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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Range Frame line chart, light theme: Cream paper, no gridlines, axes that span only the data, and a sidenote.

Range Frame

LightLine

Cream paper, no gridlines, axes that span only the data, and a sidenote.

  • Paper#FFFFF8
  • Ink#111111
  • Note#555555
  • Faint#777777

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 "Range Frame" 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: Edward Tufte's minimal ink. Every mark is data or directly explains data. Book typography, lots of air.

Colors (use these exact values):
- Background: #FFFFF8 (warm cream). Ink for data, axes and labels: #111111. Sidenote text: #555555. Source line: #777777.
- For a second series use #8C8C8C, and set it behind the first. Do not introduce any hue.

Typography (Google Fonts): EB Garamond only.
- Title: regular, 32px, #111111, with the period in the title ("Weekday ferry riders, 1990–2025").
- Subtitle: italic, 20px, #555555 (measure and unit).
- Axis labels: 16px #111111. Point labels: italic 17px #111111. Sidenote: 18px #555555 with 24px line spacing. Source: italic 15px #777777.

Layout:
- Plot on the left two-thirds (x about 104 to 690). A sidenote column on the right (x about 756) holds two to four short lines that interpret the chart in plain words, top-aligned with the upper part of the plot.

Axes (the defining feature):
- No gridlines, no plot border, no background panel.
- Range-frame axes: the y-axis line runs only from the data's minimum to its maximum; the x-axis line runs only from the first to the last period. Both are 1px #111111 and offset about 16px away from the data so the line never touches them.
- Y ticks (5px, pointing outward) at the exact min and max values plus a few round numbers between; label the min and max with their exact values. X ticks at the first period, the last period, the round periods between, and any period mentioned in the notes.

Marks:
- Line chart: a 1.6px #111111 line with straight segments. Mark only the meaningful points (peak, trough, latest) with 3.5px dots ringed by a 2px #FFFFF8 stroke, each with an italic value label.
- Bar chart: thin #111111 bars (about 35% of band width) with no fill variation. Instead of gridlines, knock out white 1px horizontal lines across the bars at round values (Tufte's "white grid"). Put value labels only on the bars the notes discuss.

Avoid: legends (label the line directly), color, bold type, gridlines, shadows, and decorative ticks.

When you're done, render the chart and confirm both axis lines stop exactly at the data extents and that the sidenote says something the chart shows.