Sparkline
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sparkline is a name proposed by Edward Tufte for "small, high resolution graphics embedded in a context of words, numbers, images"[1].
Tufte describes sparklines as "data-intense, design-simple, word-sized graphics"[1]. Whereas the typical chart is designed to show as much data as possible, and is set off from the flow of text (as in the box below), sparklines are intended to be succinct, memorable, and located where they are discussed. As an example: The Dow Jones Index 
for 7 February 2006 as a sparkline; it's also in the box below. Their use inline usually means that they are about the same height as the surrounding text.
| Sparklines U.S. stock market activity (7 February 2006) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Index | Day | Value | Change |
| Dow Jones | |
10765.45 | −32.82 (−0.30%) |
| S&P 500 |  |
1256.92 | −8.10 (−0.64%) |
| Nasdaq | |
2244.83 | −13.97 (−0.62%) |
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Edward Tufte's explanation of sparklines
- Sparkline Fonts for Excel
- Python script for a sparklines CGI web service
- Perl Module to create sparklines
- Sparkline PHP library, software for making sparklines
- Sparklines Graphs for Ruby (also has a Ruby on Rails plugin).
- Javascript Sparklines Library in Canvas/SVG
- Sparklines for Java (Java library and JSTL taglib).
- Sparklines for Excel Excel-AddIn for Sparklines.
- Free ASP.NET Sparklines Library
- Google Chart API with Sparklines
- DBMI Columbia University Example Sparklines to visualize longitudinal medical record lab data.
