Line
Tracks how one or more measures move across a continuous period.
Area and 100% area charts: definition, examples, and best practices.
Area charts fill the space beneath a line so trend and volume read together. Use a standard area when absolute totals matter, and a 100% area when the mix over time is the story. Chartbuddy builds both as native, editable charts in Embed, Hub, Google Slides and PowerPoint.
What is an area chart?
An area chart starts as a line chart, then fills the space between the line and the baseline with color. When there are multiple series, the fills usually stack, so the top edge shows the combined total while each band shows that series' contribution.
A 100% area chart stacks every series so the combined total always reaches 100% at every point on the axis. Band thickness shows share, not absolute size, which makes shifting composition easy to see.
A worked example: area
Production workload placement by hosting model, in thousands of workloads, 2015 to 2026. On-premise falls from 71% to 18% of the mix, yet the physical estate still grows 25%, which is the point only a stacked area makes visible. Selected years shown.
| Hosting model | 2015 | 2019 | 2022 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On-premise data centre | 5.96 | 7.50 | 7.90 | 7.42 |
| Colocation | 1.30 | 2.00 | 2.45 | 2.40 |
| Private cloud | 0.75 | 2.55 | 4.40 | 5.35 |
| Public IaaS | 0.30 | 2.00 | 4.85 | 8.30 |
| Managed PaaS | 0.07 | 1.05 | 3.70 | 9.15 |
| Serverless and SaaS | 0.02 | 0.55 | 2.90 | 8.60 |
A worked example: 100% area
Website traffic source mix over three years, as AI referral grows from nothing and takes share from organic search.
When to use area or 100% area
- Cumulative ARR or cash flow growing across product lines, when the total and the mix both matter: use area.
- Traffic, portfolio or workforce mix shifting over many periods while absolute size is secondary: use 100% area.
- A growth story where volume needs to feel substantial on the page: use area.
- A handful of discrete periods rather than a continuous trend: prefer a 100% stacked bar for mix, or a regular stacked bar for totals.
When not to use these
- If cumulative volume is not part of the story, a line chart avoids implying volume that is not meaningful.
- If absolute totals matter as much as the mix, do not use 100% area. It hides totals by design.
How to read them
On a standard area chart, read the top edge for the combined total and the thickness of each band for that series' contribution. On a 100% area chart, ignore overall height. Watch each band's thickness move left to right: a band that widens is gaining share, a band that narrows is losing it.
Best practices
- Use moderate fill opacity so gridlines and other series stay readable.
- Order stacked series intentionally, usually with the largest or most stable series at the base.
- Limit bands to four or five so each stays distinguishable.
- For 100% area, state underlying totals nearby in a subtitle or footnote.
- Keep band order fixed across the period so position never shifts and confuses the reader.
Related charts
100% stacked bar
Shows composition as a share of the total, so every bar reaches the same height.
Stacked bar
Shows the components that make up each total, stacked into one bar per category.
Create professional charts that stay alive across every surface.
Get started