Sparkline

{{Short description|Small data visualisation, usually inline with text}}

Index ! Day ! Value ! Change
class="infobox" style="width: 22em" \|+ Example sparklines in small multiple
align="left"\| Dow Jones	File:Sparkline dowjones new.svg	10765.45	−32.82 (−0.30%)
align="left"\| S&P 500	File:Sparkline sp500.svg	1256.92	−8.10 (−0.64%)
colspan=4 \| Sparklines showing the movement of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 during February 7, 2006

A sparkline is a very small line chart, typically drawn without axes or coordinates. It presents the general shape of a variation (typically over time) in some measurement, such as temperature or stock market price, in a simple and highly condensed way. Whereas a typical chart is designed to professionally show as much data as possible, and is set off from the flow of text, sparklines are intended to be succinct, memorable, and located where they are discussed. Sparklines are small enough to be embedded in text, or several sparklines may be grouped together as elements of a small multiple.

History

File:Sparkline of the narrative structure of the first three volumes of Tritram Shandy, accouring to the author.png

In 1762 Laurence Sterne used typographical devices in his sixth volume of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman to illustrate his narrative proceeding: "These were the four lines I moved through my first, second, third, and fourth volumes,–".Laurence Sterne, Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Ann Ward (vol. 1–2), Dodsley (vol. 3–4), Becket & DeHondt (vol. 5–9), 1759-1767

The 1888 monograph describing the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa shows barometric signatures of the event obtained at various stations around the world in the same fashion, but in separate plates (VII & VIII), not within the text.Symons, G. J., Judd, J. W., Strachey, S. R., Wharton, W. J. L., Evans, F. J., Russell, F. A. R., ... & Whipple, G. M. (1888). The eruption of Krakatoa: And subsequent phenomena. Trübner & Company. Plate VII

Edward Tufte documented a compact style in 1983 called "intense continuous time-series".Tufte, Edward (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Quoted in "ET Work on Sparklines". Retrieved from http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=000AIr. He introduced the term sparkline in 2006 for "small, high resolution graphics embedded in a context of words, numbers, images",{{Cite web | url=http://www.bissantz.com/sparklines | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311173343/http://www.bissantz.com/sparklines/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=2007-03-11 | title=Sparklines: Another masterpiece of Edward Tufte | author=Bissantz & Company GmbH }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001OR&topic_id=1 |title=Sparkline theory and practice |work=Edward Tufte forum |author=Edward Tufte |date=November 2013}} which are "data-intense, design-simple, word-sized graphics".{{cite book | author = Edward Tufte | year = 2006 | title = Beautiful Evidence | publisher = Graphics Press | isbn = 0-9613921-7-7 }} Later in 2020, Tufte attributed the idea to Donald Knuth's "METAFONTbook".{{cite tweet|user=EdwardTufte|number=1261679629577924609|title=Donald Knuth in The METAFONTbook, 1986, uses a letterform matrix 100pt by 10pt to show data with a "skyline texture." Knuth has invented everything. The history of sparkline-like inline graphics for 800 years:}}

File:Screenshot of Sparklines in Medved QuoteTracker, 1998.png

The first software sparkline was programmed in 1999 by Peter Zelchenko. He introduced "an inline-chart" feature for Mike Medved's QuoteTracker.{{Cite web |title=WaybackMachine snapshot from October 13, 1999, see "Screen Shots" |url=http://www.quotetracker.com/index.htm |url-status=unfit |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/19991127150331/http://www.quotetracker.com/index.htm |archivedate=1999-11-27}}{{Cite conference |last=Capadisli |first=Sarven |date=October 18, 2016 |title=Sparqlines: SPARQL to Sparkline |url=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1654/article-08.pdf |conference=Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Semantic Statistics co-located with 15th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2016) |volume=1654}} TD Ameritrade later discontinued QuoteTracker.{{Cite web |last=Carey |first=Theresa W. |date=Nov 26, 2016 |title=Medved Revives; Sneak Peek at StockNews.com |url=https://www.barrons.com/articles/medved-revives-sneak-peek-at-stocknews-com-1480137092 |website=Barron's}}

On May 7, 2008, Microsoft employees filed a patent application for the implementation of sparklines in Microsoft Excel 2010. The application was published on November 12, 2009,{{cite web |url=http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2009/0282325.html|title=Sparklines in the grid|date=2009-11-12|accessdate = 2009-11-19}} prompting Tufte{{cite web|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2009/07/17/sparklines-in-excel.aspx|title=Sparklines in Excel|date=2009-07-17|accessdate=2009-11-20}} to express concerns about patent breadth and non-novelty.{{cite web |url=http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0003Y1&topic_id=1|title=Microsoft makes patent claim for Sparklines|date=2009-11-19|accessdate = 2009-11-19 }} On 23 January, 2009, MultiRacio Ltd. published an OpenOffice.org Calc extension named "EuroOffice Sparkline".{{cite web|url=https://extensions.openoffice.org/project/eurooffice-sparkline|title=EuroOffice Sparkline {{!}} OpenOffice.org repository for Extensions|accessdate=2018-07-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126060521/http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/eurooffice-sparkline|archive-date=2009-01-26|url-status=live}} On March 3, 2022, Tomaž Vajngerl implemented sparklines in LibreOffice Calc version 7.4, including support for importing sparklines from the OOXML Workbook format.{{cite web |url=https://tomazvajngerl.blogspot.com/2022/03/sparklines-in-calc.html|first=Tomaž |last=Vajngerl|title=Sparklines in Calc|date=2022-03-08|accessdate = 2022-03-09}}

Usage

Sparklines are frequently used in line with text. For example:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average for February 7, 2006 File:Sparkline dowjones new.svg.

The sparkline should be about the same height as the text around it. Tufte offers some useful design principles for the sizing of sparklines to maximize their readability.

Sparkline

History

Usage

See also

References

Further reading