What aspect ratio to use when creating line plots

Learn how to create better charts and find hidden insights in time series using appropriate aspect ratios for your line plots.

Photo by Ludde Lorentz on Unsplash

One of the most overlooked aspects of creating charts is the use of incorrect aspect ratios. Even in photography, changing the aspect ratio makes the photograph look skewed. Here, it is easy to rectify the aspect ratio. But is it that easy when creating charts?

Let’s compare three plots and try to answer the following questions:

• Can you see the difference between the plots, or is there none?
• Which of the plots is steeper or flatter? Can you guess?

Image by author

If I say all the three plots are the same. The generated plots are for the line equation y = x, will your answers to the above question change or remain the same.

The leftmost plot has the steepest slope, and the rightmost is flatter. So, you can guess using an incorrect aspect ratio can send the wrong information.