Basic Bar Chart — Pygal

A vertical bar chart that displays categorical data with rectangular bars whose heights are proportional to the values they represent. This fundamental visualization is ideal for comparing discrete categories and identifying which categories have the highest or lowest values. Bar charts excel at showing rankings, distributions across categories, and making relative comparisons intuitive.

Basic Bar Chart rendered with Pygal

Python source (Pygal)

""" anyplot.ai
bar-basic: Basic Bar Chart
Library: pygal 3.1.0 | Python 3.13.13
Quality: 88/100 | Updated: 2026-05-28
"""

import os
import sys


# Prevent this file from shadowing the installed pygal package
sys.path = [p for p in sys.path if not p.endswith("/implementations/python")]

import pygal
from pygal.style import Style


# Theme tokens
THEME = os.getenv("ANYPLOT_THEME", "light")
PAGE_BG = "#FAF8F1" if THEME == "light" else "#1A1A17"
INK = "#1A1A17" if THEME == "light" else "#F0EFE8"
INK_MUTED = "#6B6A63" if THEME == "light" else "#A8A79F"

IMPRINT_PALETTE = ("#009E73", "#C475FD", "#4467A3", "#BD8233", "#AE3030", "#2ABCCD", "#954477", "#99B314")
BRAND = IMPRINT_PALETTE[0]

# Data — website traffic by channel (Q4 2025), sorted descending for ranking readability
categories_raw = ["Organic Search", "Direct", "Social Media", "Email", "Referral", "Paid Ads", "Affiliates"]
values_raw = [142500, 98700, 87300, 53200, 41800, 72600, 18900]

sorted_pairs = sorted(zip(values_raw, categories_raw, strict=False), reverse=True)
values, categories = zip(*sorted_pairs, strict=False)
values, categories = list(values), list(categories)

max_idx = 0  # descending sort puts leader first
total = sum(values)

# Per-bar data — highlight leader with brand green, muted for the rest
bar_data = [{"value": v, "color": BRAND if i == max_idx else INK_MUTED} for i, v in enumerate(values)]
bar_data[max_idx]["formatter"] = lambda x: f"★ {x:,.0f} ({x / total:.0%} of total)"

# Style — title is 40 chars (<67), so title_font_size stays at 66
custom_style = Style(
    background=PAGE_BG,
    plot_background=PAGE_BG,
    foreground=INK,
    foreground_strong=INK,
    foreground_subtle=INK_MUTED,
    colors=IMPRINT_PALETTE,
    title_font_size=66,
    label_font_size=56,
    major_label_font_size=44,
    legend_font_size=44,
    value_font_size=36,
    stroke_width=2.5,
)

# Chart
chart = pygal.Bar(
    width=3200,
    height=1800,
    title="bar-basic · python · pygal · anyplot.ai\nOrganic Search leads Q4 2025 traffic at 28% share",
    x_title="Channel",
    y_title="Visits (Q4 2025)",
    style=custom_style,
    show_legend=False,
    print_values=True,
    print_values_position="top",
    value_formatter=lambda x: f"{x:,.0f}",
    show_y_guides=True,
    show_x_guides=False,
    margin=20,
    margin_bottom=60,
    margin_left=30,
    margin_right=30,
    rounded_bars=6,
    truncate_label=-1,
    x_label_rotation=0,
    show_minor_y_labels=False,
    y_labels_major_every=1,
)

chart.y_labels = [0, 30000, 60000, 90000, 120000, 150000]
chart.x_labels = categories
chart.add("Visits", bar_data)

# Save
chart.render_to_png(f"plot-{THEME}.png")
with open(f"plot-{THEME}.html", "wb") as f:
    f.write(chart.render())

Part of Basic Bar Chart on anyplot.ai.

Other implementations