Choosing an output

Three places a chart can end up, and they are not interchangeable.

Interactive chart (Highcharts, in the CMS)

The default for anything on the website. Readers can hover for values, the chart reflows on a phone, and the styling comes from the theme — so it stays correct when the theme changes.

Use it unless you have a specific reason not to.

Static SVG (in the CMS)

Only when a chart cannot be expressed in Highcharts — a hand-drawn schematic, an annotated diagram, something from a designer.

Be aware of what you give up. A static SVG is frozen: it will not restyle when tokens change, it will not reflow on a phone, and it carries no tooltips. The three static charts currently published also render in the wrong typeface, because the SVG stylesheet hardcodes Highcharts' default system stack rather than Soehne.

If you are reaching for static SVG because the interactive version is fiddly, fix the interactive version.

Report and deck (InDesign, Slides, PowerPoint)

Out of scope for this system today. The print token layer exists as structure for that work but holds no values yet.

Until it does, treat a chart in a deck as a separate artefact that happens to look similar — not as the same chart. Do not assume a colour picked on screen will reproduce on a page; that is exactly what the CMYK slots are for, and they are empty.

Captioning and sourcing charts

Every chart needs a source

Use the Source field on the chart block, not the chart title and not the body text. It renders beneath the chart at 10px and stays attached if the chart is moved.

Name the dataset and the year, not just the organisation. "AEMO" is not a source; "AEMO, Integrated System Plan 2024" is.

Titles carry the finding, not the variable

The title should say what the reader should take away. The axis already says what is plotted.

• Weak: Liquid fuel demand by sector, 2026-2040
• Better: Australia can achieve very high levels of fuel security by 2040

This is why titles live on the chart block rather than inside the config — they are editorial, and they get edited.

Attach the data

If the chart is based on a table you can publish, attach it with the Data File field. It costs nothing and it is the single most common request after a report lands.

Colour carries meaning, so do not pick it by eye

If a series is a fuel type, use the fuel concept colours — coal is always near-black, gas always orange. If a series is a level of agreement, use the sentiment scale. Readers learn these across figures, and a chart that breaks them is actively misleading.

Only reach for the default sequence when a series genuinely has no inherent meaning.

Do not choose annotation text colour by hand

Ask the theme for it. Judging legibility by eye is how a published chart ended up with white text at 3.05:1 on a light blue fill, which fails WCAG AA.