This website is for version 5. You can find the documentation for version 4 here.

Top-Level Chart Configuration#

Many aspects of a chart’s appearance can be configured at the top level using the configure_*() methods. These methods and the properties that they set are only valid at the top level of a chart, and can be thought of as a way of setting a chart theme: that is, they set the default styles for the entire chart, and these defaults can be overridden by specific style settings associated with chart elements.

These methods and their arguments will be outlined below:

For more discussion of approaches to chart customization, see Customizing Visualizations.

Chart Configuration#

The Chart.configure() method adds a Config instance to the chart, and accepts the following parameters:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

arc

RectConfig

Arc-specific Config

area

AreaConfig

Area-Specific Config

aria

boolean

A boolean flag indicating if ARIA default attributes should be included for marks and guides (SVG output only). If false, the "aria-hidden" attribute will be set for all guides, removing them from the ARIA accessibility tree and Vega-Lite will not generate default descriptions for marks.

Default value: true.

autosize

anyOf(AutosizeType, AutoSizeParams)

How the visualization size should be determined. If a string, should be one of "pad", "fit" or "none". Object values can additionally specify parameters for content sizing and automatic resizing.

Default value: pad

axis

AxisConfig

Axis configuration, which determines default properties for all x and y axes. For a full list of axis configuration options, please see the corresponding section of the axis documentation.

axisBand

AxisConfig

Config for axes with “band” scales.

axisBottom

AxisConfig

Config for x-axis along the bottom edge of the chart.

axisDiscrete

AxisConfig

Config for axes with “point” or “band” scales.

axisLeft

AxisConfig

Config for y-axis along the left edge of the chart.

axisPoint

AxisConfig

Config for axes with “point” scales.

axisQuantitative

AxisConfig

Config for quantitative axes.

axisRight

AxisConfig

Config for y-axis along the right edge of the chart.

axisTemporal

AxisConfig

Config for temporal axes.

axisTop

AxisConfig

Config for x-axis along the top edge of the chart.

axisX

AxisConfig

X-axis specific config.

axisXBand

AxisConfig

Config for x-axes with “band” scales.

axisXDiscrete

AxisConfig

Config for x-axes with “point” or “band” scales.

axisXPoint

AxisConfig

Config for x-axes with “point” scales.

axisXQuantitative

AxisConfig

Config for x-quantitative axes.

axisXTemporal

AxisConfig

Config for x-temporal axes.

axisY

AxisConfig

Y-axis specific config.

axisYBand

AxisConfig

Config for y-axes with “band” scales.

axisYDiscrete

AxisConfig

Config for y-axes with “point” or “band” scales.

axisYPoint

AxisConfig

Config for y-axes with “point” scales.

axisYQuantitative

AxisConfig

Config for y-quantitative axes.

axisYTemporal

AxisConfig

Config for y-temporal axes.

background

anyOf(Color, ExprRef)

CSS color property to use as the background of the entire view.

Default value: "white"

bar

BarConfig

Bar-Specific Config

boxplot

BoxPlotConfig

Box Config

circle

MarkConfig

Circle-Specific Config

concat

CompositionConfig

Default configuration for all concatenation and repeat view composition operators (concat, hconcat, vconcat, and repeat)

countTitle

string

Default axis and legend title for count fields.

Default value: 'Count of Records.

customFormatTypes

boolean

Allow the formatType property for text marks and guides to accept a custom formatter function registered as a Vega expression.

errorband

ErrorBandConfig

ErrorBand Config

errorbar

ErrorBarConfig

ErrorBar Config

facet

CompositionConfig

Default configuration for the facet view composition operator

fieldTitle

[‘verbal’, ‘functional’, ‘plain’]

Defines how Vega-Lite generates title for fields. There are three possible styles:

  • "verbal" (Default) - displays function in a verbal style (e.g., “Sum of field”, “Year-month of date”, “field (binned)”).

  • "function" - displays function using parentheses and capitalized texts (e.g., “SUM(field)”, “YEARMONTH(date)”, “BIN(field)”).

  • "plain" - displays only the field name without functions (e.g., “field”, “date”, “field”).

font

string

Default font for all text marks, titles, and labels.

geoshape

MarkConfig

Geoshape-Specific Config

header

HeaderConfig

Header configuration, which determines default properties for all headers.

For a full list of header configuration options, please see the corresponding section of in the header documentation.

headerColumn

HeaderConfig

Header configuration, which determines default properties for column headers.

For a full list of header configuration options, please see the corresponding section of in the header documentation.

headerFacet

HeaderConfig

Header configuration, which determines default properties for non-row/column facet headers.

For a full list of header configuration options, please see the corresponding section of in the header documentation.

headerRow

HeaderConfig

Header configuration, which determines default properties for row headers.

For a full list of header configuration options, please see the corresponding section of in the header documentation.

image

RectConfig

Image-specific Config

legend

LegendConfig

Legend configuration, which determines default properties for all legends. For a full list of legend configuration options, please see the corresponding section of in the legend documentation.

line

LineConfig

Line-Specific Config

lineBreak

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

A delimiter, such as a newline character, upon which to break text strings into multiple lines. This property provides a global default for text marks, which is overridden by mark or style config settings, and by the lineBreak mark encoding channel. If signal-valued, either string or regular expression (regexp) values are valid.

locale

Locale

Locale definitions for string parsing and formatting of number and date values. The locale object should contain number and/or time properties with locale definitions. Locale definitions provided in the config block may be overridden by the View constructor locale option.

mark

MarkConfig

Mark Config

normalizedNumberFormat

string

If normalizedNumberFormatType is not specified, D3 number format for axis labels, text marks, and tooltips of normalized stacked fields (fields with stack: "normalize"). For example "s" for SI units. Use D3’s number format pattern.

If config.normalizedNumberFormatType is specified and config.customFormatTypes is true, this value will be passed as format alongside datum.value to the config.numberFormatType function. Default value: %

normalizedNumberFormatType

string

Custom format type for config.normalizedNumberFormat.

Default value: undefined – This is equilvalent to call D3-format, which is exposed as format in Vega-Expression. Note: You must also set customFormatTypes to true to use this feature.

numberFormat

string

If numberFormatType is not specified, D3 number format for guide labels, text marks, and tooltips of non-normalized fields (fields without stack: "normalize"). For example "s" for SI units. Use D3’s number format pattern.

If config.numberFormatType is specified and config.customFormatTypes is true, this value will be passed as format alongside datum.value to the config.numberFormatType function.

numberFormatType

string

Custom format type for config.numberFormat.

Default value: undefined – This is equilvalent to call D3-format, which is exposed as format in Vega-Expression. Note: You must also set customFormatTypes to true to use this feature.

padding

anyOf(Padding, ExprRef)

The default visualization padding, in pixels, from the edge of the visualization canvas to the data rectangle. If a number, specifies padding for all sides. If an object, the value should have the format {"left": 5, "top": 5, "right": 5, "bottom": 5} to specify padding for each side of the visualization.

Default value: 5

params

array(TopLevelParameter)

Dynamic variables or selections that parameterize a visualization.

point

MarkConfig

Point-Specific Config

projection

ProjectionConfig

Projection configuration, which determines default properties for all projections. For a full list of projection configuration options, please see the corresponding section of the projection documentation.

range

RangeConfig

An object hash that defines default range arrays or schemes for using with scales. For a full list of scale range configuration options, please see the corresponding section of the scale documentation.

rect

RectConfig

Rect-Specific Config

rule

MarkConfig

Rule-Specific Config

scale

ScaleConfig

Scale configuration determines default properties for all scales. For a full list of scale configuration options, please see the corresponding section of the scale documentation.

selection

SelectionConfig

An object hash for defining default properties for each type of selections.

square

MarkConfig

Square-Specific Config

style

StyleConfigIndex

An object hash that defines key-value mappings to determine default properties for marks with a given style. The keys represent styles names; the values have to be valid mark configuration objects.

text

MarkConfig

Text-Specific Config

tick

TickConfig

Tick-Specific Config

timeFormat

string

Default time format for raw time values (without time units) in text marks, legend labels and header labels.

Default value: "%b %d, %Y" Note: Axes automatically determine the format for each label automatically so this config does not affect axes.

timeFormatType

string

Custom format type for config.timeFormat.

Default value: undefined – This is equilvalent to call D3-time-format, which is exposed as timeFormat in Vega-Expression. Note: You must also set customFormatTypes to true and there must not be a timeUnit defined to use this feature.

title

TitleConfig

Title configuration, which determines default properties for all titles. For a full list of title configuration options, please see the corresponding section of the title documentation.

tooltipFormat

FormatConfig

Define custom format configuration for tooltips. If unspecified, default format config will be applied.

trail

LineConfig

Trail-Specific Config

view

ViewConfig

Default properties for single view plots.

Axis Configuration#

Axis configuration defines default settings for axes and can be set using the Chart.configure_axis() method. Properties defined here are applied to all axes in the figure.

Additional property blocks can target more specific axis types based on the orientation (“axisX”, “axisY”, “axisLeft”, “axisTop”, etc.) or band scale type (“axisBand”). For example, properties defined under the “axisBand” property will only apply to axes visualizing “band” scales. If multiple axis config blocks apply to a single axis, type-based options take precedence over orientation-based options, which in turn take precedence over general options.

The methods are the following:

  • Chart.configure_axis()

  • Chart.configure_axisBand()

  • Chart.configure_axisBottom()

  • Chart.configure_axisLeft()

  • Chart.configure_axisRight()

  • Chart.configure_axisTop()

  • Chart.configure_axisX()

  • Chart.configure_axisY()

  • Chart.configure_axisDiscrete()

  • Chart.configure_axisPoint()

  • Chart.configure_axisQuantitative()

  • Chart.configure_axisTemporal()

  • Chart.configure_axisXBand()

  • Chart.configure_axisXDiscrete()

  • Chart.configure_axisXPoint()

  • Chart.configure_axisXQuantitative()

  • Chart.configure_axisXTemporal()

  • Chart.configure_axisYBand()

  • Chart.configure_axisYDiscrete()

  • Chart.configure_axisYPoint()

  • Chart.configure_axisYQuantitative()

  • Chart.configure_axisYTemporal()

They have the following properties:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

aria

anyOf(boolean, ExprRef)

A boolean flag indicating if ARIA attributes should be included (SVG output only). If false, the “aria-hidden” attribute will be set on the output SVG group, removing the axis from the ARIA accessibility tree.

Default value: true

bandPosition

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

An interpolation fraction indicating where, for band scales, axis ticks should be positioned. A value of 0 places ticks at the left edge of their bands. A value of 0.5 places ticks in the middle of their bands.

Default value: 0.5

description

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

A text description of this axis for ARIA accessibility (SVG output only). If the aria property is true, for SVG output the “aria-label” attribute will be set to this description. If the description is unspecified it will be automatically generated.

disable

boolean

Disable axis by default.

domain

boolean

A boolean flag indicating if the domain (the axis baseline) should be included as part of the axis.

Default value: true

domainCap

anyOf(StrokeCap, ExprRef)

The stroke cap for the domain line’s ending style. One of "butt", "round" or "square".

Default value: "butt"

domainColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

Color of axis domain line.

Default value: "gray".

domainDash

anyOf(array(number), ExprRef)

An array of alternating [stroke, space] lengths for dashed domain lines.

domainDashOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The pixel offset at which to start drawing with the domain dash array.

domainOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Opacity of the axis domain line.

domainWidth

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Stroke width of axis domain line

Default value: 1

format

anyOf(string, Dict)

When used with the default "number" and "time" format type, the text formatting pattern for labels of guides (axes, legends, headers) and text marks.

See the format documentation for more examples.

When used with a custom formatType, this value will be passed as format alongside datum.value to the registered function.

Default value: Derived from numberFormat config for number format and from timeFormat config for time format.

formatType

string

The format type for labels. One of "number", "time", or a registered custom format type.

Default value:

  • "time" for temporal fields and ordinal and nominal fields with timeUnit.

  • "number" for quantitative fields as well as ordinal and nominal fields without timeUnit.

grid

boolean

A boolean flag indicating if grid lines should be included as part of the axis

Default value: true for continuous scales that are not binned; otherwise, false.

gridCap

anyOf(StrokeCap, ExprRef)

The stroke cap for grid lines’ ending style. One of "butt", "round" or "square".

Default value: "butt"

gridColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef, ConditionalAxisColor)

Color of gridlines.

Default value: "lightGray".

gridDash

anyOf(array(number), ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumberArray)

An array of alternating [stroke, space] lengths for dashed grid lines.

gridDashOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumber)

The pixel offset at which to start drawing with the grid dash array.

gridOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumber)

The stroke opacity of grid (value between [0,1])

Default value: 1

gridWidth

anyOf(number, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumber)

The grid width, in pixels.

Default value: 1

labelAlign

anyOf(Align, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisLabelAlign)

Horizontal text alignment of axis tick labels, overriding the default setting for the current axis orientation.

labelAngle

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The rotation angle of the axis labels.

Default value: -90 for nominal and ordinal fields; 0 otherwise.

labelBaseline

anyOf(TextBaseline, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisLabelBaseline)

Vertical text baseline of axis tick labels, overriding the default setting for the current axis orientation. One of "alphabetic" (default), "top", "middle", "bottom", "line-top", or "line-bottom". The "line-top" and "line-bottom" values operate similarly to "top" and "bottom", but are calculated relative to the lineHeight rather than fontSize alone.

labelBound

anyOf([number, boolean], ExprRef)

Indicates if labels should be hidden if they exceed the axis range. If false (the default) no bounds overlap analysis is performed. If true, labels will be hidden if they exceed the axis range by more than 1 pixel. If this property is a number, it specifies the pixel tolerance: the maximum amount by which a label bounding box may exceed the axis range.

Default value: false.

labelColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef, ConditionalAxisColor)

The color of the tick label, can be in hex color code or regular color name.

labelExpr

string

Vega expression for customizing labels.

Note: The label text and value can be assessed via the label and value properties of the axis’s backing datum object.

labelFlush

[boolean, number]

Indicates if the first and last axis labels should be aligned flush with the scale range. Flush alignment for a horizontal axis will left-align the first label and right-align the last label. For vertical axes, bottom and top text baselines are applied instead. If this property is a number, it also indicates the number of pixels by which to offset the first and last labels; for example, a value of 2 will flush-align the first and last labels and also push them 2 pixels outward from the center of the axis. The additional adjustment can sometimes help the labels better visually group with corresponding axis ticks.

Default value: true for axis of a continuous x-scale. Otherwise, false.

labelFlushOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Indicates the number of pixels by which to offset flush-adjusted labels. For example, a value of 2 will push flush-adjusted labels 2 pixels outward from the center of the axis. Offsets can help the labels better visually group with corresponding axis ticks.

Default value: 0.

labelFont

anyOf(string, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisString)

The font of the tick label.

labelFontSize

anyOf(number, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumber)

The font size of the label, in pixels.

labelFontStyle

anyOf(FontStyle, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisLabelFontStyle)

Font style of the title.

labelFontWeight

anyOf(FontWeight, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisLabelFontWeight)

Font weight of axis tick labels.

labelLimit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Maximum allowed pixel width of axis tick labels.

Default value: 180

labelLineHeight

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Line height in pixels for multi-line label text or label text with "line-top" or "line-bottom" baseline.

labelOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumber)

Position offset in pixels to apply to labels, in addition to tickOffset.

Default value: 0

labelOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumber)

The opacity of the labels.

labelOverlap

anyOf(LabelOverlap, ExprRef)

The strategy to use for resolving overlap of axis labels. If false (the default), no overlap reduction is attempted. If set to true or "parity", a strategy of removing every other label is used (this works well for standard linear axes). If set to "greedy", a linear scan of the labels is performed, removing any labels that overlaps with the last visible label (this often works better for log-scaled axes).

Default value: true for non-nominal fields with non-log scales; "greedy" for log scales; otherwise false.

labelPadding

anyOf(number, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumber)

The padding in pixels between labels and ticks.

Default value: 2

labelSeparation

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The minimum separation that must be between label bounding boxes for them to be considered non-overlapping (default 0). This property is ignored if labelOverlap resolution is not enabled.

labels

boolean

A boolean flag indicating if labels should be included as part of the axis.

Default value: true.

maxExtent

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The maximum extent in pixels that axis ticks and labels should use. This determines a maximum offset value for axis titles.

Default value: undefined.

minExtent

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The minimum extent in pixels that axis ticks and labels should use. This determines a minimum offset value for axis titles.

Default value: 30 for y-axis; undefined for x-axis.

offset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The offset, in pixels, by which to displace the axis from the edge of the enclosing group or data rectangle.

Default value: derived from the axis config’s offset (0 by default)

orient

anyOf(AxisOrient, ExprRef)

The orientation of the axis. One of "top", "bottom", "left" or "right". The orientation can be used to further specialize the axis type (e.g., a y-axis oriented towards the right edge of the chart).

Default value: "bottom" for x-axes and "left" for y-axes.

position

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The anchor position of the axis in pixels. For x-axes with top or bottom orientation, this sets the axis group x coordinate. For y-axes with left or right orientation, this sets the axis group y coordinate.

Default value: 0

style

anyOf(string, array(string))

A string or array of strings indicating the name of custom styles to apply to the axis. A style is a named collection of axis property defined within the style configuration. If style is an array, later styles will override earlier styles.

Default value: (none) Note: Any specified style will augment the default style. For example, an x-axis mark with "style": "foo" will use config.axisX and config.style.foo (the specified style "foo" has higher precedence).

tickBand

anyOf([‘center’, ‘extent’], ExprRef)

For band scales, indicates if ticks and grid lines should be placed at the "center" of a band (default) or at the band "extent"s to indicate intervals

tickCap

anyOf(StrokeCap, ExprRef)

The stroke cap for the tick lines’ ending style. One of "butt", "round" or "square".

Default value: "butt"

tickColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef, ConditionalAxisColor)

The color of the axis’s tick.

Default value: "gray"

tickCount

anyOf(number, TimeInterval, TimeIntervalStep, ExprRef)

A desired number of ticks, for axes visualizing quantitative scales. The resulting number may be different so that values are “nice” (multiples of 2, 5, 10) and lie within the underlying scale’s range.

For scales of type "time" or "utc", the tick count can instead be a time interval specifier. Legal string values are "millisecond", "second", "minute", "hour", "day", "week", "month", and "year". Alternatively, an object-valued interval specifier of the form {"interval": "month", "step": 3} includes a desired number of interval steps. Here, ticks are generated for each quarter (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct) boundary.

Default value: Determine using a formula ceil(width/40) for x and ceil(height/40) for y.

tickDash

anyOf(array(number), ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumberArray)

An array of alternating [stroke, space] lengths for dashed tick mark lines.

tickDashOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumber)

The pixel offset at which to start drawing with the tick mark dash array.

tickExtra

boolean

Boolean flag indicating if an extra axis tick should be added for the initial position of the axis. This flag is useful for styling axes for band scales such that ticks are placed on band boundaries rather in the middle of a band. Use in conjunction with "bandPosition": 1 and an axis "padding" value of 0.

tickMinStep

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The minimum desired step between axis ticks, in terms of scale domain values. For example, a value of 1 indicates that ticks should not be less than 1 unit apart. If tickMinStep is specified, the tickCount value will be adjusted, if necessary, to enforce the minimum step value.

tickOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Position offset in pixels to apply to ticks, labels, and gridlines.

tickOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumber)

Opacity of the ticks.

tickRound

boolean

Boolean flag indicating if pixel position values should be rounded to the nearest integer.

Default value: true

tickSize

anyOf(number, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumber)

The size in pixels of axis ticks.

Default value: 5

tickWidth

anyOf(number, ExprRef, ConditionalAxisNumber)

The width, in pixels, of ticks.

Default value: 1

ticks

boolean

Boolean value that determines whether the axis should include ticks.

Default value: true

title

anyOf(Text, null)

A title for the field. If null, the title will be removed.

Default value: derived from the field’s name and transformation function (aggregate, bin and timeUnit). If the field has an aggregate function, the function is displayed as part of the title (e.g., "Sum of Profit"). If the field is binned or has a time unit applied, the applied function is shown in parentheses (e.g., "Profit (binned)", "Transaction Date (year-month)"). Otherwise, the title is simply the field name.

Notes:

  1. You can customize the default field title format by providing the fieldTitle property in the config or fieldTitle function via the compile function’s options.

  2. If both field definition’s title and axis, header, or legend title are defined, axis/header/legend title will be used.

titleAlign

anyOf(Align, ExprRef)

Horizontal text alignment of axis titles.

titleAnchor

anyOf(TitleAnchor, ExprRef)

Text anchor position for placing axis titles.

titleAngle

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Angle in degrees of axis titles.

titleBaseline

anyOf(TextBaseline, ExprRef)

Vertical text baseline for axis titles. One of "alphabetic" (default), "top", "middle", "bottom", "line-top", or "line-bottom". The "line-top" and "line-bottom" values operate similarly to "top" and "bottom", but are calculated relative to the lineHeight rather than fontSize alone.

titleColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

Color of the title, can be in hex color code or regular color name.

titleFont

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

Font of the title. (e.g., "Helvetica Neue").

titleFontSize

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Font size of the title.

titleFontStyle

anyOf(FontStyle, ExprRef)

Font style of the title.

titleFontWeight

anyOf(FontWeight, ExprRef)

Font weight of the title. This can be either a string (e.g "bold", "normal") or a number (100, 200, 300, …, 900 where "normal" = 400 and "bold" = 700).

titleLimit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Maximum allowed pixel width of axis titles.

titleLineHeight

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Line height in pixels for multi-line title text or title text with "line-top" or "line-bottom" baseline.

titleOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Opacity of the axis title.

titlePadding

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The padding, in pixels, between title and axis.

titleX

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

X-coordinate of the axis title relative to the axis group.

titleY

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Y-coordinate of the axis title relative to the axis group.

translate

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Coordinate space translation offset for axis layout. By default, axes are translated by a 0.5 pixel offset for both the x and y coordinates in order to align stroked lines with the pixel grid. However, for vector graphics output these pixel-specific adjustments may be undesirable, in which case translate can be changed (for example, to zero).

Default value: 0.5

values

anyOf(array(number), array(string), array(boolean), array(DateTime), ExprRef)

Explicitly set the visible axis tick values.

zindex

number

A non-negative integer indicating the z-index of the axis. If zindex is 0, axes should be drawn behind all chart elements. To put them in front, set zindex to 1 or more.

Default value: 0 (behind the marks).

Header Configuration#

Header configuration defines default settings for headers including the font, color, size, and position of the title and labels and can be set using the Chart.configure_header() method. Here is an example:

import altair as alt
from vega_datasets import data

source = data.cars.url

chart = alt.Chart(source).mark_point().encode(
    x='Horsepower:Q',
    y='Miles_per_Gallon:Q',
    color='Origin:N',
    column='Origin:N'
).properties(
    width=180,
    height=180
)

chart.configure_header(
    titleColor='green',
    titleFontSize=14,
    labelColor='red',
    labelFontSize=14
)

Additional property blocks can target more specific header types. The methods are the following:

  • Chart.configure_header()

  • Chart.configure_headerColumn()

  • Chart.configure_headerFacet()

  • Chart.configure_headerRow()

They have the following properties:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

format

anyOf(string, Dict)

When used with the default "number" and "time" format type, the text formatting pattern for labels of guides (axes, legends, headers) and text marks.

See the format documentation for more examples.

When used with a custom formatType, this value will be passed as format alongside datum.value to the registered function.

Default value: Derived from numberFormat config for number format and from timeFormat config for time format.

formatType

string

The format type for labels. One of "number", "time", or a registered custom format type.

Default value:

  • "time" for temporal fields and ordinal and nominal fields with timeUnit.

  • "number" for quantitative fields as well as ordinal and nominal fields without timeUnit.

labelAlign

anyOf(Align, ExprRef)

Horizontal text alignment of header labels. One of "left", "center", or "right".

labelAnchor

TitleAnchor

The anchor position for placing the labels. One of "start", "middle", or "end". For example, with a label orientation of top these anchor positions map to a left-, center-, or right-aligned label.

labelAngle

number

The rotation angle of the header labels.

Default value: 0 for column header, -90 for row header.

labelBaseline

anyOf(TextBaseline, ExprRef)

The vertical text baseline for the header labels. One of "alphabetic" (default), "top", "middle", "bottom", "line-top", or "line-bottom". The "line-top" and "line-bottom" values operate similarly to "top" and "bottom", but are calculated relative to the titleLineHeight rather than titleFontSize alone.

labelColor

anyOf(Color, ExprRef)

The color of the header label, can be in hex color code or regular color name.

labelExpr

string

Vega expression for customizing labels.

Note: The label text and value can be assessed via the label and value properties of the header’s backing datum object.

labelFont

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

The font of the header label.

labelFontSize

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The font size of the header label, in pixels.

labelFontStyle

anyOf(FontStyle, ExprRef)

The font style of the header label.

labelFontWeight

anyOf(FontWeight, ExprRef)

The font weight of the header label.

labelLimit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The maximum length of the header label in pixels. The text value will be automatically truncated if the rendered size exceeds the limit.

Default value: 0, indicating no limit

labelLineHeight

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Line height in pixels for multi-line header labels or title text with "line-top" or "line-bottom" baseline.

labelOrient

Orient

The orientation of the header label. One of "top", "bottom", "left" or "right".

labelPadding

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The padding, in pixel, between facet header’s label and the plot.

Default value: 10

labels

boolean

A boolean flag indicating if labels should be included as part of the header.

Default value: true.

orient

Orient

Shortcut for setting both labelOrient and titleOrient.

title

null

Set to null to disable title for the axis, legend, or header.

titleAlign

anyOf(Align, ExprRef)

Horizontal text alignment (to the anchor) of header titles.

titleAnchor

TitleAnchor

The anchor position for placing the title. One of "start", "middle", or "end". For example, with an orientation of top these anchor positions map to a left-, center-, or right-aligned title.

titleAngle

number

The rotation angle of the header title.

Default value: 0.

titleBaseline

anyOf(TextBaseline, ExprRef)

The vertical text baseline for the header title. One of "alphabetic" (default), "top", "middle", "bottom", "line-top", or "line-bottom". The "line-top" and "line-bottom" values operate similarly to "top" and "bottom", but are calculated relative to the titleLineHeight rather than titleFontSize alone.

Default value: "middle"

titleColor

anyOf(Color, ExprRef)

Color of the header title, can be in hex color code or regular color name.

titleFont

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

Font of the header title. (e.g., "Helvetica Neue").

titleFontSize

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Font size of the header title.

titleFontStyle

anyOf(FontStyle, ExprRef)

The font style of the header title.

titleFontWeight

anyOf(FontWeight, ExprRef)

Font weight of the header title. This can be either a string (e.g "bold", "normal") or a number (100, 200, 300, …, 900 where "normal" = 400 and "bold" = 700).

titleLimit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The maximum length of the header title in pixels. The text value will be automatically truncated if the rendered size exceeds the limit.

Default value: 0, indicating no limit

titleLineHeight

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Line height in pixels for multi-line header title text or title text with "line-top" or "line-bottom" baseline.

titleOrient

Orient

The orientation of the header title. One of "top", "bottom", "left" or "right".

titlePadding

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The padding, in pixel, between facet header’s title and the label.

Default value: 10

Legend Configuration#

The Chart.configure_legend() allows you to customize the appearance of chart legends, including location, fonts, bounding boxes, colors, and more. Here is an example:

import altair as alt
from vega_datasets import data

source = data.cars.url

chart = alt.Chart(source).mark_point().encode(
    x='Horsepower:Q',
    y='Miles_per_Gallon:Q',
    color='Origin:N'
)

chart.configure_legend(
    strokeColor='gray',
    fillColor='#EEEEEE',
    padding=10,
    cornerRadius=10,
    orient='top-right'
)

Additional properties are summarized in the following table:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

aria

anyOf(boolean, ExprRef)

A boolean flag indicating if ARIA attributes should be included (SVG output only). If false, the “aria-hidden” attribute will be set on the output SVG group, removing the legend from the ARIA accessibility tree.

Default value: true

clipHeight

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The height in pixels to clip symbol legend entries and limit their size.

columnPadding

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The horizontal padding in pixels between symbol legend entries.

Default value: 10.

columns

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The number of columns in which to arrange symbol legend entries. A value of 0 or lower indicates a single row with one column per entry.

cornerRadius

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Corner radius for the full legend.

description

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

A text description of this legend for ARIA accessibility (SVG output only). If the aria property is true, for SVG output the “aria-label” attribute will be set to this description. If the description is unspecified it will be automatically generated.

direction

Orientation

The direction of the legend, one of "vertical" or "horizontal".

Default value:

  • For top-/bottom-oriented legends, "horizontal"

  • For left-/right-oriented legends, "vertical"

  • For top/bottom-left/right-oriented legends, "horizontal" for gradient legends and "vertical" for symbol legends.

disable

boolean

Disable legend by default

fillColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

Background fill color for the full legend.

gradientDirection

anyOf(Orientation, ExprRef)

The default direction ("horizontal" or "vertical") for gradient legends.

Default value: "vertical".

gradientHorizontalMaxLength

number

Max legend length for a horizontal gradient when config.legend.gradientLength is undefined.

Default value: 200

gradientHorizontalMinLength

number

Min legend length for a horizontal gradient when config.legend.gradientLength is undefined.

Default value: 100

gradientLabelLimit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The maximum allowed length in pixels of color ramp gradient labels.

gradientLabelOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Vertical offset in pixels for color ramp gradient labels.

Default value: 2.

gradientLength

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The length in pixels of the primary axis of a color gradient. This value corresponds to the height of a vertical gradient or the width of a horizontal gradient.

Default value: 200.

gradientOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Opacity of the color gradient.

gradientStrokeColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

The color of the gradient stroke, can be in hex color code or regular color name.

Default value: "lightGray".

gradientStrokeWidth

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The width of the gradient stroke, in pixels.

Default value: 0.

gradientThickness

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The thickness in pixels of the color gradient. This value corresponds to the width of a vertical gradient or the height of a horizontal gradient.

Default value: 16.

gradientVerticalMaxLength

number

Max legend length for a vertical gradient when config.legend.gradientLength is undefined.

Default value: 200

gradientVerticalMinLength

number

Min legend length for a vertical gradient when config.legend.gradientLength is undefined.

Default value: 100

gridAlign

anyOf(LayoutAlign, ExprRef)

The alignment to apply to symbol legends rows and columns. The supported string values are "all", "each" (the default), and none. For more information, see the grid layout documentation.

Default value: "each".

labelAlign

anyOf(Align, ExprRef)

The alignment of the legend label, can be left, center, or right.

labelBaseline

anyOf(TextBaseline, ExprRef)

The position of the baseline of legend label, can be "top", "middle", "bottom", or "alphabetic".

Default value: "middle".

labelColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

The color of the legend label, can be in hex color code or regular color name.

labelFont

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

The font of the legend label.

labelFontSize

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The font size of legend label.

Default value: 10.

labelFontStyle

anyOf(FontStyle, ExprRef)

The font style of legend label.

labelFontWeight

anyOf(FontWeight, ExprRef)

The font weight of legend label.

labelLimit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Maximum allowed pixel width of legend tick labels.

Default value: 160.

labelOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The offset of the legend label.

Default value: 4.

labelOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Opacity of labels.

labelOverlap

anyOf(LabelOverlap, ExprRef)

The strategy to use for resolving overlap of labels in gradient legends. If false, no overlap reduction is attempted. If set to true or "parity", a strategy of removing every other label is used. If set to "greedy", a linear scan of the labels is performed, removing any label that overlaps with the last visible label (this often works better for log-scaled axes).

Default value: "greedy" for log scales otherwise true`.

labelPadding

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Padding in pixels between the legend and legend labels.

labelSeparation

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The minimum separation that must be between label bounding boxes for them to be considered non-overlapping (default 0). This property is ignored if labelOverlap resolution is not enabled.

layout

ExprRef

legendX

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Custom x-position for legend with orient “none”.

legendY

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Custom y-position for legend with orient “none”.

offset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The offset in pixels by which to displace the legend from the data rectangle and axes.

Default value: 18.

orient

LegendOrient

The orientation of the legend, which determines how the legend is positioned within the scene. One of "left", "right", "top", "bottom", "top-left", "top-right", "bottom-left", "bottom-right", "none".

Default value: "right"

padding

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The padding between the border and content of the legend group.

Default value: 0.

rowPadding

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The vertical padding in pixels between symbol legend entries.

Default value: 2.

strokeColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

Border stroke color for the full legend.

strokeDash

anyOf(array(number), ExprRef)

Border stroke dash pattern for the full legend.

strokeWidth

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Border stroke width for the full legend.

symbolBaseFillColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

Default fill color for legend symbols. Only applied if there is no "fill" scale color encoding for the legend.

Default value: "transparent".

symbolBaseStrokeColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

Default stroke color for legend symbols. Only applied if there is no "fill" scale color encoding for the legend.

Default value: "gray".

symbolDash

anyOf(array(number), ExprRef)

An array of alternating [stroke, space] lengths for dashed symbol strokes.

symbolDashOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The pixel offset at which to start drawing with the symbol stroke dash array.

symbolDirection

anyOf(Orientation, ExprRef)

The default direction ("horizontal" or "vertical") for symbol legends.

Default value: "vertical".

symbolFillColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

The color of the legend symbol,

symbolLimit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The maximum number of allowed entries for a symbol legend. Additional entries will be dropped.

symbolOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Horizontal pixel offset for legend symbols.

Default value: 0.

symbolOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Opacity of the legend symbols.

symbolSize

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The size of the legend symbol, in pixels.

Default value: 100.

symbolStrokeColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

Stroke color for legend symbols.

symbolStrokeWidth

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The width of the symbol’s stroke.

Default value: 1.5.

symbolType

anyOf(SymbolShape, ExprRef)

The symbol shape. One of the plotting shapes circle (default), square, cross, diamond, triangle-up, triangle-down, triangle-right, or triangle-left, the line symbol stroke, or one of the centered directional shapes arrow, wedge, or triangle. Alternatively, a custom SVG path string can be provided. For correct sizing, custom shape paths should be defined within a square bounding box with coordinates ranging from -1 to 1 along both the x and y dimensions.

Default value: "circle".

tickCount

anyOf(TickCount, ExprRef)

The desired number of tick values for quantitative legends.

title

null

Set to null to disable title for the axis, legend, or header.

titleAlign

anyOf(Align, ExprRef)

Horizontal text alignment for legend titles.

Default value: "left".

titleAnchor

anyOf(TitleAnchor, ExprRef)

Text anchor position for placing legend titles.

titleBaseline

anyOf(TextBaseline, ExprRef)

Vertical text baseline for legend titles. One of "alphabetic" (default), "top", "middle", "bottom", "line-top", or "line-bottom". The "line-top" and "line-bottom" values operate similarly to "top" and "bottom", but are calculated relative to the lineHeight rather than fontSize alone.

Default value: "top".

titleColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

The color of the legend title, can be in hex color code or regular color name.

titleFont

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

The font of the legend title.

titleFontSize

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The font size of the legend title.

titleFontStyle

anyOf(FontStyle, ExprRef)

The font style of the legend title.

titleFontWeight

anyOf(FontWeight, ExprRef)

The font weight of the legend title. This can be either a string (e.g "bold", "normal") or a number (100, 200, 300, …, 900 where "normal" = 400 and "bold" = 700).

titleLimit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Maximum allowed pixel width of legend titles.

Default value: 180.

titleLineHeight

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Line height in pixels for multi-line title text or title text with "line-top" or "line-bottom" baseline.

titleOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Opacity of the legend title.

titleOrient

anyOf(Orient, ExprRef)

Orientation of the legend title.

titlePadding

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The padding, in pixels, between title and legend.

Default value: 5.

unselectedOpacity

number

The opacity of unselected legend entries.

Default value: 0.35.

zindex

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The integer z-index indicating the layering of the legend group relative to other axis, mark, and legend groups.

Mark and Mark Style Configuration#

The mark configuration can be set using the Chart.configure_mark() method, which sets the default properties for all marks in the chart. In addition, the config object also provides mark-specific configuration using the mark type (e.g. Chart.configure_area()) for defining default properties for each mark.

For general configuration of all mark types, use:

  • Chart.configure_mark()

For configurations specific to particular mark types, use:

  • Chart.configure_arc()

  • Chart.configure_area()

  • Chart.configure_bar()

  • Chart.configure_boxplot()

  • Chart.configure_circle()

  • Chart.configure_errorband()

  • Chart.configure_errorbar()

  • Chart.configure_geoshape()

  • Chart.configure_image()

  • Chart.configure_line()

  • Chart.configure_point()

  • Chart.configure_rect()

  • Chart.configure_rule()

  • Chart.configure_square()

  • Chart.configure_text()

  • Chart.configure_tick()

  • Chart.configure_trail()

Each of the above methods accepts the following properties:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

align

anyOf(Align, ExprRef)

The horizontal alignment of the text or ranged marks (area, bar, image, rect, rule). One of "left", "right", "center".

Note: Expression reference is not supported for range marks.

angle

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The rotation angle of the text, in degrees.

aria

anyOf(boolean, ExprRef)

A boolean flag indicating if ARIA attributes should be included (SVG output only). If false, the “aria-hidden” attribute will be set on the output SVG element, removing the mark item from the ARIA accessibility tree.

ariaRole

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

Sets the type of user interface element of the mark item for ARIA accessibility (SVG output only). If specified, this property determines the “role” attribute. Warning: this property is experimental and may be changed in the future.

ariaRoleDescription

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

A human-readable, author-localized description for the role of the mark item for ARIA accessibility (SVG output only). If specified, this property determines the “aria-roledescription” attribute. Warning: this property is experimental and may be changed in the future.

aspect

anyOf(boolean, ExprRef)

Whether to keep aspect ratio of image marks.

baseline

anyOf(TextBaseline, ExprRef)

For text marks, the vertical text baseline. One of "alphabetic" (default), "top", "middle", "bottom", "line-top", "line-bottom", or an expression reference that provides one of the valid values. The "line-top" and "line-bottom" values operate similarly to "top" and "bottom", but are calculated relative to the lineHeight rather than fontSize alone.

For range marks, the vertical alignment of the marks. One of "top", "middle", "bottom".

Note: Expression reference is not supported for range marks.

blend

anyOf(Blend, ExprRef)

The color blend mode for drawing an item on its current background. Any valid CSS mix-blend-mode value can be used.

__Default value: "source-over"

color

anyOf(Color, Gradient, ExprRef)

Default color.

Default value: "#4682b4"

Note:

  • This property cannot be used in a style config.

  • The fill and stroke properties have higher precedence than color and will override color.

cornerRadius

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The radius in pixels of rounded rectangles or arcs’ corners.

Default value: 0

cornerRadiusBottomLeft

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The radius in pixels of rounded rectangles’ bottom left corner.

Default value: 0

cornerRadiusBottomRight

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The radius in pixels of rounded rectangles’ bottom right corner.

Default value: 0

cornerRadiusTopLeft

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The radius in pixels of rounded rectangles’ top right corner.

Default value: 0

cornerRadiusTopRight

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The radius in pixels of rounded rectangles’ top left corner.

Default value: 0

cursor

anyOf(Cursor, ExprRef)

The mouse cursor used over the mark. Any valid CSS cursor type can be used.

description

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

A text description of the mark item for ARIA accessibility (SVG output only). If specified, this property determines the “aria-label” attribute.

dir

anyOf(TextDirection, ExprRef)

The direction of the text. One of "ltr" (left-to-right) or "rtl" (right-to-left). This property determines on which side is truncated in response to the limit parameter.

Default value: "ltr"

dx

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The horizontal offset, in pixels, between the text label and its anchor point. The offset is applied after rotation by the angle property.

dy

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The vertical offset, in pixels, between the text label and its anchor point. The offset is applied after rotation by the angle property.

ellipsis

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

The ellipsis string for text truncated in response to the limit parameter.

Default value: "…"

endAngle

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The end angle in radians for arc marks. A value of 0 indicates up (north), increasing values proceed clockwise.

fill

anyOf(Color, Gradient, null, ExprRef)

Default fill color. This property has higher precedence than config.color. Set to null to remove fill.

Default value: (None)

fillOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The fill opacity (value between [0,1]).

Default value: 1

filled

boolean

Whether the mark’s color should be used as fill color instead of stroke color.

Default value: false for all point, line, and rule marks as well as geoshape marks for graticule data sources; otherwise, true.

Note: This property cannot be used in a style config.

font

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

The typeface to set the text in (e.g., "Helvetica Neue").

fontSize

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The font size, in pixels.

Default value: 11

fontStyle

anyOf(FontStyle, ExprRef)

The font style (e.g., "italic").

fontWeight

anyOf(FontWeight, ExprRef)

The font weight. This can be either a string (e.g "bold", "normal") or a number (100, 200, 300, …, 900 where "normal" = 400 and "bold" = 700).

height

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Height of the marks.

href

anyOf(URI, ExprRef)

A URL to load upon mouse click. If defined, the mark acts as a hyperlink.

innerRadius

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The inner radius in pixels of arc marks. innerRadius is an alias for radius2.

Default value: 0

interpolate

anyOf(Interpolate, ExprRef)

The line interpolation method to use for line and area marks. One of the following:

  • "linear": piecewise linear segments, as in a polyline.

  • "linear-closed": close the linear segments to form a polygon.

  • "step": alternate between horizontal and vertical segments, as in a step function.

  • "step-before": alternate between vertical and horizontal segments, as in a step function.

  • "step-after": alternate between horizontal and vertical segments, as in a step function.

  • "basis": a B-spline, with control point duplication on the ends.

  • "basis-open": an open B-spline; may not intersect the start or end.

  • "basis-closed": a closed B-spline, as in a loop.

  • "cardinal": a Cardinal spline, with control point duplication on the ends.

  • "cardinal-open": an open Cardinal spline; may not intersect the start or end, but will intersect other control points.

  • "cardinal-closed": a closed Cardinal spline, as in a loop.

  • "bundle": equivalent to basis, except the tension parameter is used to straighten the spline.

  • "monotone": cubic interpolation that preserves monotonicity in y.

invalid

[‘filter’, None]

Defines how Vega-Lite should handle marks for invalid values (null and NaN).

  • If set to "filter" (default), all data items with null values will be skipped (for line, trail, and area marks) or filtered (for other marks).

  • If null, all data items are included. In this case, invalid values will be interpreted as zeroes.

limit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The maximum length of the text mark in pixels. The text value will be automatically truncated if the rendered size exceeds the limit.

Default value: 0 – indicating no limit

lineBreak

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

A delimiter, such as a newline character, upon which to break text strings into multiple lines. This property is ignored if the text is array-valued.

lineHeight

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The line height in pixels (the spacing between subsequent lines of text) for multi-line text marks.

opacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The overall opacity (value between [0,1]).

Default value: 0.7 for non-aggregate plots with point, tick, circle, or square marks or layered bar charts and 1 otherwise.

order

[null, boolean]

For line and trail marks, this order property can be set to null or false to make the lines use the original order in the data sources.

orient

Orientation

The orientation of a non-stacked bar, tick, area, and line charts. The value is either horizontal (default) or vertical.

  • For bar, rule and tick, this determines whether the size of the bar and tick should be applied to x or y dimension.

  • For area, this property determines the orient property of the Vega output.

  • For line and trail marks, this property determines the sort order of the points in the line if config.sortLineBy is not specified. For stacked charts, this is always determined by the orientation of the stack; therefore explicitly specified value will be ignored.

outerRadius

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The outer radius in pixels of arc marks. outerRadius is an alias for radius.

Default value: 0

padAngle

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The angular padding applied to sides of the arc, in radians.

radius

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

For arc mark, the primary (outer) radius in pixels.

For text marks, polar coordinate radial offset, in pixels, of the text from the origin determined by the x and y properties.

Default value: min(plot_width, plot_height)/2

radius2

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The secondary (inner) radius in pixels of arc marks.

Default value: 0

shape

anyOf(anyOf(SymbolShape, string), ExprRef)

Shape of the point marks. Supported values include:

  • plotting shapes: "circle", "square", "cross", "diamond", "triangle-up", "triangle-down", "triangle-right", or "triangle-left".

  • the line symbol "stroke"

  • centered directional shapes "arrow", "wedge", or "triangle"

  • a custom SVG path string (For correct sizing, custom shape paths should be defined within a square bounding box with coordinates ranging from -1 to 1 along both the x and y dimensions.)

Default value: "circle"

size

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Default size for marks.

  • For point/circle/square, this represents the pixel area of the marks. Note that this value sets the area of the symbol; the side lengths will increase with the square root of this value.

  • For bar, this represents the band size of the bar, in pixels.

  • For text, this represents the font size, in pixels.

Default value:

  • 30 for point, circle, square marks; width/height’s step

  • 2 for bar marks with discrete dimensions;

  • 5 for bar marks with continuous dimensions;

  • 11 for text marks.

smooth

anyOf(boolean, ExprRef)

A boolean flag (default true) indicating if the image should be smoothed when resized. If false, individual pixels should be scaled directly rather than interpolated with smoothing. For SVG rendering, this option may not work in some browsers due to lack of standardization.

startAngle

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The start angle in radians for arc marks. A value of 0 indicates up (north), increasing values proceed clockwise.

stroke

anyOf(Color, Gradient, null, ExprRef)

Default stroke color. This property has higher precedence than config.color. Set to null to remove stroke.

Default value: (None)

strokeCap

anyOf(StrokeCap, ExprRef)

The stroke cap for line ending style. One of "butt", "round", or "square".

Default value: "butt"

strokeDash

anyOf(array(number), ExprRef)

An array of alternating stroke, space lengths for creating dashed or dotted lines.

strokeDashOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The offset (in pixels) into which to begin drawing with the stroke dash array.

strokeJoin

anyOf(StrokeJoin, ExprRef)

The stroke line join method. One of "miter", "round" or "bevel".

Default value: "miter"

strokeMiterLimit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The miter limit at which to bevel a line join.

strokeOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The offset in pixels at which to draw the group stroke and fill. If unspecified, the default behavior is to dynamically offset stroked groups such that 1 pixel stroke widths align with the pixel grid.

strokeOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The stroke opacity (value between [0,1]).

Default value: 1

strokeWidth

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The stroke width, in pixels.

tension

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Depending on the interpolation type, sets the tension parameter (for line and area marks).

text

anyOf(Text, ExprRef)

Placeholder text if the text channel is not specified

theta

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

  • For arc marks, the arc length in radians if theta2 is not specified, otherwise the start arc angle. (A value of 0 indicates up or “north”, increasing values proceed clockwise.)

  • For text marks, polar coordinate angle in radians.

theta2

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The end angle of arc marks in radians. A value of 0 indicates up or “north”, increasing values proceed clockwise.

timeUnitBandPosition

number

Default relative band position for a time unit. If set to 0, the marks will be positioned at the beginning of the time unit band step. If set to 0.5, the marks will be positioned in the middle of the time unit band step.

timeUnitBandSize

number

Default relative band size for a time unit. If set to 1, the bandwidth of the marks will be equal to the time unit band step. If set to 0.5, bandwidth of the marks will be half of the time unit band step.

tooltip

anyOf(number, string, boolean, TooltipContent, ExprRef, null)

The tooltip text string to show upon mouse hover or an object defining which fields should the tooltip be derived from.

  • If tooltip is true or {"content": "encoding"}, then all fields from encoding will be used.

  • If tooltip is {"content": "data"}, then all fields that appear in the highlighted data point will be used.

  • If set to null or false, then no tooltip will be used.

See the tooltip documentation for a detailed discussion about tooltip in Vega-Lite.

Default value: null

url

anyOf(URI, ExprRef)

The URL of the image file for image marks.

width

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Width of the marks.

x

anyOf(number, string, ExprRef)

X coordinates of the marks, or width of horizontal "bar" and "area" without specified x2 or width.

The value of this channel can be a number or a string "width" for the width of the plot.

x2

anyOf(number, string, ExprRef)

X2 coordinates for ranged "area", "bar", "rect", and "rule".

The value of this channel can be a number or a string "width" for the width of the plot.

y

anyOf(number, string, ExprRef)

Y coordinates of the marks, or height of vertical "bar" and "area" without specified y2 or height.

The value of this channel can be a number or a string "height" for the height of the plot.

y2

anyOf(number, string, ExprRef)

Y2 coordinates for ranged "area", "bar", "rect", and "rule".

The value of this channel can be a number or a string "height" for the height of the plot.

In addition to the default mark properties above, default values can be further customized using named styles defined as keyword arguments to the Chart.configure_style() method. Styles can then be invoked by including a style property within a mark definition object.

Scale Configuration#

Scales can be configured using Chart.configure_scale(), which has the following properties:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

bandPaddingInner

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Default inner padding for x and y band scales.

Default value:

  • nestedOffsetPaddingInner for x/y scales with nested x/y offset scales.

  • barBandPaddingInner for bar marks (0.1 by default)

  • rectBandPaddingInner for rect and other marks (0 by default)

bandPaddingOuter

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Default outer padding for x and y band scales.

Default value: paddingInner/2 (which makes width/height = number of unique values * step)

bandWithNestedOffsetPaddingInner

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Default inner padding for x and y band scales with nested xOffset and yOffset encoding.

Default value: 0.2

bandWithNestedOffsetPaddingOuter

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Default outer padding for x and y band scales with nested xOffset and yOffset encoding.

Default value: 0.2

barBandPaddingInner

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Default inner padding for x and y band-ordinal scales of "bar" marks.

Default value: 0.1

clamp

anyOf(boolean, ExprRef)

If true, values that exceed the data domain are clamped to either the minimum or maximum range value

continuousPadding

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Default padding for continuous x/y scales.

Default: The bar width for continuous x-scale of a vertical bar and continuous y-scale of a horizontal bar.; 0 otherwise.

maxBandSize

number

The default max value for mapping quantitative fields to bar’s size/bandSize.

If undefined (default), we will use the axis’s size (width or height) - 1.

maxFontSize

number

The default max value for mapping quantitative fields to text’s size/fontSize.

Default value: 40

maxOpacity

number

Default max opacity for mapping a field to opacity.

Default value: 0.8

maxSize

number

Default max value for point size scale.

maxStrokeWidth

number

Default max strokeWidth for the scale of strokeWidth for rule and line marks and of size for trail marks.

Default value: 4

minBandSize

number

The default min value for mapping quantitative fields to bar and tick’s size/bandSize scale with zero=false.

Default value: 2

minFontSize

number

The default min value for mapping quantitative fields to tick’s size/fontSize scale with zero=false

Default value: 8

minOpacity

number

Default minimum opacity for mapping a field to opacity.

Default value: 0.3

minSize

number

Default minimum value for point size scale with zero=false.

Default value: 9

minStrokeWidth

number

Default minimum strokeWidth for the scale of strokeWidth for rule and line marks and of size for trail marks with zero=false.

Default value: 1

offsetBandPaddingInner

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Default padding inner for xOffset/yOffset’s band scales.

Default Value: 0

offsetBandPaddingOuter

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Default padding outer for xOffset/yOffset’s band scales.

Default Value: 0

pointPadding

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Default outer padding for x and y point-ordinal scales.

Default value: 0.5 (which makes width/height = number of unique values * step)

quantileCount

number

Default range cardinality for quantile scale.

Default value: 4

quantizeCount

number

Default range cardinality for quantize scale.

Default value: 4

rectBandPaddingInner

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Default inner padding for x and y band-ordinal scales of "rect" marks.

Default value: 0

round

anyOf(boolean, ExprRef)

If true, rounds numeric output values to integers. This can be helpful for snapping to the pixel grid. (Only available for x, y, and size scales.)

useUnaggregatedDomain

boolean

Use the source data range before aggregation as scale domain instead of aggregated data for aggregate axis.

This is equivalent to setting domain to "unaggregate" for aggregated quantitative fields by default.

This property only works with aggregate functions that produce values within the raw data domain ("mean", "average", "median", "q1", "q3", "min", "max"). For other aggregations that produce values outside of the raw data domain (e.g. "count", "sum"), this property is ignored.

Default value: false

xReverse

anyOf(boolean, ExprRef)

Reverse x-scale by default (useful for right-to-left charts).

zero

boolean

Default scale.zero for continuous scales except for (1) x/y-scales of non-ranged bar or area charts and (2) size scales.

Default value: true

Scale Range Configuration#

Scale ranges can be configured using Chart.configure_range(), which has the following properties:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

category

anyOf(RangeScheme, array(Color))

Default color scheme for categorical data.

diverging

anyOf(RangeScheme, array(Color))

Default color scheme for diverging quantitative ramps.

heatmap

anyOf(RangeScheme, array(Color))

Default color scheme for quantitative heatmaps.

ordinal

anyOf(RangeScheme, array(Color))

Default color scheme for rank-ordered data.

ramp

anyOf(RangeScheme, array(Color))

Default color scheme for sequential quantitative ramps.

symbol

array(SymbolShape)

Array of symbol names or paths for the default shape palette.

Projection Configuration#

Projections can be configured using Chart.configure_projection(), which has the following properties:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

center

anyOf(Vector2<number>, ExprRef)

The projection’s center, a two-element array of longitude and latitude in degrees.

Default value: [0, 0]

clipAngle

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The projection’s clipping circle radius to the specified angle in degrees. If null, switches to antimeridian cutting rather than small-circle clipping.

clipExtent

anyOf(Vector2<Vector2<number>>, ExprRef)

The projection’s viewport clip extent to the specified bounds in pixels. The extent bounds are specified as an array [[x0, y0], [x1, y1]], where x0 is the left-side of the viewport, y0 is the top, x1 is the right and y1 is the bottom. If null, no viewport clipping is performed.

coefficient

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The coefficient parameter for the hammer projection.

Default value: 2

distance

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

For the satellite projection, the distance from the center of the sphere to the point of view, as a proportion of the sphere’s radius. The recommended maximum clip angle for a given distance is acos(1 / distance) converted to degrees. If tilt is also applied, then more conservative clipping may be necessary.

Default value: 2.0

extent

anyOf(Vector2<Vector2<number>>, ExprRef)

fit

anyOf(Fit, array(Fit), ExprRef)

fraction

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The fraction parameter for the bottomley projection.

Default value: 0.5, corresponding to a sin(ψ) where ψ = π/6.

lobes

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The number of lobes in projections that support multi-lobe views: berghaus, gingery, or healpix. The default value varies based on the projection type.

parallel

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The parallel parameter for projections that support it: armadillo, bonne, craig, cylindricalEqualArea, cylindricalStereographic, hammerRetroazimuthal, loximuthal, or rectangularPolyconic. The default value varies based on the projection type.

parallels

anyOf(array(number), ExprRef)

For conic projections, the two standard parallels that define the map layout. The default depends on the specific conic projection used.

pointRadius

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The default radius (in pixels) to use when drawing GeoJSON Point and MultiPoint geometries. This parameter sets a constant default value. To modify the point radius in response to data, see the corresponding parameter of the GeoPath and GeoShape transforms.

Default value: 4.5

precision

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The threshold for the projection’s adaptive resampling to the specified value in pixels. This value corresponds to the Douglas–Peucker distance. If precision is not specified, returns the projection’s current resampling precision which defaults to √0.5 0.70710….

radius

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The radius parameter for the airy or gingery projection. The default value varies based on the projection type.

ratio

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The ratio parameter for the hill, hufnagel, or wagner projections. The default value varies based on the projection type.

reflectX

anyOf(boolean, ExprRef)

Sets whether or not the x-dimension is reflected (negated) in the output.

reflectY

anyOf(boolean, ExprRef)

Sets whether or not the y-dimension is reflected (negated) in the output.

rotate

anyOf(anyOf(Vector2<number>, Vector3<number>), ExprRef)

The projection’s three-axis rotation to the specified angles, which must be a two- or three-element array of numbers [lambda, phi, gamma] specifying the rotation angles in degrees about each spherical axis. (These correspond to yaw, pitch and roll.)

Default value: [0, 0, 0]

scale

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The projection’s scale (zoom) factor, overriding automatic fitting. The default scale is projection-specific. The scale factor corresponds linearly to the distance between projected points; however, scale factor values are not equivalent across projections.

size

anyOf(Vector2<number>, ExprRef)

Used in conjunction with fit, provides the width and height in pixels of the area to which the projection should be automatically fit.

spacing

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The spacing parameter for the lagrange projection.

Default value: 0.5

tilt

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The tilt angle (in degrees) for the satellite projection.

Default value: 0.

translate

anyOf(Vector2<number>, ExprRef)

The projection’s translation offset as a two-element array [tx, ty].

type

anyOf(ProjectionType, ExprRef)

The cartographic projection to use. This value is case-insensitive, for example "albers" and "Albers" indicate the same projection type. You can find all valid projection types in the documentation.

Default value: equalEarth

Concat and Facet Configuration#

Various aspects of concat and facet charts can be configured using Chart.configure_concat() and Chart.configure_facet(), which have the following properties:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

columns

number

The number of columns to include in the view composition layout.

Default value: undefined – An infinite number of columns (a single row) will be assumed. This is equivalent to hconcat (for concat) and to using the column channel (for facet and repeat).

Note:

  1. This property is only for:

  • the general (wrappable) concat operator (not hconcat/vconcat)

  • the facet and repeat operator with one field/repetition definition (without row/column nesting)

  1. Setting the columns to 1 is equivalent to vconcat (for concat) and to using the row channel (for facet and repeat).

spacing

number

The default spacing in pixels between composed sub-views.

Default value: 20

Selection Configuration#

Selections can be configured using Chart.configure_selection(), which has the following properties:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

interval

IntervalSelectionConfigWithoutType

The default definition for an interval selection. All properties and transformations for an interval selection definition (except type) may be specified here.

For instance, setting interval to {"translate": false} disables the ability to move interval selections by default.

point

PointSelectionConfigWithoutType

The default definition for a point selection. All properties and transformations for a point selection definition (except type) may be specified here.

For instance, setting point to {"on": "dblclick"} populates point selections on double-click by default.

Title Configuration#

The Chart.configure_title() method allows configuration of the chart title, including the font, color, placement, and orientation. Here is an example:

import altair as alt
from vega_datasets import data

source = data.cars.url

chart = alt.Chart(source).mark_point().encode(
    x='Horsepower:Q',
    y='Miles_per_Gallon:Q',
).properties(
    title='Cars Data'
)

chart.configure_title(
    fontSize=20,
    font='Courier',
    anchor='start',
    color='gray'
)

Additional title configuration options are listed in the following table:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

align

Align

Horizontal text alignment for title text. One of "left", "center", or "right".

anchor

anyOf(TitleAnchor, ExprRef)

The anchor position for placing the title and subtitle text. One of "start", "middle", or "end". For example, with an orientation of top these anchor positions map to a left-, center-, or right-aligned title.

angle

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Angle in degrees of title and subtitle text.

aria

anyOf(boolean, ExprRef)

A boolean flag indicating if ARIA attributes should be included (SVG output only). If false, the “aria-hidden” attribute will be set on the output SVG group, removing the title from the ARIA accessibility tree.

Default value: true

baseline

TextBaseline

Vertical text baseline for title and subtitle text. One of "alphabetic" (default), "top", "middle", "bottom", "line-top", or "line-bottom". The "line-top" and "line-bottom" values operate similarly to "top" and "bottom", but are calculated relative to the lineHeight rather than fontSize alone.

color

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

Text color for title text.

dx

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Delta offset for title and subtitle text x-coordinate.

dy

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Delta offset for title and subtitle text y-coordinate.

font

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

Font name for title text.

fontSize

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Font size in pixels for title text.

fontStyle

anyOf(FontStyle, ExprRef)

Font style for title text.

fontWeight

anyOf(FontWeight, ExprRef)

Font weight for title text. This can be either a string (e.g "bold", "normal") or a number (100, 200, 300, …, 900 where "normal" = 400 and "bold" = 700).

frame

anyOf(anyOf(TitleFrame, string), ExprRef)

The reference frame for the anchor position, one of "bounds" (to anchor relative to the full bounding box) or "group" (to anchor relative to the group width or height).

limit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The maximum allowed length in pixels of title and subtitle text.

lineHeight

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Line height in pixels for multi-line title text or title text with "line-top" or "line-bottom" baseline.

offset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The orthogonal offset in pixels by which to displace the title group from its position along the edge of the chart.

orient

anyOf(TitleOrient, ExprRef)

Default title orientation ("top", "bottom", "left", or "right")

subtitleColor

anyOf(anyOf(null, Color), ExprRef)

Text color for subtitle text.

subtitleFont

anyOf(string, ExprRef)

Font name for subtitle text.

subtitleFontSize

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Font size in pixels for subtitle text.

subtitleFontStyle

anyOf(FontStyle, ExprRef)

Font style for subtitle text.

subtitleFontWeight

anyOf(FontWeight, ExprRef)

Font weight for subtitle text. This can be either a string (e.g "bold", "normal") or a number (100, 200, 300, …, 900 where "normal" = 400 and "bold" = 700).

subtitleLineHeight

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

Line height in pixels for multi-line subtitle text.

subtitlePadding

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The padding in pixels between title and subtitle text.

zindex

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The integer z-index indicating the layering of the title group relative to other axis, mark, and legend groups.

Default value: 0.

View Configuration#

The Chart.configure_view() method allows you to configure aspects of the chart’s view, i.e. the area of the screen in which the data and scales are drawn. Here is an example to demonstrate some of the visual features that can be controlled:

import altair as alt
from vega_datasets import data

source = data.cars.url

chart = alt.Chart(source).mark_point().encode(
    x='Horsepower:Q',
    y='Miles_per_Gallon:Q',
)

chart.configure_view(
    continuousHeight=200,
    continuousWidth=200,
    strokeWidth=4,
    fill='#FFEEDD',
    stroke='red',
)

Additional properties are summarized in the following table:

Click to show table

Property

Type

Description

clip

boolean

Whether the view should be clipped.

continuousHeight

number

The default height when the plot has a continuous y-field for x or latitude, or has arc marks.

Default value: 200

continuousWidth

number

The default width when the plot has a continuous field for x or longitude, or has arc marks.

Default value: 200

cornerRadius

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The radius in pixels of rounded rectangles or arcs’ corners.

Default value: 0

cursor

Cursor

The mouse cursor used over the view. Any valid CSS cursor type can be used.

discreteHeight

anyOf(number, dict)

The default height when the plot has non arc marks and either a discrete y-field or no y-field. The height can be either a number indicating a fixed height or an object in the form of {step: number} defining the height per discrete step.

Default value: a step size based on config.view.step.

discreteWidth

anyOf(number, dict)

The default width when the plot has non-arc marks and either a discrete x-field or no x-field. The width can be either a number indicating a fixed width or an object in the form of {step: number} defining the width per discrete step.

Default value: a step size based on config.view.step.

fill

anyOf(Color, null, ExprRef)

The fill color.

Default value: undefined

fillOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The fill opacity (value between [0,1]).

Default value: 1

opacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The overall opacity (value between [0,1]).

Default value: 0.7 for non-aggregate plots with point, tick, circle, or square marks or layered bar charts and 1 otherwise.

step

number

Default step size for x-/y- discrete fields.

stroke

anyOf(Color, null, ExprRef)

The stroke color.

Default value: "#ddd"

strokeCap

anyOf(StrokeCap, ExprRef)

The stroke cap for line ending style. One of "butt", "round", or "square".

Default value: "butt"

strokeDash

anyOf(array(number), ExprRef)

An array of alternating stroke, space lengths for creating dashed or dotted lines.

strokeDashOffset

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The offset (in pixels) into which to begin drawing with the stroke dash array.

strokeJoin

anyOf(StrokeJoin, ExprRef)

The stroke line join method. One of "miter", "round" or "bevel".

Default value: "miter"

strokeMiterLimit

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The miter limit at which to bevel a line join.

strokeOpacity

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The stroke opacity (value between [0,1]).

Default value: 1

strokeWidth

anyOf(number, ExprRef)

The stroke width, in pixels.