings. When you spot something interesting, you’re just a click away from getting it in front of your team or shared online!

Check out the datasets on rowboat.xyz/!
July 25, 2025 at 2:13 PM
When your dataset contains columns with lists or arrays instead of single values, the Set Analysis header in Rowboat breaks these entries apart so you can analyze each term individually.

Explore this BoardGameGeek dataset: rowboat.xyz/f/mczim00b
July 8, 2025 at 9:23 PM
We recently dove into papal history, tracking the length of every papacy from 30 AD to 2013.

If your data contains paired values — start and end, or minimum and maximum, just link them and explore the ranges!

Explore the pope dataset with Rowboat 🚣 : rowboat.xyz/f/wvjko69a
June 27, 2025 at 9:06 PM
We are so excited to welcome Karlie as the latest addition to our team!

Karlie is an interdisciplinary designer and developer with an affinity for textile-oriented projects. Check out some of Karlie's incredible work here!
June 26, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Last September, we launched Rowboat — a tool for getting a quick, meaningful first look at your data. Today, we’re excited to share some new features to help you explore your data visually and answer even more questions. Dive in! 🌊

Explore the OKCupid dataset: rowboat.xyz/f/oxr6zumn
June 24, 2025 at 7:52 PM
All three top runners in the women's division of the Boston Marathon crushed the previous time record this year!

We took a look at the trends in finish times over the race's history, and were struck by the rapid leaps in record breaking over the first two decades women were allowed to compete.
April 25, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Even our more experimental views go through several rounds of iteration - check out a few early versions of the concept as well!
April 16, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Mark and Paul recently spent some time tinkering with new ways to show an outbreak moving over space, time, and population.
April 16, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Happy Monday! We wanted to share some of the books we've been reading and enjoying lately.
April 14, 2025 at 3:25 PM
And this fascinating diagram to accompany the original, by Ken Shirriff at righto.com, which contains a wealth of information about this piece and about many other tidbits of computer history.
January 31, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Lately, we've been thinking a lot about this piece for inspiration: Marilou Schultz's "Replica of a Chip" is a woven rug that uses Navajo weaving techniques to recreate the patterns found on computer chips, specifically the Intel Pentium processor.
January 31, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Fathom's holiday card this year honors our love of New England, with a data-focused twist!

Big thanks to Paul for leading the charge in getting our mailing out the door, and for putting together a delightful mini-site to pair with this year's card: fathom.info/holiday/24/
December 23, 2024 at 9:28 PM
To make a stacked bar chart - just link two text columns together and enjoy.

You can explore this dataset for yourself at rowboat.xyz/f/5f444u4e
December 18, 2024 at 10:24 PM
To close out the year, we introduced stacked bar charts to our roster of header charts! We've been having a blast exploring a dataset of ok cupid profiles from the early 2010's with this new feature.

See some of our favorite findings below. 🥗 🐾 💉
December 18, 2024 at 10:24 PM
Mark recently put together a thoughtful piece on how we designed Delphy (a new tool for rapidly generating and exploring phylogenetic trees) to be able to lower technical barriers to phylogenetic research.

You can find his full blog post here: fathom.info/notebook/241...

delphy.fathom.info
December 16, 2024 at 10:27 PM
We've been lucky to host a few special guests in the Fathom office over the last few weeks!
December 12, 2024 at 3:42 PM
We've looked at datasets for mushroom classification, UFO sightings around the world, book reviews, and 1920s women's voter registration (to name a few). Now, we'd love to hear what you're exploring in Rowboat!
December 11, 2024 at 3:47 PM