Message-ID: <f8e6ff050712171314n1c6374bcoe93a34ec5b86caff@mail.gmail.com>
Date: 2007-12-17T21:14:12Z
From: Hadley Wickham
Subject: bar plot colors
In-Reply-To: <81EA3460BED3AB4483920E05F13B12DD07D79189@WS-BCO-MSE8.milky-way.battelle.org>
> I have a question regarding colors in bar plots. I want to stack a
> total of 18 cost values in each bar. Basically, it is six cost types and
> each cost type has three components- direct, indirect, and induced
> costs. I would like to use both solid color bars and bars with the
> slanted lines (using the density parameter). The colors would
> distinguish cost types and the lines would distinguish
> direct/indirect/induced. I want the cost types (i.e. colors) to be
> stacked together for each cost type. In other words, I don't want all
> of the solid bars at the bottom and all of the slanted lines at the top.
What are you trying to achieve with such a plot? A stacked bar chart
only allows easy comparisons of cumulative totals (eg. cost 1, or cost
1 + 2, or cost 1 + 2 + 3) and it will be very difficult to compare
individual cost types or components within a type. You might want to
think about a series of line plots instead.
Hadley
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