How to Make Your Excel Line Chart Look Better

The key to Visual Design is that you should always have a logic behind every formatting decision you make.  For example, you would use soft gray lines for your axes because it helps your actual data stand out more.  Please note that none of the rules proposed below are necessarily set in stone; if you can find a justification or logic to format otherwise, you should do so.

The following tutorial is designed for people who are still using the 2010 version of Excel and want to apply Visual Design principles to their line charts.  Please note that for the 2013 version of Excel, they’ve gone even further in improving the default formatting of their charts and a number of the formatting updates below will not be necessary.

1.  Remove Chartjunk – gridlines, chart border, and legend

Right click Chart
Select – Format Chart Area
Select – Border Color
Select – No Line

Click on chart gridlines
Hit Delete

Click on chart legend
Hit Delete

Logic:  Any component of the chart that doesn’t convey some sort of information is extraneous.  Removing such components will help the data being presented stand out to the viewer.  The chart border doesn’t serve much purpose.  Gridlines are rarely utilized in a chart and should always be removed or marginalized.  The legend is redundant with the title.

2.  Use Soft Gray Lines for the Axes

Right click vertical Axis
Select – Format Axis
Select – Line Color
Select – Solid line
Select – Color (the paint bucket)
Select – the third shade of gray in the left column

Select the horizontal axis
Hit F4

Logic: Any component that is necessary but does not represent the data itself should be de-emphasized.  Using soft gray lines rather than dark ones help the data being presented stand out to the viewer.

3.  Make the Line Wider

Right click line representing the data
Select – Format Data Series
Select – Line Style
For Width, Enter – 3 pt

Logic:  Making the line wider makes it easier to see

4.  Use a Non-Default Line Color

Right click line
Select – Format Data Series
Select – Line Color
Select – Color (the paint bucket)
Select – any color other than the default blue

Logic:  There’s nothing inherently row with Excel’s default color scheme.  The problem is, because so many people use it, doing the same with your chart conveys laziness.  Use a color other than the default to differentiate your chart from 90% of the other charts out there.

5.  Add an Appropriate Title

Select chart title
Click on the chart title again to bring up input cursor
Update Chart Title with a more descriptive name
In the main ribbon, decrease the Chart Title Font Size to 16 pt

Logic:  The title of the chart should concisely present the purpose of the chart.  In this example, we also add a description of the units of the chart into the title.  If that wasn’t included in the title, we’d have to convey that information on the vertical axis.

6.  Add Data Labels

Select the line representing the data
Click again on data point where you need a label
Right click the same data point
Select – Add Data Label

Right click data label
Select – Format Data Labels
Under Label Position, Select – Above
Input Ctrl + B to make the label bold
In the main ribbon, increase label font size to 12 pt

Logic:  Within line charts, data labels can be added to all points.  However, if we don’t want to the chart to become too numbers heavy, we can simply choose to emphasize the peak, trough, or period end of the trend.  In this example, we will assume that we want to emphasize both the peak and end of the trend on display.

7.  IF Specific Data Points are More Important: Emphasize the Line’s Data Points

Option 1

Right click line
Select – Format Data Series
Select – Marker Options
Select – Built-in
For Type, Select – the circle
For Size, Select – 8

Select – Marker Fill
Select – Solid Fill
Select – Color (the paint bucket)
Select – White

Select – Marker Line Color
Select – Solid Line
Select – the same color you used for the main line
Select – Marker Line Style
For Width, increase to 2 pt

Option 2

Right click line
Select – Format Data Series
Select – Marker Options
Select – Built-in
For Type, Select – the circle
For Size, Select – 9

Select – Marker Fill
Select – Solid Fill
Select – Color (the paint bucket)
Select – the same color you used for the main line 

Select – Marker Line Color
Select – Solid Line
Select – Color (the paint bucket)
Select – White
Select – Marker Line Style
For Width, increase to 1 pt

Logic:  For certain charts, the point to point variation of the data is important and will be scrutinized by the viewer.  In that case, emphasize these points to make them stand out.  The examples above are two different ways to do so.

8.  IF the Overall Trend is More Important: Emphasize the Line Trend

Select the line representing the data
Right click the line
Select – Format Data Series
Select – Line Style
Check – the box for Smoothed line

Select the line representing the data
Click again on data point to be edited
Right click data point to be edited
Select – Format Data Point
Select – Marker Options
Select – Built-in
For Type, Select – the circle
For Size, Select – 8

Select – Marker Fill
Select – Solid Fill
Select – Color (the paint bucket)
Select – White
Select – Marker Line Color
Select – Solid Line
Select – Color (the paint bucket)
Select – the same color you used for the main line
Select – Marker Line Style
For Width, increase to 2 pt

Logic:  For certain charts, the most important information to be communicated is the overall trend of the line we’ve drawn.  In this case, smooth the line to make the overall trend more apparent and take the focus away from the point to point variation.