Did you know that it’s possible to show a large dynamic text value in your KPI in place of a standard chart? Perhaps you may want to use a particular kind of KPI showing a large number display where a typical chart visualization is less important.

This month we will take a closer look at how the “Population Prospects” XY chart was put together.

Today I thought that I’d show you a different styling approach that uses a reverse color style. Basically the idea is to make everything on the chart that would normally be black to instead be white or a bright color. This includes switching the colors on grids, lines, bar borders, tic labels, and headers etc.

Once in a while I come across a chart that looks really interesting that I would like to try replicating. This is a fun exercise since it’ll allows me to sharpen my CDL (Chart Definition Language) skills and learn new things as well. Believe it or not, there aren’t too many charts that aren’t possible to recreate using out CDL. Perhaps this blog entry will inspire you to try it out as well!

If you have the requirement to distinguish between datasets on a black and white printer, it’s actually something that’s possible to do this using a Pattern Fill param.

A new and really cool chart feature that we introduced in 7.0 is the capability to add drop shadows. You can now enhance the look of the chart to simulate 3D depth for some really eye catching charts. I find myself using this new param all the time in order to give my charts a little more depth.

In our current 7.0 release we included many new cool chart features, one of them is the Highlight param. It basically allows you to add a different types of pattern fills to produce multiple effects. It’s similar to the FillPattern param but offers much more control. One particular effect that’s possible to do, is to simulate the shine of a light source.

Creating templates with an over styled look for those eye catching one off examples and showcase galleries are great for that initial wow factor. However, the eye catching parts of the chart may also be a bit too much and they end up being distracting.

We’re excited to announce the all new restyled KPI’s in our NetCharts Performance Dashboards (NCPD) demo. To inspire styling ideas for your dashboard projects, we have updated our entire demo with a fresh look and new selectable colors to demonstrate some of the countless styling capabilities available to display your data.

With color harmony in mind and using just a simple chart you can put more emphasis on the data shown. Using colors, you could help the viewer to distinguish the information easier as well as guide their eye to a certain area of a chart that you want to focus on.