Change chart colors

You can change the colors used in a chart.

To change the colors used in a chart, use the Customize menu to dive into the chip for the column or value you would like to change. You can set colors for:

  • bars, lines, areas, bubbles, maps, and other visuals on charts

  • slice with color

  • legends on charts

  • tables for conditional formatting

You can also apply a conditional format to change the color, based on specified criteria. This type of conditional formatting does not work with Line charts.

Colors are maintained across searches within a session. For example, when doing a search on revenue by state, each state will keep the color assigned to it even if you change the search or chart type.

Set colors on a chart

  1. While viewing your search or answer as a chart, click the chart configuration icon chart configuration icon to open the chart configuration menu.

    Edit chart configuration menu

  2. Click on the color chip for the column or value you would like to change. Editable chips have a more icon: >.

  3. Use the color picker to choose a new color to represent that value.

    You can also enter a HEX value directly.

    Your changes are saved immediately.

  4. Click the X at the top right to dismiss the chart configuration panel.

    In the following example, we edited the colors used to slice with color.

    Change the chart color

Set colors from the legend

When you slice with color, or when you have more than one column on an axis, a legend appears next to or below your chart. The legend tells you the value each color in your chart stands for. You can change the colors in your chart directly from the legend. Simply click on the color circle next to a legend item, and click on a different color, or input a HEX value.

Change the chart color from the legend

Note that you must click on the color circle next to the legend item to change the color. If you click on the legend item itself, you temporarily hide it from the visualization.

How chart colors work

ThoughtSpot uses a specific logic to determine the colors in your charts. To learn more, expand the Chart color logic section below.

View the chart color logic

ThoughtSpot’s color palette is in the following format. ThoughtSpot assumes that any custom color palettes are in a similar format.

Standard color palette

Primary 1 (P1) Primary 2 (P2) Primary 3 (P3) Primary 4 (P4) Primary 5 (P5) Primary 6 (P6) Primary 7 (P7) Primary 8 (P8)

Lightest 1 (L1)

Lightest 2 (L2)

Lightest 3 (L3)

Lightest 4 (L4)

Lightest 5 (L5)

Lightest 6 (L6)

Lightest 7 (L7)

Lightest 8 (L8)

Light 1 (l1)

Light 2 (l2)

Light 3 (l3)

Light 4 (l4)

Light 5 (l5)

Light 6 (l6)

Light 7 (l7)

Light 8 (l8)

Dark 1 (d1)

Dark 2 (d2)

Dark 3 (d3)

Dark 4 (d4)

Dark 5 (d5)

Dark 6 (d6)

Dark 7 (d7)

Dark 8 (d8)

Darkest 1 (D1)

Darkest 2 (D2)

Darkest 3 (D3)

Darkest 4 (D4)

Darkest 5 (D5)

Darkest 6 (D6)

Darkest 7 (D7)

Darkest 8 (D8)
Standard chart color format

Standard color algorithm

The standard rules for color application for charts are as follows:

  • If the chart requires only one color, ThoughtSpot selects a primary color depending on whether you enabled color rotation.

  • ThoughtSpot selects the number of primary colors based on the total number of colors required. These colors always appear in order: Primary 1 appears first, then Primary 3, and so on. See Primary color count selection.

  • If the chart requires more than one color, ThoughtSpot determines the number of shades of each color by dividing the total number of colors by the number of primary colors. For example, if the chart requires 20 colors, ThoughtSpot uses 6 primary colors. 20/6 = 3 shades of each color. ThoughtSpot picks the remaining two shades from the first two primary colors.

  • Depending on the number of shades required, ThoughtSpot uses the following shades of each color, in sequence:

    Number of shades

    Default mode

    Rainbow mode

    1

    Primary

    Primary

    2

    Primary, Lightest

    Primary, Light

    3

    Primary, Lightest, Dark

    Primary, Light, Dark

    4

    Primary, Lightest, Dark, Light

    Primary, Lightest, Dark, Light

    5

    Primary, Lightest, Dark, Light, Darkest

    Primary, Lightest, Dark, Light, Darkest

    Primary color count selection The number of primary colors a chart uses depends on the number of total colors the chart requires. Refer to the following table:

Number of colors required

Number of primary colors used

1

1

2-8

4

9-15

5

16-24

6

25-35

7

36+

8

Color rotation

The Style Customization color rotation option determines whether single-color charts use a random primary color or always use the first primary color in the palette. If you enable color rotation, ThoughtSpot may choose any color from Primary 1 through Primary 6 in your color palette for single-color charts. If you disable color rotation, ThoughtSpot always chooses Primary 1.

Disabling color rotation only affects single-color charts. It does not apply to multi-colored charts.

Rainbow mode

Some chart types use rainbow mode to allocate colors instead of the default allocation. The default allocation uses all shades of a color first and then applies all shades of the next color required. Rainbow mode uses all the primary colors in your color palette, then one shade of each primary color, then the next shade of each primary color, and so on.

Chart-specific color algorithms

For information on how colors work for specific charts, refer to the following table.

Chart type Color algorithm Mode Notes

Column

Standard

Default

N/A

Stacked Column

Standard

Default

N/A

Line

Standard

Rainbow

N/A

KPI

Standard

Rainbow

Cannot currently select colors manually. As a workaround, select a color in a different chart type, and switch back to KPI.

Pivot Table

N/A

N/A

If in heatmap mode, follows heatmap logic.

Pie

Standard

Default

N/A

Bar

Standard

Default

N/A

Stacked Bar

Standard

Default

N/A

Line Column

Standard

Default

N/A

Area

Standard

Default

N/A

Stacked Area

Standard

Default

N/A

Line Stacked Column

Standard

Default

The line counts as another color. ThoughtSpot applies color to the line before applying color to the columns.

Scatter

Standard

Default

ThoughtSpot chooses colors for points based on the order of the points in the data response.

Bubble

Standard

Rainbow

Bubble charts use translucent versions of the standard color palette.

Waterfall

Standard

Rainbow

N/A

Heatmap

Uses a color range based on Primary 2

Default

N/A

Treemap

Uses a color range based on Primary 1

Default

N/A

Funnel

Standard

Default

N/A

Geo Bubble

Standard

Default

Bubbles are translucent and appear lighter than the selected color.

Geo Heatmap

Uses a specific lilac.

Default

No overrides are available currently.

Geo Area

Uses a specific yellow-to-red gradient. You can select an individual color to use, and ThoughtSpot builds a gradient around that color.

N/A

N/A

Sankey

Standard

Default

Cannot override the colors used. ThoughtSpot chooses colors for points based on the order of the points in the data response.

Radar

ThoughtSpot sets the base color by default. The color of the radar line is determined by the standard algorithm.

Default

N/A

Candlestick

Up/down default to green/red respectively. You can override them manually.

N/A

N/A

Pareto

Standard

Default

The cumulative line is the first color. The active measure is the second color.
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