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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Forward Curve line chart, light theme: Copper futures curve over fading gray snapshots on wheat paper, contango bracketed.

Forward Curve

LightLine

Copper futures curve over fading gray snapshots on wheat paper, contango bracketed.

  • Wheat paper#F6F0E1
  • Copper#B4602B
  • Ink#2B241C
  • Snapshot gray#655B50
  • Faded gray#BDB2A2

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 "Forward Curve" 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 commodities desk note printed on warm wheat paper. Calm, literate and exact: one copper line for "now", earlier snapshots fading into warm grays behind it, and a small handwritten-feeling italic annotation naming the shape of the curve.

Colors (use these exact values):
- Paper: #F6F0E1 for the whole canvas.
- Ink (title, key figures, double rule): #2B241C.
- Current series and its annotations: #B4602B (copper).
- Earlier series, most recent to oldest: #655B50, #978C7E, #BDB2A2 (the oldest label uses #A09584 so it stays readable).
- Secondary text: #7A6F61. Gridlines and footer rule: #DDD2BC.

Typography (Google Fonts):
- Crimson Pro for the title (600, 38px, ink, sentence case, stating the finding), the subtitle (italic 400, 18px, #7A6F61) and the source line (italic 14px).
- Work Sans for everything functional: eyebrow 11.5px 600 uppercase with 2.6px letter-spacing in copper; axis labels 12.5px #7A6F61; category (delivery month) labels 10.5px 500 uppercase with 0.6px letter-spacing, years 10.5px 600 in ink under the first month and each January; end labels 12.5px 500 in each series' color (14px 700 copper for the current series) with the last value right-aligned in a separate column at 12px.

Layout:
- 56px side margins. Eyebrow at y 58, title at y 104, subtitle at y 134, then a double rule (1.2px ink over a 0.5px ink line, 3px apart) at y 160.
- Plot from x 88 to about x 736, y 196 to 508; the space to the right holds the end labels (dates, then a right-aligned value column ending near x 842) and the annotation bracket.
- Footer: a 1px #DDD2BC rule at y 562, a small line-key legend on the left and the source on the right at y 586.

Axes and grid:
- y labels on the left, right-aligned 12px from the plot, with a small unit label ("$/bbl") above the top tick in 11px 600.
- Gridlines 0.8px #DDD2BC dotted (1 on, 3 off); the bottom gridline solid at 1.2px acts as the baseline.
- 5px tick marks under every category, 0.8px #7A6F61.

Marks:
- Line chart: smooth monotone curves. Earlier series at 1.6 to 1.8px, square to the paper, no markers. The current series at 3.2px copper with round caps, drawn over a 7px paper-colored halo so it cuts cleanly through crossings, with 4.5px copper dots (2px paper ring) at its first and last points. Label every series at its right end with its date, never with a legend box. Shade the spread between the current curve and a horizontal dashed copper line (1px, 3 on 3 off) at its first value, using copper at 13% opacity.
- Bar chart: slender square-cornered bars (about 55% of the band) in the three warm grays for earlier periods and copper for the current one, grouped by category, with a 1.2px baseline. Put value labels in Work Sans 12px above the copper bars only, and annotate the difference between first and last category with the same bracket device.

Labels and annotation:
- A vertical bracket (1.2px copper, 6px feet) at the right edge spanning the gap between the current series' first and last values, labeled in Crimson Pro italic 600 16px copper with the shape name ("contango", or "backwardation" when the curve falls) and the signed difference below it in Work Sans 12.5px 600 ink ("+$7.20").
- Mark the first value of the current series with a small copper label ("$67.80 front") just under its dot.

Avoid: gradients, shadows, bright or cool colors, legends boxed in frames, heavy axes, markers on every point, and letting end labels touch each other or the bracket.

When you're done, render the chart and check that the end labels sit in value order without overlapping, the bracket's number equals last minus first of the current series, and the copper line reads first even at thumbnail size.