When creating charts for reports or presentations, choosing coordinating colors takes time and design sense. Chart palettes in Operator10 solve this with pre-built color schemes that apply professional color combinations instantly, along with matching background styles that make your data stand out.
Why use chart palettes?
Manual color selection often results in clashing colors, poor contrast, or charts that look unprofessional. Red series on a blue background might be hard to read. Three shades of blue might be indistinguishable. Chart palettes are pre-designed by developers to ensure good contrast, visual hierarchy, and professional appearance. You get polished charts without guessing which colors work together.
How to access chart palettes
Open your chart in Operator10 and click Properties. Go to the Appearance section on the left sidebar. Under Palette, you’ll see a dropdown with multiple options: Default, Northern Lights, Pastel, and others. Click the dropdown to preview each palette. The mini preview window updates immediately to show how your chart looks with that palette. Select the one that fits your needs and the chart colors change automatically.
Northern Lights and other named palettes
Operator10’s developers created named chart palettes with personality. Northern Lights uses vibrant blues, greens, and purples that evoke aurora borealis—high contrast, visually striking, good for presentation slides. Pastel offers softer tones suitable for printed reports where harsh colors cause eye strain. Each palette is designed for specific use cases, so experiment to find which palette fits your audience and medium (screen, print, projection).
Palette affects series colors automatically
When you select a chart palette, Operator10 reassigns colors to each series (data line or bar) on your chart. If you have three series—Influent BOD, Effluent BOD, and Secondary BOD—the palette distributes three distinct, coordinating colors across those series. If you add a fourth series later, the palette automatically assigns a fourth color that fits the scheme. You don’t manually pick colors for each series; the palette handles it systematically.
Background style changes with palettes
Some chart palettes include matching background styles. Northern Lights might pair with a dark background to enhance the vibrant colors. Pastel might use a light or white background for readability. When you select a palette, check the Style dropdown in the same Appearance section to see if it changed. You can override the background style manually if needed, but palettes often suggest optimal pairings.
Custom color overrides
Chart palettes provide starting points, not absolute rules. If you like a palette but want to adjust one series color—maybe your plant uses specific brand colors for influent vs effluent—you can override individual series colors manually while keeping the rest of the palette intact. Go to the Series section, select the series, and change its color under Appearance. The palette still controls other series colors unless you override those too.
Use palettes for consistency across multiple charts
If your monthly report includes five charts, apply the same chart palette to all five. This creates visual consistency: readers see the same color representing influent BOD across all charts, making comparisons easier. Without palette consistency, Chart 1 might show influent as blue while Chart 2 shows it as red, confusing readers. Palettes enforce uniformity effortlessly.
Switch palettes for different audiences
Create one version of a chart with Northern Lights palette for an executive presentation (bold, attention-grabbing), then save a copy with Pastel palette for a regulatory submission report (professional, subdued). Same data, different visual tone. Chart palettes let you adapt presentation style to audience expectations without rebuilding the chart from scratch.
Background style: Flat, gradient, or image
Beyond palette color selection, the Style dropdown in Appearance controls background appearance. Flat applies a solid color (white, black, gray). Gradient creates a subtle color blend, adding visual interest without distraction. Image lets you upload a background picture, though this rarely works well for data charts—use images sparingly and ensure they don’t obscure data. Most charts work best with flat white or black backgrounds paired with appropriate palettes.
Test readability after palette changes
After applying a chart palette, zoom out or view the chart at presentation size. Can you distinguish all series clearly? Are axis labels readable against the background? If text disappears (white text on white background), go to Titles or Axis sections and change text color manually. Palettes control series colors, but you often need to adjust titles, labels, and legends separately to ensure full readability.
Why palettes save time
Without chart palettes, creating a professional-looking chart requires picking 5-10 individual colors for series, background, grid lines, and text. That’s design work. With palettes, you pick one option, and a coordinated color scheme applies instantly. Five-minute task becomes a 30-second task. Multiply across dozens of charts, and palettes save hours of work annually.
Next Steps: Create professional Operator10 charts with palettes →
