Typography Chart furniture Chart types Colour

General

Do not add borders or backgrounds to charts
Do not use 3D charts, these make the data much harder to read and interpret

Gridlines

Most charts should include gridlines to help users read the data and understand the scale. Gridlines should be placed behind other chart elements.

Dashed horizontal guide-lines can be added for certain charts, such as dot plots, to help visually connect the data to the label. Most charts do not need both vertical and horizontal gridlines, with the exception of e.g. scatter plots.

For information on axis text, see Typography details.

Item	Stroke weight	Stroke style	ONS colour name	Colour hex value	RGB colour
Zero line	1.5px	Solid line	Grey 40	#B3B3B3	179, 179, 179
All other gridlines	1px	Solid line	Grey 20	#D9D9D9	217, 217, 217
Tick marks*	1px	Solid line	Grey 20	#D9D9D9	217, 217, 217
Horizontal guides (e.g. for dot plots)	1px	Dash 2px
Gap 2px	Grey 20	#D9D9D9	217, 217, 217

*Categorical axes should not have tick marks

Examples

Example of horizontal chart gridlines on a line chart

Example of vertical chart gridlines on a bar chart

Example of horizontal and vertical gridlines on a scatter plot