Orson Charts

(C)opyright 2013-present, by David Gilbert. All rights reserved.

Version 2.1.1, 22 May 2025.

Overview

Orson Charts is a 3D chart library for the Java™ platform that can generate a wide variety of 3D charts for use in client-side applications (JavaFX and Swing) and server-side applications (with export to PDF, SVG, PNG and JPEG).

Key features include:

• multiple chart types: pie charts, bar charts (regular and stacked), line charts, area charts, scatter charts and surface plots;
• mouse-enabled chart viewers in JavaFX and Swing provide 360 degree rotation and zooming for precise end-user view control;
• configurable tool tip support;
• interactive charts (mouse event support on all chart elements);
• flexible data sources;
• JSON format data import and export;
• regular and logarithmic axis scales;
• auto-adaptive axis labeling;
• value and range marker annotations
• support for PDF, SVG, PNG and JPG export of charts for reporting;
• a clean and well-documented API with a high degree of chart configurability.

Orson Charts is very easy to use, and includes comprehensive Javadocs. It is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3 or later. Orson Charts requires JDK/JRE 11 or later. To use Orson Charts with JavaFX requires the Orson Charts FX extension project.

Demos

Demo applications can be found in the following projects at GitHub:

• JFree-Demos
• JFree-FXDemos

Building

You can build Orson Charts using Maven by issuing the following command from the root directory of the project:

mvn clean install

The build requires JDK 11 or later.

Reporting Bugs

If you find a bug in Orson Charts, please file a bug report at:

https://github.com/jfree/orson-charts/issues

History

Version 2.1.1 : 22-May-2025

• updated Maven release setup

Version 2.1.0 : 23-Jan-2022

• bug fix - axis ranges not being updated correctly. See issue #9
• clean-up - fix numerous warnings/hints highlighted by IntelliJ IDEA.
• dependencies - upgraded JUnit to version 5;
• build - set plugin versions in pom.xml.

Version 2.0 : 15-Mar-2020

• created a Java module (org.jfree.chart3d);
• refactored into org.jfree.chart3d namespace;
• fixed bug #4 in NumberAxis3D where tick label override is not applied.

Version 1.7 : 17-Nov-2017

• removed JavaFX support to a separate project Orson Charts FX;
• fixed cell content bug in GridElement;
• fixed bug in GradientColorScale;
• protect from NullPointerException in AbstractValueAxis3D;
• streamline build by removing Ant build support and moving demo code to external projects.

Version 1.6 : 2-Nov-2016

• added remove() method to XYZSeries and added change notification mechanism;
• added remove() and removeAll() methods to XYZSeriesCollection and added change notification;
• added generics to source files;
• updated FXGraphics2D to version 1.5;
• updated JFreeSVG to version 3.2.

Version 1.5 : 28-Jan-2016

• added new LineXYZRenderer;
• added option to invert axes;
• fix exception when setting a new dataset using CategoryPlot3D.setDataset():
• fix direction of mouse wheel zooming in JavaFX;
• included FXGraphics2D version 1.3 as a dependency;
• updated OrsonPDF to version 1.7;
• updated JFreeSVG to version 3.0;
• added pom.xml for Maven builds;
• JavaFX demos brought up to match the Swing demos;
• various Javadoc improvements.

Version 1.4 : 27-May-2014

• added JavaFX support;
• added support to marker elements and item labels for KEY_BEGIN_ELEMENT and KEY_END_ELEMENT rendering hints;
• added JPEG export option;
• added minAutoRangeLength attribute in AbstractValueAxis3D (this fixes a bug for plots where the length of the data range is zero, for example scatter plots with a single value);
• fixed endless loop in axis range code for datasets with infinite values;
• fixed bug in hinting for tick labels on NumberAxis3D;
• fixed Utils.js functions that didn't work with Internet Explorer 9.

Version 1.3 : 11-Apr-2014

• added chart mouse event and tooltip support for the chart viewer in Swing;
• added item label support;
• added JSON format data import and export;
• new utility methods to extract an XYZDataset from a CategoryDataset3D;
• fixed a clipping issue for panels with borders assigned;
• added rendering hints for SVG output via JFreeSVG (to support tool-tips and mouse events on chart elements);
• added JavaScript utility library to support JFreeSVG export;

Version 1.2 : 7-Mar-2014

• added value and range markers for numerical axes, and category markers for category axes;
• added a tickLabelOrientation attribute for axes so that tick labels can be drawn either perpendicular or parallel to the axis line;
• added a logarithmic axis;
• added theme support, with several built-in themes;
• added template driven label generators for pie section labels and category axis labels;
• added export to JPEG, plus options to configure the available export types;
• optimized the rendering code to reduce memory usage;
• put in place a localisation mechanism, and added German and Italian translations;
• made the projection distance configurable in the chart viewer;
• added series accessors for XYZSeriesCollection;
• added yDimensionOverride attribute for CategoryPlot3D;
• fixed an issue with the StackedBarRenderer and negative values;
• incorporated various other bug fixes.

Version 1.1 : 23-Dec-2013

• added surface plots (via the new SurfaceRenderer class and Chart3DFactory.createSurfaceChart());
• added ColorScale and supporting classes for use by the surface charts;
• added orientation attribute to control the chart legend orientation;
• optimized rendering code for improved performance;
• added missing change events for gridline attributes in CategoryPlot3D;
• added constants including SCALE_TO_FIT_TARGET and CENTER_NO_SCALING to the Fit2D class;
• added setColors(Color...) to AbstractCategoryRenderer3D and AbstractXYZRenderer3D;

Version 1.0 : 17-Nov-2013

This is the first public release of Orson Charts, we welcome your feedback and suggestions.