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Reference > Glossaries

Glossaries

This section describes several key features of SharpPlot in more detail.

Some Terms Defined
Most of the basic chart terms are illustrated here.
Rendering Options
SharpPlot can generate the finished chart in any of five common vector formats and any image format supported by the .net Bitmap. The vector formats are:
The Barley Experiment
Many of the examples in the manual use a dataset collected in the 1930s from an experiment to investigate barley yields. Ten varieties of seed were planted at 6 farms over 2 years and the yields from each plot measured to give 120 data points.
Sample Datasets supplied as XML
Several simple databases are included with the SharpPlot distribution to allow you to experiment with grouping and splitting data. The smallest of these is an invented Sales Information database with two products and some monthly figures:
Using Picture Formatters
You may apply a ‘picture’ format to numeric values, and also to text labels to enforce truncation or wrapping into a given width.
Formatting text with simple HTML tags
SharpPlot allows a limited subset of HTML tags to be included in all text elements, typically headings or axis labels.
Using Date and Time Axes
Timeseries data from Excel or from a database query is often held internally as floating-point numbers where the integer part represents the date (the number of days elapsed since 1900) and the decimal part the time of day. This scheme is accurate to around 2 sec with normal floating-point precision and is equivalent to the OLE date format.
The SilverLight Plugin
SilverLight is a Microsoft-supported browser plugin to support distribution of .Net applications in the browser. It includes the ability to draw any shapes specified in the XAML language, which allows any SharpPlot chart to be rendered in the browser as vector artwork.
Using the gradient fills
The way gradients (both linear and radial) are defined varies greatly between output formats, so SharpPlot defines a reasonable set of standard fillstyles for you, and where necessary (surface-filled linegraphs and piecharts) enforces a reasonable bounding rectangle on the fill definition.
The CMYK Color Model

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