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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Margin Notes line chart, light theme: Newsprint chart with yellow highlighter bands and red notes in a wide margin.

Margin Notes

LightLine

Newsprint chart with yellow highlighter bands and red notes in a wide margin.

  • Newsprint#F8F4EA
  • Ink#1E1E1E
  • Highlighter#FFE88A
  • Muted red#A23B2A

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 "Margin Notes" 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 newsprint feature page where an editor has marked up the chart: yellow highlighter over key date ranges and handwritten-feeling notes in the wide right margin, each tied to its point with a fine leader. Literate, calm and a little tactile.

Colors (use these exact values):
- Page: #F8F4EA (pale newsprint cream) for the whole canvas.
- Ink: #1E1E1E for the data line, axis baseline, title and kicker.
- Highlighter: #FFE88A (soft yellow) for the date-range bands behind the data, with band labels in #7A6A1E.
- Notes: #A23B2A (muted red) for the margin notes, their leaders and the dots on the line, plus the small square before the kicker.
- Secondary text #6F6A5E; gridlines and rules #D8D0BE.

Typography (Google Fonts):
- Newsreader for the title (500, 30px, -0.3px letter-spacing, ink) and the note bodies (400, 16px, muted red, 19px line height).
- Inter for everything else: kicker (800, 12px, uppercase, 1.6px letter-spacing, ink, after a 10px muted red square), subtitle (14px, #6F6A5E), axis labels (12px, #6F6A5E), note heads (700, 10.5px, uppercase, 1.2px letter-spacing, muted red), band labels (700, 9.5px, uppercase, 1px letter-spacing), event label (600, 11px, ink), legend (12px) and source (11.5px).

Layout:
- 56px outer margins. Kicker at y 44, title at y 84 (state the finding), subtitle at y 112 with measure, unit and period.
- The chart takes the left two thirds (plot x 104 to 588, y 164 to 476). The right margin from x 640 to 904 holds exactly four notes, stacked with about 90px between heads, each a small uppercase head and two short serif lines.
- Under the plot, a small legend for the line weights. A 1px rule at y 546, then a two-line source: "Source: illustrative data. Method: ..." stating how the numbers were made.

Axes and grid:
- Horizontal gridlines at round values, 0.8px #D8D0BE; a 1px ink baseline at zero. Y labels right-aligned 10px left of the plot, 12px Inter. No y-axis line.
- Month ticks: 5px ink ticks down from the baseline at each month start, labels centered in the month 20px below.
- A key date gets a 1px ink vertical line dashed 2 on, 3 off, with a short 11px 600 label beside its foot.

Marks:
- Line chart: the raw daily values as a faint 0.8px ink line at 22% opacity, and the smoothed series (7-day average) as a bold 2.6px ink line with round joins on top.
- Bar chart: ink bars, square-cornered, about 60% of the band; highlighted periods still get the yellow band behind their bars.
- Highlighter bands: full plot height (starting 6px above the plot top), #FFE88A, no stroke, with the range name in the band's top center.

Leaders (the signature):
- Each note is joined to a specific point by a 0.9px muted red leader that leaves the note's head horizontally for 12px, then angles toward the target, ending in a 3.4px muted red dot with a 1.2px cream ring on the line.
- Route leaders through empty space: when a straight run would cross the bold line, angle down to a clear horizontal lane below the data, run along it, then angle up into the point. Leaders never cross each other or the bold line; order the notes top to bottom to make that possible.

Avoid: a legend box, color on the data line, drop shadows, more than two highlight bands, notes inside the plot, and em-dash-heavy note text.

When you're done, render the chart and check that the claims in the title and notes are arithmetically true, no leader crosses another leader or the bold line, the band labels are readable, and the notes stay inside the right margin.