Observable Plot

Observable Plot is a JavaScript library for exploratory data visualization. It's built on D3 and provides a concise, declarative API for creating charts.

Installation

npm install @observablehq/plot

Or via CDN:

<script type="module">
import * as Plot from "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@observablehq/plot@0.6/+esm";
</script>

Core Concepts

Plot.plot(options)

The main function that renders a visualization. Returns an SVG or HTML figure element.

Plot.plot({
  marks: [
    Plot.dot(data, {x: "weight", y: "height"})
  ]
})

Key Options

Option	Description	Default
width	Outer width in pixels	640
height	Outer height in pixels	auto
margin	All margins	varies
marginTop/Right/Bottom/Left	Individual margins	varies
marks	Array of marks to render	required
color	Color scale options	auto
x, y	Position scale options	auto
title, subtitle	Chart titles	none
caption	Figure caption	none

Data Format

Plot expects tabular data as arrays of objects:

const data = [
  {date: new Date("2024-01-01"), value: 100, category: "A"},
  {date: new Date("2024-01-02"), value: 120, category: "B"}
];

Channel Mapping

Map data columns to visual properties:

Plot.dot(data, {
  x: "date",        // column name
  y: "value",       // column name
  fill: "category", // color by category
  r: 5              // constant radius
})

Quick Examples

Line Chart

Plot.lineY(data, {x: "date", y: "value"}).plot()

Bar Chart

Plot.barY(data, {x: "category", y: "value"}).plot()

Scatter Plot

Plot.dot(data, {x: "weight", y: "height", fill: "species"}).plot()

Histogram

Plot.rectY(data, Plot.binX({y: "count"}, {x: "value"})).plot()

Area Chart

Plot.areaY(data, {x: "date", y: "value", fill: "steelblue"}).plot()

Documentation Files

This skill includes detailed documentation for each feature:

Marks (Visual Elements)

• marks/area.md - Area charts and stacked areas
• marks/bar.md - Bar charts (horizontal and vertical)
• marks/dot.md - Scatter plots and bubble charts
• marks/line.md - Line charts
• marks/rect.md - Rectangles, histograms, heatmaps
• marks/text.md - Text labels and annotations
• marks/rule.md - Reference lines
• marks/cell.md - Heatmaps with ordinal dimensions
• marks/tip.md - Interactive tooltips
• marks/axis.md - Custom axes
• marks/geo.md - Geographic/map visualizations
• marks/link.md - Connections between points
• marks/arrow.md - Directed arrows
• marks/vector.md - Vector fields
• marks/tick.md - Tick marks
• marks/box.md - Box plots
• marks/frame.md - Frame decoration
• marks/image.md - Image glyphs
• marks/contour.md - Contour plots
• marks/density.md - Density estimation
• marks/raster.md - Raster/heatmap images
• marks/hexgrid.md - Hexagonal grids
• marks/waffle.md - Waffle charts
• marks/delaunay.md - Voronoi and Delaunay
• marks/bollinger.md - Bollinger bands
• marks/difference.md - Difference charts
• marks/tree.md - Hierarchical trees
• marks/auto.md - Automatic mark selection
• marks/linear-regression.md - Trend lines
• marks/crosshair.md - Interactive crosshairs
• marks/grid.md - Grid lines

Transforms (Data Processing)

• transforms/bin.md - Binning for histograms
• transforms/group.md - Grouping categorical data
• transforms/stack.md - Stacking for area/bar charts
• transforms/dodge.md - Beeswarm plots
• transforms/hexbin.md - Hexagonal binning
• transforms/window.md - Moving averages
• transforms/select.md - Selecting specific points
• transforms/normalize.md - Normalizing values

Features

• features/scales.md - Scale configuration
• features/facets.md - Small multiples
• features/projections.md - Map projections
• features/legends.md - Legend configuration
• features/interactions.md - Interactive features
• features/curves.md - Line interpolation
• features/markers.md - Line markers
• features/shorthand.md - Concise syntax
• features/intervals.md - Time intervals

Common Patterns

Adding a Grid

Plot.plot({
  y: {grid: true},
  marks: [Plot.line(data, {x: "date", y: "value"})]
})

Color Legend

Plot.plot({
  color: {legend: true},
  marks: [Plot.dot(data, {x: "x", y: "y", fill: "category"})]
})

Faceting (Small Multiples)

Plot.plot({
  facet: {data, x: "region"},
  marks: [Plot.dot(data, {x: "income", y: "lifeExpectancy"})]
})

Interactive Tooltips

Plot.plot({
  marks: [
    Plot.dot(data, {x: "x", y: "y", tip: true})
  ]
})

Stacked Area Chart

Plot.plot({
  marks: [
    Plot.areaY(data, {x: "date", y: "value", fill: "category"})
  ]
})

Framework Integration

React

import * as Plot from "@observablehq/plot";
import { useRef, useEffect } from "react";

function Chart({ data }) {
  const ref = useRef();
  useEffect(() => {
    const plot = Plot.plot({
      marks: [Plot.dot(data, {x: "x", y: "y"})]
    });
    ref.current.append(plot);
    return () => plot.remove();
  }, [data]);
  return <div ref={ref} />;
}

Vanilla JS

const plot = Plot.plot({
  marks: [Plot.dot(data, {x: "x", y: "y"})]
});
document.body.append(plot);

Resources

• Official Documentation
• Examples Gallery
• GitHub Repository