Sparkline Chart

Sparkline Chart (or simply Sparklines) was introduced by Edward Tufte as a small graph that is nonetheless capable of visualizing a large amount of data.

The main feature of this chart type is its tiny size, causing (or being made possible by) the absence of axes or any notes, which makes it impossible for viewers to see precise values. However, Sparkline Charts are great at showing the big picture.

There are four types of Sparklines:

1. Line Sparklines. It is the simplest and most common type of a Sparkline Chart, which consists of points connected by line segments.

2. Area Sparklines. Basically, it is a Line Sparklines graph in which the area between the series and the X axis is filled with color.

3. Column Sparklines. Each point in this type of sparklines-based data visualization is depicted as a vertical rectangle, the height of which corresponds to the data value it represents.

4. Win/Loss Sparklines. It is a variation of the Column Sparklines chart type, in which data points are also drawn as vertical rectangles, but each point in Win/Loss Sparklines only shows whether the corresponding value is positive, negative, or zero. As a result, any chart like this is visually divided in half, with the upper part featuring columns with positive values and the lower one containing columns with negative values.