Introduction

In our previous topics, we have given a brief introduction of the types of charts and charting objects offered by Aspose.Cells to create any kind of chart. In this topic, we will discuss about customizing the appearance of charts by setting their properties.

Setting Chart Area

There are different kinds of areas in a chart and Aspose.Cells provides the flexibility of modifying the appearance of each area. Developers can apply different formatting settings on an area by changing its foreground color, background color and fill format etc.

In the example given below, we have applied different formatting settings on different kinds of areas of a chart. These areas include:

• Plot Area
• Chart Area
• NSeries Area
• Area of a Single Point in an NSeries

Example:

[C#]

 

 

//Instantiating a Workbook object

Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

 

 

//Adding a new worksheet to the Workbook object

int sheetIndex = workbook.Worksheets.Add();

 

 

//Obtaining the reference of the newly added worksheet by passing its sheet index

Worksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[sheetIndex];

 

 

//Adding a sample value to "A1" cell

worksheet.Cells["A1"].PutValue(50);

 

 

//Adding a sample value to "A2" cell

worksheet.Cells["A2"].PutValue(100);

 

 

//Adding a sample value to "A3" cell

worksheet.Cells["A3"].PutValue(150);

 

 

//Adding a sample value to "B1" cell

worksheet.Cells["B1"].PutValue(60);

 

 

//Adding a sample value to "B2" cell

worksheet.Cells["B2"].PutValue(32);

 

 

//Adding a sample value to "B3" cell

worksheet.Cells["B3"].PutValue(50);

 

 

//Adding a chart to the worksheet

int chartIndex = worksheet.Charts.Add(ChartType.Column,5,0,15,5);

 

 

//Accessing the instance of the newly added chart

Chart chart = worksheet.Charts[chartIndex];

 

 

//Adding NSeries (chart data source) to the chart ranging from "A1" cell to "B3"

chart.NSeries.Add("A1:B3",true);

 

 

//Setting the foreground color of the plot area

chart.PlotArea.Area.ForegroundColor = Color.Blue;

 

 

//Setting the foreground color of the chart area

chart.ChartArea.Area.ForegroundColor = Color.Yellow;

 

 

//Setting the foreground color of the 1st NSeries area

chart.NSeries[0].Area.ForegroundColor = Color.Red;

 

 

//Setting the foreground color of the area of the 1st NSeries point

chart.NSeries[0].Points[0].Area.ForegroundColor = Color.Cyan;

 

 

//Filling the area of the 2nd NSeries with a gradient

chart.NSeries[1].Area.FillFormat.SetOneColorGradient(Color.Lime, 1, GradientStyleType.Horizontal, 1);

 

//Saving the Excel file

workbook.Save(saveFileDialog1.FileName,FileFormatType.Default);

 

 

[VB.NET]

 

 

'Instantiating a Workbook object

Dim workbook As Workbook = New Workbook()

 

 

'Adding a new worksheet to the Workbook object

Dim sheetIndex As Integer = workbook.Worksheets.Add()

 

 

'Obtaining the reference of the newly added worksheet by passing its sheet index

Dim worksheet As Worksheet = workbook.Worksheets(sheetIndex)

 

 

'Adding a sample value to "A1" cell

worksheet.Cells("A1").PutValue(50)

 

 

'Adding a sample value to "A2" cell

worksheet.Cells("A2").PutValue(100)

 

 

'Adding a sample value to "A3" cell

worksheet.Cells("A3").PutValue(150)

 

 

'Adding a sample value to "B1" cell

worksheet.Cells("B1").PutValue(60)

 

 

'Adding a sample value to "B2" cell

worksheet.Cells("B2").PutValue(32)

 

 

'Adding a sample value to "B3" cell

worksheet.Cells("B3").PutValue(50)

 

 

'Adding a chart to the worksheet

Dim chartIndex As Integer = worksheet.Charts.Add(ChartType.Column,5,0,15,5)

 

 

'Accessing the instance of the newly added chart

Dim chart As Chart = worksheet.Charts(chartIndex)

 

 

'Adding NSeries (chart data source) to the chart ranging from "A1" cell to "B3"

chart.NSeries.Add("A1:B3",True)

 

 

'Setting the foreground color of the plot area

chart.PlotArea.Area.ForegroundColor = Color.Blue

 

 

'Setting the foreground color of the chart area

chart.ChartArea.Area.ForegroundColor = Color.Yellow

 

 

'Setting the foreground color of the 1st NSeries area

chart.NSeries(0).Area.ForegroundColor = Color.Red

 

 

'Setting the foreground color of the area of the 1st NSeries point

chart.NSeries(0).Points(0).Area.ForegroundColor = Color.Cyan

 

 

'Filling the area of the 2nd NSeries with a gradient

chart.NSeries(1).Area.FillFormat.SetOneColorGradient(Color.Lime, 1, GradientStyleType.Horizontal, 1)

 

 

'Saving the Excel file

workbook.Save(saveFileDialog1.FileName,FileFormatType.Default)

 

 

[JAVA]

 

//Instantiating a Workbook object

Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

Worksheets worksheets = workbook.getWorksheets();

 

 

//Obtaining the reference of the newly added worksheet by passing its sheet index

Worksheet worksheet= worksheets.getSheet(0);

Cells cells = worksheet.getCells();

//Adding a sample value to "A1" cell

cells.getCell("A1").setValue(50);

 

 

//Adding a sample value to "A2" cell

cells.getCell("A2").setValue(100);

 

 

//Adding a sample value to "A3" cell

cells.getCell("A3").setValue(150);

 

 

//Adding a sample value to "B1" cell

cells.getCell("B1").setValue(60);

 

 

//Adding a sample value to "B2" cell

cells.getCell("B2").setValue(32);

 

 

//Adding a sample value to "B3" cell

cells.getCell("B3").setValue(50);

 

 

//Adding a chart to the worksheet

Charts charts = worksheet.getCharts();

int chartIndex= charts.add(ChartType.COLUMN_CLUSTERED,5,0,15,5);

 

 

//Accessing the instance of the newly added chart

Chart chart= charts.getChart(chartIndex);

 

 

//Adding NSeries (chart data source) to the chart ranging from "A1" cell to "B4"

NSeries nSeries = chart.getNSeries();

nSeries.add("A1:B3",true);

 

 

//Setting the foreground color of the plot area

PlotArea plotArea = chart.getPlotArea();

Area area = plotArea.getArea();

area.setForegroundColor(Color.BLUE);

 

 

//Setting the foreground color of the chart area

ChartArea chartArea = chart.getChartArea();

area = chartArea.getArea();

area.setForegroundColor(Color.YELLOW);

 

 

//Setting the foreground color of the 1st NSeries area

ASeries aSeries = nSeries.get(0);

area = aSeries.getArea();

area.setForegroundColor(Color.RED);

 

 

//Setting the foreground color of the area of the 1st NSeries point

ChartPoints chartPoints =aSeries.getChartPoints();

ChartPoint point = chartPoints.getChartPoint(0);

point.getArea().setForegroundColor(Color.CYAN);

 

 

workbook.save("book1.xls");

 

After executing the above example code, a column chart will be added to the worksheet as shown below:

 

 

Figure: Column chart with filled areas

 

Setting Chart Lines

Developers can also apply different kinds of styles on the lines or data markers of the NSeries as shown below in the example.

Example:

[C#]

 

 

//Applying a dotted line style on the lines of an NSeries

chart.NSeries[0].Line.Style = LineType.Dot;

 

 

//Applying a triangular marker style on the data markers of an NSeries

chart.NSeries[0].MarkerStyle = ChartMarkerType.Triangle;

 

 

//Setting the weight of all lines in an NSeries to medium

chart.NSeries[1].Line.Weight = WeightType.MediumLine;

 

 

[VB.NET]

 

 

'Applying a dotted line style on the lines of an NSeries

chart.NSeries(0).Line.Style = LineType.Dot

 

 

'Applying a triangular marker style on the data markers of an NSeries

chart.NSeries(0).MarkerStyle = ChartMarkerType.Triangle

 

 

'Setting the weight of all lines in an NSeries to medium

chart.NSeries(1).Line.Weight = WeightType.MediumLine

 

 

[JAVA]

 

//Applying a dotted line style on the lines of an NSeries

ASeries aSeries = nSeries.get(0);

Line line = aSeries.getBorder();

line.setStyle(LineType.DOT);

 

 

//Applying a triangular marker style on the data markers of an NSeries

aSeries.setMarkerStyle(ChartMarkerType.TRIANGLE);

 

 

//Setting the weight of all lines in an NSeries to medium

aSeries = nSeries.get(1);

line = aSeries.getBorder();

line.setWeight(WeightType.MEDIUME_LINE);

 

After executing the above example code, a column chart will be added to the worksheet as shown below:

 

 

Figure: Column chart after applying line styles

 

Setting the Titles of Charts or Axes

You can use Microsoft Excel to set the titles of a chart and its axes in a WYSIWYG environment as shown below

 

 

Figure: Setting titles of a chart & its axes using Microsoft Excel

 

Aspose.Cells also allows developers to set the titles of a chart and its axes at runtime. All charts and their axes contain a Title property that can be used to set their titles as shown below in an example.

Example:

[C#]

 

 

//Setting the title of a chart

chart.Title.Text = "Title";

 

 

//Setting the font color of the chart title to blue

chart.Title.TextFont.Color = Color.Blue;

 

 

//Setting the title of category axis of the chart

chart.CategoryAxis.Title.Text = "Category";

 

 

//Setting the title of value axis of the chart

chart.ValueAxis.Title.Text = "Value";

 

 

[VB.NET]

 

 

'Setting the title of a chart

chart.Title.Text = "Title"

 

 

'Setting the font color of the chart title to blue

chart.Title.TextFont.Color = Color.Blue

 

 

'Setting the title of category axis of the chart

chart.CategoryAxis.Title.Text = "Category"

 

 

'Setting the title of value axis of the chart

chart.ValueAxis.Title.Text = "Value"

 

 

[JAVA]

 

//Setting the title of a chart

Title title = chart.getTitle();

title.setText("Title");

 

 

//Setting the font color of the chart title to blue

Font font = title.getFont();

font.setColor(Color.BLUE);

 

 

//Setting the title of category axis of the chart

CategoryAxis categoryAxis = chart.getCategoryAxis();

title = categoryAxis.getTitle();

title.setText("Category");

 

 

//Setting the title of value axis of the chart

ValueAxis valueAxis = chart.getValueAxis();

title = valueAxis.getTitle();