Bar Graph Maker

Common questions

Does the axis always start at zero?

Yes, for a bar graph it does. A bar's length is the whole message, and an axis that starts above zero makes a small difference look like a large one, so the value axis always includes zero and the bars stand on it. The other end is the next round tick above your largest value, in steps of 1, 2 or 5 times a power of ten, so 0 to 97 is marked 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, 100. If your data really needs a narrower range, the line graph follows the data's own range instead.

Is a bar graph the same as a column chart?

For this page, yes. The bars stand upright from a horizontal baseline, which is what Excel and Google Sheets call a column chart and what many classrooms call a vertical bar graph: the same data gives the same picture under any of those names. Horizontal bars, running left to right from a vertical axis, are not offered here. Each label sits under its own column, in the order you pasted.

Can I plot negative values?

Yes. A negative bar starts at the zero line and hangs below it, drawn to the same scale as the positive bars, and the axis extends to the next round tick below your lowest value. The zero line is drawn across the plot so the two directions are easy to tell apart. A pie chart cannot take negatives, but a bar graph is built for them.

Why is one bar a different colour?

The bar with the largest absolute value takes the first colour of the palette and the rest take the second, which draws the eye to the biggest number without a legend. Switch Palette to Safe for colours that stay distinct under colour blindness. Every bar is drawn from the numbers alone; nothing is sorted, so the order across the graph is the order of your lines.

What happens to long labels?

Each bar has a slot beneath it, and a label longer than that slot is shortened with an ellipsis so it never runs into its neighbour or off the edge of the image. When the bars are too thin for a readable label, only every second, third or later label is printed, and each printed one takes the width of the slots it stands for. Wider sizes give more room: 1920×1080 fits longer labels than 1080×1080 with the same number of bars, and fewer bars per graph leave more room for each. The text description under the chart lists the first thirty labels in full and then how many more there are.

How many bars can a bar graph have?

There is no fixed limit. The bars share the plot width equally, so with dozens of bars each becomes thin and its label short. Around twenty bars still read well at 1920×1080; beyond that, consider splitting the data or using the widest size. Every bar is drawn whatever the count.