AREA_CHART.md

AreaChart Reference Guide

The AreaChart class is used to create stacked area charts, which are effective for visualizing how multiple components contribute to a total value over time or across categories.

Table of Contents

• Initialization
• Area-Specific Parameters
• Methods
  • create_stacked_area_chart
• Styling Tips

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Initialization

from hachimiku import AreaChart

ac = AreaChart(figsize=(10, 6))

• figsize: Default figure size (width, height) in inches.

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Area-Specific Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
alpha	float/list	Transparency for the filled areas (default: 0.6).
edge_linewidth	float	Width of the line between stacked areas.
edge_color	str	Color of the edges between areas.
color_preset	str	Predefined color palette (default: 'academic_vivid').

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Methods

create_stacked_area_chart

Creates a standard stacked area chart. Useful for showing cumulative totals and individual contributions.

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Styling Tips

Transparency (Alpha)

Since area charts involve large filled regions, using a slightly lower alpha (e.g., 0.5 to 0.7) helps make grid lines visible and softens the visual impact, which is often preferred in modern academic papers.

ac.create_stacked_area_chart(
    ...,
    alpha=0.6,
    grid_y=True
)

Edges

To make individual layers more distinct, you can add a thin edge color:

ac.create_stacked_area_chart(
    ...,
    edge_linewidth=0.5,
    edge_color='white' # or 'black'
)

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Examples

See examples/area_chart_gallery.py for the complete source code used to generate the gallery above.