3 Web-Based Tools that Generate Awesome Tag Clouds

By Ann Smarty, MakeUseOf – January 01, 2011 at 08:30PM

awesome tag cloud Building a beautiful tag cloud (based on the terms extracted from a web page) is not all about fun.

This post is meant not only to show you the tools that will build an awesome tag cloud for you but also to inspire you and share various creative ways to use those tools.

For example, you can create infographics to visualize your point and make your message easier to deliver. Besides, you should also check this post on how tag clouds may be useful.

1. Tagul: Create and Embed Interactive Tag Clouds

Tagul (view previous MUO review of Tagul) is a multi-feature tag cloud generator that requires registration and allows you to build beautiful clouds and embed them on your blogs.

Build and customize your awesome tag cloud

Core Options:

Name your cloud;
Copy and paste the source code (or let the tool grab the source code from the URL) and fetch the tags;
Choose the shape (cloud, heart, star, triangle, pentagram, circle, rectangle) and specify the form angle and aspect ratio;
Select the font

awesome tag cloud

View the generated tags in a separate tab; you can delete any of them if you wish:

free tag cloud

The result

After you build your tag cloud and are fully satisfied with what you see in the preview, save all the changes in the “Preview” tab and embed the tag cloud to your page.

You can view my tag cloud live here (Feel free to hover over any tag to see it dance):

free tag cloud

2. Wordle: Beautiful Tag Clouds as Downloadable Images

Wordle (see previous MUO review of Wordle) is another great tool for creating beautiful tag clouds. Here are some awesome ideas on how you can use the tool creatively:

Build and customize your tag cloud

The tool very fast and allows to set quite a few options:

Set the language preferences and filters;
Select the font;
Set the layout and color palette:

free tag cloud generator

Very similar tool: ABC Ya (actually, this one has almost the same functionality). Another more simplistic but still fun one: Word Mozaic – it allows to choose among the huge number of forms and symbols and creates very appealing tag clouds as downloadable .gif images:

free tag cloud generator

3. Tagxedo: Build Awesome Infographics

Tagxedo (see our previous review of TagXedo here) is the most powerful tools in terms of the look and feel of your tag cloud. It builds typography artworks. If you ever run out of ideas on how to use the tool, be sure to check out these 101 ways to have fun with it.

As with the above tools, this one lets you upload the text or generate it from the URL. However, Tagxedo has more powerful filtering options where you can:

Exclude numbers and common words;
Combine related and identical words;
Modify the list by frequency:

free tag cloud generator

Besides that, the tool offers a huge variety of fonts, themes, color palettes, etc. Its most powerful feature is the great range of cloud shapes to choose from:

Tagxedo shapes