Finally.

Someone has created a simple way to create basic infographics for free. That “someone” is Piktochart.com, our favorite tool (from a rather short list) for building super-simple, pseudo-custom infographics in a matter of minutes.

The piktochart site offers both a free and paid option, with the paid version ($14.99 a month) offering a greater number of templates, tools and images. But, we were very impressed with what we were able to churn-out using the free version in a mere 5-minute trial run.

A suitable number of pre-loaded graphics are ready to use out of “the box,” along with the ability to upload items from your own stash of images. What’s more, the free option also offered up a tool for creating custom charts by entering your metrics manually or from a CSVfile…pretty slick.

Did we mention that it’s super easy to use?

If you can navigate your way around a Word document, you have all the skills necessary to begin pumping out some respectable infographics. A click of the mouse allows you to edit text, move elements, and resize whatever you might be working on.

The software offers a good deal of options for altering colors (including a “select your mood” color scheme selector), and a pretty decent selection of fonts for the typographiles out there.

If there was any downside….

It would be that image uploads are limited to 5 with the free version and that there are not more pre-installed images/graphics. But that said, the folks at Piktochart have to make a buck too and overall, this is a pretty stellar tool even with these small limitations.

Keep in mind that we only played around with Picktochart for all of 5-10 minutes, and there may be additional limitations built into the free version that we did not discover.

Bottom line:

Picktochart was a breeze to use, allowed for a decent infographic to be made in a matter of minutes, and quite frankly…was pretty darn fun. But don’t take our word for it, we would encourage you to give this free tool a test-drive for yourself.