Adjusting chart axes and how data are displayed

Infogram offers a variety of settings for customizing charts and displaying your data. Read through the article below to see how to adjust the chart axes, enable a zero baseline, adjust your line chart, as well as tailor the data format.

Adjusting the chart axes

By default, charts automatically assign an axis range starting from zero and going up to the maximum value. If you'd like to use a different value range, you can adjust it manually:

  1. Click on the chart to select it, then expand the Axis & Grid tab in the right-side settings panel.
  2. Under Y-axis range, enter the start and/or end value to adjust the axis range. Keep in mind that it is considered a good practice to keep your starting point at 0.

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You can also add labels to the axes and enable or disable gridlines in the chart background. Grids can make your data easier to follow, but can also be distracting in some situations. Use grids if the value of each specific data point is important.

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You might notice that the Fixed grid in all sheets setting is enabled by default for all charts. If you have several tabs in your chart, this option makes it easier for your viewers to compare data between them, as the grid remains unchanged in every tab.

Enabling the zero baseline

      1. Select the chart by clicking on it.
      2. In the Axis & Grid tab of the settings panel, in the Grid drop-down, choose None, Vertical or Horizontal.
      3. Enable the horizontal zero baseline or vertical zero baseline setting.

Adjusting the settings of a line chart

If you are using a line chart, you can flip the chart axis so the lowest values are at the top: 

      1. Click on the chart to select it, then expand the Axis & Grid tab in the right-side settings panel.
      2. Enable the Flip chart option.

 

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By default, line charts use a date format for the top row column. Here you can also enable Numeric categories to treat the values as plain numbers. This setting works with numbers and not date/time formats.

If you have only a few data points and would like for your line to have smoother angles, you can enable the Smooth curves option which can be found by expanding the Chart properties tab in the right-side settings panel.

 
Note: You might not want to enable the Smooth curves option if the exact position of your data points is significant.

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You can also add or remove the value points of your line. This makes it easier to call attention to specific values, directing viewers to specific bits of information. With large datasets, points are turned off automatically when the chart area becomes overcrowded.

Adjusting the data format

To further customize your chart, you can adjust how values are displayed on your chart's axis by expanding the Data format tab in the right-side settings panel:

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      • Prefixes and suffixes will add a symbol or letter before and/or after every axis label.
      • With Numeric format, you can specify how your entered data will be visualized. These settings can also be adjusted in the project settings of your profile.
      • Ticking abbreviate thousands and millions will shorten the numbers on the chart axis and introduce suffixes (k) for thousands and (m) for millions.
 
Pro tip: You can specify whether you want to add the prefix/suffix to chart axis, value labels, or tooltips.

The Switch rows and columns setting, as the name suggests, transposes rows with columns so the chart reads the information differently. This is useful when you want to switch the X and Y axis or have a different format export.