Chart Prompts

1,337 ways to dress a line or bar chart, 669 light and 668 dark. Open any chart to see it full size and copy a prompt that gives your own chart the same look.

Every chart uses illustrative data. The prompts work with any coding agent and any charting library; they describe colors, type, spacing and marks precisely enough to reproduce each look.

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Column Inset line chart, light theme: A narrow newsprint inset box in gray-black ink, set into a column of copy.

Column Inset

LightLine

A narrow newsprint inset box in gray-black ink, set into a column of copy.

  • Newsprint#F4F1EA
  • Ink#1A1A1A
  • Comparison gray#9A9790
  • Secondary ink#5F5C56
  • Hairline#D8D3C8

Prompt for your coding agent

Paste it with your chart's code. It restyles your data to match this chart.

Restyle my chart in the "Column Inset" style described below. Keep my data, chart type, title meaning and units; change only the presentation. Use the charting library this project already uses (plain SVG if there is none). If the library can't express a detail, draw it in a custom layer instead of dropping it. Measurements assume a 960 x 600 chart; scale them proportionally.

Mood: a small chart box set into one column of a daily newspaper. Gray-black ink on newsprint, no color at all, tight and economical, the kind of inset a desk editor drops beside the story it supports.

Colors (use these exact values):
- Newsprint: #F4F1EA for the whole canvas and plot area.
- Ink: #1A1A1A for the headline, the main series, the baseline, the heavy top rule and annotation leaders.
- Comparison series: #9A9790 (mid gray). Its text label uses #5F5C56 so it stays legible.
- Secondary text (kicker, dek, axis labels, source, credit): #5F5C56.
- Gridlines and column rules: #D8D3C8. Box frame: #8C8981. Body copy beside the box (if any): #3C3A36.
- Never add a hue. Extra series step through grays: #1A1A1A, #9A9790, then #5F5C56 dashed (4 3).

Typography (Google Fonts):
- Newsreader for the headline (600, 28px, -0.3px letter-spacing, #1A1A1A, set in two lines with 32px leading, stating the finding), the dek (italic 400, 16.5px, #5F5C56, 21px leading, naming measure, unit and period) and annotations (italic 12.5px, #1A1A1A).
- Libre Franklin with tabular lining figures (font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums lining-nums) for everything else: kicker 600 11px uppercase with 1.6px letter-spacing; axis labels 11.5px; direct labels 13px (series name 600, value 400 on the line below); source and credit 10.5px ("Chart: Staff" in 600).

Layout:
- The chart is a narrow single-column inset: a box about 560 x 532px (58% of the width) at x 40, y 34, framed by a 0.75px #8C8981 hairline with a 3px #1A1A1A rule along its top edge. Everything sits inside with 22px padding.
- Inside the box, top to bottom: kicker, headline, dek, plot, then a 0.6px #1A1A1A rule 36px above the box bottom with "Source: ..." at left and "Chart: Staff" right-aligned below it.
- The rest of the canvas is plain newsprint (or the article text that the inset sits in: 15px Newsreader #3C3A36, 21.5px leading, in a column separated from the box by a 0.75px #D8D3C8 vertical rule, under a small uppercase section label and a 0.6px rule). The plot leaves about 110px at its right for direct labels.

Axes and grid:
- Horizontal gridlines only, 0.75px #D8D3C8. Y labels right-aligned 10px left of the plot, thousands separators.
- Baseline 1px #1A1A1A. Small 4px x ticks (0.75px) at every period; labels on alternate ticks, abbreviating later years ("2015, '17, '19").

Marks:
- Line chart: straight segments, round joins. Main series 2.75px #1A1A1A, drawn last; comparison 2px #9A9790. Each line ends in a 3.5px-radius dot of its color ringed by 1.5px of newsprint, with the series name and final value stacked 10px to the right of the dot.
- Bar chart: flat, square-cornered bars at about 60% of the band, main series #1A1A1A and comparison #9A9790, value labels in 11.5px Libre Franklin just above each bar. No outlines.

Labels and annotation:
- No legend: label series directly. At most one annotation, in italic Newsreader with a 0.75px #1A1A1A leader, placed in empty space (for example below a dip, above the baseline).

Avoid: any color, gradients, shadows, rounded corners, bold boxed legends, vertical gridlines, and filling the full canvas width with the chart.

When you're done, render the chart and check that the box reads as a narrow newspaper inset with its heavy top rule, the headline states the finding, both direct labels clear their lines, and the source rule and credit line sit neatly at the bottom of the box.