Steema Central

Hi all,

1. I'm looking for an optimal way to display many lines in a chart. Of course I can use different colors and different line styles. But I'm wondering: is there some experience or best recommended procedure on how to select the colors and the line styles. The target is to show as much information as possible but not to confuse the user. So e.g. drawing a lot of marks will not help.
Is it better to use a dark background or a white background (this may be also better for printing a chart)?

2. I know of course the standard TeeChart way of zooming or moving in a chart. Other charts use some buttons to zoom in and out. Or other solutions allow to mark an area and then to zoom. Again, what is the best way to get a user friendly interface that allows to quickly switch between details and full overwiew. The interface should be self-explaining, so that a new user immediately is able to use the zoom and move functions. Isn't there a common accepted basic layout for such zoom/move functions?

I fear that just trying this and that will lead to just a suboptimal solution. Hope you understand my concerns. Any ideas or links are welcome

Best regards
Uli

Hi Uli,

ulibru wrote:1. I'm looking for an optimal way to display many lines in a chart. Of course I can use different colors and different line styles. But I'm wondering: is there some experience or best recommended procedure on how to select the colors and the line styles. The target is to show as much information as possible but not to confuse the user. So e.g. drawing a lot of marks will not help.Is it better to use a dark background or a white background (this may be also better for printing a chart)?

For printing I'd choose a white background for economic and ecologic reasons. And to show clearly many series you need a high contrast between the background and the series colors so I'd avoid yellows and other light colors (if you choose white background). I'd suggest you to look the TeeChart palettes and try to create your own palette if you want as in the demo at "All features\Welcome !\Aspect\Chart Themes" in the features demo program included with the installation.

ulibru wrote:2. I know of course the standard TeeChart way of zooming or moving in a chart. Other charts use some buttons to zoom in and out. Or other solutions allow to mark an area and then to zoom. Again, what is the best way to get a user friendly interface that allows to quickly switch between details and full overwiew. The interface should be self-explaining, so that a new user immediately is able to use the zoom and move functions. Isn't there a common accepted basic layout for such zoom/move functions?

We think the default zooming and scrolling features are quite intuitive (drawing a rectangle from left to right with left mouse button to zoom, drawing a rectangle from right to left with left mouse button to unzoom and dragging the chart with right mouse button to scroll). However, if you think doing it though buttons or any other mouse behavior feel free to use the provided events and methods (basically SetMinMax function) to control the functionality manually.