CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javachartsstylesjfreechart
user1043466
user1043466

Reputation: 353

Create stylish charts in Java eg with JFreeChart

What's the best way to create great looking charts in Java? It looks like the main option for charting is JFreeChart, but unfortunately by default they come out looking quite plain.

Compare a sample of JFreeChart: http://www.jfree.org/jfreechart/images/PriceVolumeDemo1.png with one of the Javascript charting libraries, eg http://www.highcharts.com/demo/spline-symbols/grid or http://people.iola.dk/olau/flot/examples/graph-types.html

The javascript ones look nicer - they have smooth lines, nice font by default, and just overall look good compared to JFreeChart which looks very plain.

Is there a charting library built on top of JFreeChart that looks good by default, or maybe some sample code to make a normal JFreeChart chart (eg line chart) look great?

Upvotes: 8

Views: 13181

Answers (5)

Alan
Alan

Reputation: 9

The above code works fine if you will edit a little, but without BarRenderer. The edited code also works on pie charts & line charts.

StandardChartTheme theme = new StandardChartTheme(ch.toString());

theme.setTitlePaint( Color.decode( "#4572a7" ) );
theme.setRangeGridlinePaint( Color.decode("#C0C0C0"));
theme.setPlotBackgroundPaint( Color.BLACK );
theme.setChartBackgroundPaint( Color.BLACK );
theme.setGridBandPaint( Color.red );
theme.setAxisOffset( new RectangleInsets(0,0,0,0) );
theme.setBarPainter(new StandardBarPainter());
theme.setAxisLabelPaint( Color.decode("#666666")  );
theme.apply( ch );
ch.getCategoryPlot().setOutlineVisible( false );
ch.getCategoryPlot().getRangeAxis().setAxisLineVisible( false );
ch.getCategoryPlot().getRangeAxis().setTickMarksVisible( false );
ch.getCategoryPlot().setRangeGridlineStroke( new BasicStroke() );
ch.getCategoryPlot().getRangeAxis().setTickLabelPaint( Color.decode("#666666") );
ch.getCategoryPlot().getDomainAxis().setTickLabelPaint( Color.decode("#666666") );
ch.setTextAntiAlias( true );
ch.setAntiAlias( true );
ch.getCategoryPlot().getRenderer().setSeriesPaint( 0, Color.decode( "#4572a7" ));

// Note- The ch is a chart variable.

Upvotes: 0

Rob Audenaerde
Rob Audenaerde

Reputation: 20099

I had the same issue.

This code makes JFreeChart look like Highcharts (currently only barcharts are supported). It could easily be made more efficient :)

    String fontName = "Lucida Sans";
    JFreeChart chart = ChartFactory.createBarChart(null, "", "", dataset, PlotOrientation.VERTICAL, false, true, false );

    StandardChartTheme theme = (StandardChartTheme)org.jfree.chart.StandardChartTheme.createJFreeTheme();

    theme.setTitlePaint( Color.decode( "#4572a7" ) );
    theme.setExtraLargeFont( new Font(fontName,Font.PLAIN, 16) ); //title
    theme.setLargeFont( new Font(fontName,Font.BOLD, 15)); //axis-title
    theme.setRegularFont( new Font(fontName,Font.PLAIN, 11));
    theme.setRangeGridlinePaint( Color.decode("#C0C0C0"));
    theme.setPlotBackgroundPaint( Color.white );
    theme.setChartBackgroundPaint( Color.white );
    theme.setGridBandPaint( Color.red );
    theme.setAxisOffset( new RectangleInsets(0,0,0,0) );
    theme.setBarPainter(new StandardBarPainter());
    theme.setAxisLabelPaint( Color.decode("#666666")  );
    theme.apply( chart );
    chart.getCategoryPlot().setOutlineVisible( false );
    chart.getCategoryPlot().getRangeAxis().setAxisLineVisible( false );
    chart.getCategoryPlot().getRangeAxis().setTickMarksVisible( false );
    chart.getCategoryPlot().setRangeGridlineStroke( new BasicStroke() );
    chart.getCategoryPlot().getRangeAxis().setTickLabelPaint( Color.decode("#666666") );
    chart.getCategoryPlot().getDomainAxis().setTickLabelPaint( Color.decode("#666666") );
    chart.setTextAntiAlias( true );
    chart.setAntiAlias( true );
    chart.getCategoryPlot().getRenderer().setSeriesPaint( 0, Color.decode( "#4572a7" ));
    BarRenderer rend = (BarRenderer) chart.getCategoryPlot().getRenderer();
    rend.setShadowVisible( true );
    rend.setShadowXOffset( 2 );
    rend.setShadowYOffset( 0 );
    rend.setShadowPaint( Color.decode( "#C0C0C0"));
    rend.setMaximumBarWidth( 0.1);

enter image description here

Upvotes: 14

herrtim
herrtim

Reputation: 2755

Try out XChart. XChart is a light-weight Java library for plotting data that would be a potential alternative to JFreeChart. Its focus is on simplicity and doesn't have every capability that JFreeChart has, but it offers a rich set of charting features including Themes to apply different "skins" to a chart. You can easily create your own Theme by implementing an interface and applying it to a Chart by calling chart.setTheme(myTheme). The jar is only ~86 KB as of the 2.0.0 release, and it has no dependencies. It's licensed under Apache 2.0 and is hosted on Github. Some screenshots can be found here. Disclaimer: I'm the lead devloper of the project.

enter image description here

Upvotes: 9

execc
execc

Reputation: 1123

http://javafx.com/about-javafx/

Take a look at JavaFX 2.0

Upvotes: 2

Benjamin
Benjamin

Reputation: 3448

http://www.jfree.org/jfreechart/samples.html

There you can find many samples (you need to download a JFreeChart Demo (web start)). After some work with jFreeChart, I was thinking about moving to EasyChart (follow: http://www.objectplanet.com/easycharts/examples.html), but it looks very similar to jFreeChart actually. JFreeChart is quite easy to write, that I don't know about EasyChart.

But according to your question, there is no problem to change a Font, LineRenderer or anything from desing in JFreeChart, so you can modify it to look exactly like the one you've posted from JavaScript.

Upvotes: 3

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