Charts (Legacy)

Charts are a graphic representation of information and quantitative data intended to quickly and clearly convey meaning.

Published: February 22, 2021 | Last updated: September 9, 2025
Consider using new charts powered by Highcharts
The chart components on this page are now considered “legacy” and are replaced by new chart components powered by Highcharts. Cloudscape will continue to support legacy chart components, but we highly recommend that you consider using the new chart components which are more flexible and feature-rich. Keep in mind that Highcharts is a commercial third-party library, so you need to acquire the appropriate licenses. For more information, refer to the new charts page and the charts migration guide.

On this page

An introduction to data visualization

To get started using charts to visualize data, see the data visualization foundation article and data visualization color guidance.

Chart types

When using data visualization patterns to present data, choose the chart type that best shows the relationship between the data series. There are two chart components:

Cartesian charts

These use two axes to show data and help users see patterns or compare values.

  • Line chart: Visualizes one or many series of data, with an emphasis on how the data changes over time.

  • Bar chart: Visualizes one or many series of data, with an emphasis on the total amount of each data point.

  • Mixed chart: Visualizes different, but related, series of data on a single chart.

  • Scatter chart: Visualizes the relationships between data in two dimensions.

  • Area chart: The area chart visualizes two or more series of data. Through stacked data series, it emphasizes the part-to-whole relationship of data over a period of time.

Pie and donut charts

Pie and donut charts display portions of a whole unit so users can compare data points from a total set. A donut chart also includes a summary metric in the center of the chart.

  • Pie chart: A pie chart helps users see the relationship between different data metrics in a data set.

  • Donut chart: A donut chart is a variant of a pie chart with its center removed.