Highcharts Chart Library
Introduction to Highcharts
Highcharts: A powerful, open-source, visually appealing pure JavaScript charting library with a rich variety of charts and compatibility with most browsers.
Highcharts is a charting library written entirely in JavaScript. It allows you to easily add interactive charts to websites or web applications. Highcharts currently supports up to 18 different chart types, including line charts, spline charts, area charts, column charts, pie charts, and scatter charts, meeting virtually all your web charting needs!
Thanks to its powerful features, ease of use, and open-source availability, Highcharts is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. The following sections explain its advantages in detail.
Advantages of Highcharts
Compatibility
Highcharts supports all modern browsers, including IE6+, iPhone/iPad, and Android. It uses SVG technology to render graphics in standard (W3C-compliant) browsers and VML technology for rendering in legacy IE browsers.
Open-source and free
Free for personal users and non-commercial use. Source code is available for download and can be modified as needed. Commercial use requires a license. Personal and non-commercial use must comply with the CC BY-NC 3.0 license.
Pure JavaScript
Highcharts is entirely based on native browser technology and requires no plugins (such as Flash or Java), server environment, or dynamic language libraries. It runs with just two JavaScript files.
Rich Variety of Chart Types
Highcharts currently supports 18 chart types: line charts, spline charts, area charts, spline area charts, area range charts, spline area range charts, column charts, column range charts, bar charts, pie charts, scatter charts, box plots, bubble charts, error bar charts, funnel charts, gauge charts, waterfall charts, and radar charts. Many of these chart types can be combined in a single visualization to create composite charts.
Dynamic Interaction
Highcharts provides a rich set of API interfaces, making it easy to add, delete, and modify any data points, lines, text, and other chart elements after a chart has been created. It supports numerous JavaScript events and can work with Ajax interfaces provided by JavaScript frameworks such as jQuery, MooTools, and Prototype to retrieve data from servers and refresh charts in real time.
Multiple Axes Support
For data that needs to be compared, Highcharts provides support for multiple axes. You can also configure properties such as the position, labels, and styles of each axis.
Dynamic Tooltips
When the mouse pointer hovers over a data point in a chart, Highcharts displays an information tooltip. You can customize both the tooltip content and its appearance.
Chart Export and Printing
You can export Highcharts charts as PNG, JPG, PDF, or SVG files, or print them directly from a web page.
Chart Zooming
You can configure chart zooming to make it easier to examine chart data.
External Data Loading Support
Highcharts supports various data formats, including JavaScript arrays, JSON files, JSON objects, and table data. These data sources can come from local files, different pages, or even different websites.
Data sources can come from local files, different pages, or even different websites.