Customize chart background and style

You can customize the styles of chart elements to add a background color, background image, border, or padding, as well as change the corner shape of the element.

Styles can also be set as part of the workbook theme, and you can customize the design of individual chart elements to improve accessibility, create a visual hierarchy, and ensure alignment with company branding.

User requirements

The ability to customize the style of chart elements requires the following:

• To customize a chart in a workbook, you must be assigned an account type with Full explore or Create, edit, and publish workbooks permission enabled.
• To customize a chart in a report, you must be assigned an account type with the Create, edit, and publish reports permission enabled.
• You must be the document owner or be granted Can explore or Can edit access to the document.

Add padding to a chart

You can add padding to chart elements to adjust the amount of space between the edge of the element box and the chart itself.

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You cannot add padding to maps.

1. Open a document for editing or customizing.
2. Select the chart element you want to modify.
3. In the editor panel, select Format, then click Element style to expand the section.
4. Select the Padding checkbox to add padding around the element. To remove padding, deselect the checkbox.

Customize the background color of a chart

You can add or change a background color for a chart to create more complex or visually appealing charts.

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If you configure a background color for a map, the color only applies to the background of the map's legend.

1. Open a document for editing or customizing.
2. Select the chart element you want to modify.
3. In the editor panel, select Format, then click Element style to expand the section.
4. Click the Background color dropdown, then configure the background color for the chart:
   • To add or change the background color, enter a hex value or select an option from the color palette or picker.
   • To remove the background color and make the chart background transparent, select None.

Configure a custom background image for a chart (Beta)

You can add a background image to certain chart elements in order to build more complex visualizations, such as heat maps, or to further customize the appearance of your chart.

The following chart types support custom background images:

• Bar charts
• Line charts
• Combo charts
• Area charts
• Scatter charts
• Box and whisker charts
• Waterfall charts

Add a custom background image to a chart

1. Open a document for editing or customizing.

2. Select the chart element you want to modify.

3. In the editor panel, select Format, then click Background image to expand the section.

4. To set the source of the background image, select Upload or URL, then configure the remaining options:

   • For Upload, select Upload image and select an image file using the file browser.
   • For URL, enter the URL in the Image URL field. To configure a URL using dynamic text, referencing a control value or column, press = to open the formula bar and enter a formula.

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   You can dynamically change the image based on your data. For example, you can reference a table column, the current user's email, the date, or other workbook data in the Image URL field. To provide a customized background image to your users based on their first and last name, you can use a formula like "https://example.com/users/" & CurrentUserFullName() & "/dashboard-bg.png". See the function index for more information on writing formulas in Sigma.

Manage a custom background image for a chart

You can remove a background image, upload a different image, or modify the image URL for a chart element. You can also switch between using an image upload and a URL as the image source.

1. Open a document for editing or customizing.
2. Select the chart element you want to modify.
3. In the editor panel, select Format, then click Background image to expand the section.
4. Modify the background image:
   • To remove the background image, click Reset to default. Or, select Upload, then click Remove image.
   • To upload a new image or change the image source, set the toggle to Upload and select Upload image to select an image from the file browser.
   • To modify the image URL or change the image source, set the toggle to URL and enter the URL in the Image URL field. To configure or modify a URL that uses dynamic text, press = to open the formula bar and enter or modify the formula.

Add a border to a chart

You can add a border to chart elements. To add a border to a chart element, you must turn on the Padding toggle. See Add padding to a chart.

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You cannot add a border to maps.

1. Open a document for editing or customizing.
2. Select the chart element you want to modify.
3. In the editor panel, select Format, then click Element style to expand the section.
4. For Border, open the dropdown menu and select a border that is 1, 2, or 3 pixels wide.
5. (Optional) To choose a color for the border, click the color dropdown next to Border and select a color.

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To remove the border, select the border width dropdown and choose None.

Change the corner shape of a chart

You can change the corner shape of any chart element.

1. Open a document for editing or customizing.
2. Select the chart element you want to modify.
3. Select Format in the editor panel, then click the Element style header to expand the section.
4. For Corner, select square, round, or pill shaped corners for your element.