Sample CSV
| Month | Average Rainfall (mm) |
|---|---|
| Jan | 146 |
| Feb | 109 |
| Mar | 97 |
| Apr | 66 |
| May | 44 |
| Jun | 39 |
| Jul | 18 |
| Aug | 25 |
| Sep | 41 |
| Oct | 88 |
| Nov | 158 |
| Dec | 152 |
How to Create a Polar Area Chart
A step by step walkthrough for turning a spreadsheet of cyclical categories into a published polar area chart in PlotSet, from shaping the sheet to adding a scale and exporting the finished rose.
About 8 minutesA spreadsheet of months, hours or compass directions is the starting point for how to create a polar area chart in PlotSet, ending with a published circular chart that carries a real scale, not just a decorative rose. Not a screenshot of someone else's rose chart, your own data, run through the same click path a PlotSet chart takes from upload to publish.
If your spreadsheet is already two columns, category and value, in the order you want them to appear around the circle, this takes about eight minutes. Add another five if you're reordering a report that came out sorted by value, or renaming months so they match a calendar year instead of a fiscal one. Budget the eight minutes below and treat the rest as a buffer.
The data you need
Two columns, one row per sector, listed in the order you want them to appear around the circle. Category first, number second, one header row. No totals row, no sorting by value.
List categories in the order they should sit around the circle. PlotSet places rows starting near the top and moving clockwise, so a resorted or alphabetized sheet breaks a cycle like the calendar.
Keep the value column free of negative numbers. A polar area chart has no direction below the centre to draw a sector in, so a negative value either gets clipped or throws off the whole scale.
Delete any totals or subtotals row before uploading. A stray "Total" row becomes a sector of its own, usually the longest one, and it wrecks the radial scale for every other category.
Blank cells in the value column render as a zero-length sector rather than being skipped. Fill them in or remove the row before you upload.
The steps
The exact click path in PlotSet, from a blank template to a finished chart.
- 01
Start the Polar Area Chart template
From the PlotSet dashboard, start a new project and choose the Polar Area Chart template (listed as the radial polar bar template in the library). It loads with twelve sample sectors already in place, so you can see the column layout before swapping in your own file.
Every guide starts here. Pick the category, then the template: it is the same grid whichever chart type you are after. - 02
Shape your sheet into two columns, in cycle order
Category in the first column, its number in the second, one row per sector. Order the rows the way you want them to read around the circle: January through December, midnight through 11pm, or north through northwest. PlotSet plots rows in sheet order; it does not infer a calendar or a clock face for you.
- 03
Upload your file or connect a sheet
Import a CSV or .xlsx file from the data panel, paste rows straight from a spreadsheet, or connect a Google Sheet if you want the chart to update later without a re-upload. PlotSet reads the first row as headers automatically.
The data view, shown here on a bar chart project. Upload a CSV, lift the numbers out of an image with Magic Import, or sync a Google Sheet. The panel is identical for every chart type. - 04
Map the category and value columns
Confirm which column feeds the angular position and which feeds the radius. This is usually automatic when your headers are clear, but worth checking manually if your sheet carries extra columns PlotSet had to guess at.
Bindings decide which column becomes the label, which supplies the values and which drives the colour. Auto Binding guesses them from your headers, so check it rather than assume it. - 05
Leave the sort alone
Unlike a bar chart, resist switching this to sort by value. Sorting breaks the cycle you built into the row order, putting December next to July instead of January. If your categories genuinely have no natural order, a bar chart will serve the comparison better than forcing them into a circle.
- 06
Turn on radial gridlines and label the scale
Add the concentric rings and label at least two of them with real values. Without a visible scale, a reader can see which sector is biggest but has no way to convert a radius into a number, and the chart stops doing a chart's job.
- 07
Style one colour and add sector labels
A single series gets one consistent colour, same reasoning as a bar chart: colour isn't carrying any information here. Turn on labels at the outer edge of each sector so the exact value is readable without measuring against the rings, since the area exaggerates differences more than a straight bar would.
The Preview tab for a Polar Area Chart. Every styling control lives in the outlined panel, each on its own tab: appearance, header, footer and the options specific to this chart type. - 08
Publish, embed or export the finished rose
Publish for a live interactive chart with hover tooltips and a shareable link, grab the embed code to drop it into a page, or export a PNG, SVG or PDF if you need a static image for a deck or report.
Start from the Polar Area Chart template with sample data already loaded, then swap in your own.
Open the templatePublish, embed or export it
The last stretch is the same for every chart type: Share turns the chart into a live public link and an embed code, Export writes it out as a static file.
Share: public link and embed code
Activating the embed code and public link publishes the chart. The link is safe to send to anyone, and the embed code drops into any page as an iframe that keeps the hover tooltips and the interactivity. Edit the chart later and hit Recreate to push those changes out to both.
Export: SVG, PNG or JPG
Export writes a static copy at whatever size you need. SVG stays sharp at any scale and can still be edited in a design tool; PNG and JPG are the safe choices for slides and documents. The scale multiplier is what gets you a crisp image on a retina screen.
Styling tips for a Polar Area Chart
Keep it to categories that actually cycle
Months, hours, compass directions, days of the week. If your categories don't have a natural loop, the circle implies a relationship between neighbours that isn't real, and a sorted bar chart will tell the same story more clearly.
Cap it around twelve sectors
Twelve months work well because each label still has room to breathe. Past about a dozen sectors, labels start colliding at the outer edge, and the rose turns into a solid blob near the centre where the radii sit close together.
Start the radius at zero, always
Radius is the encoding here, exactly like a bar's length is the encoding on a bar chart. A truncated scale exaggerates every sector, and since area already grows faster than radius, a non-zero start compounds the distortion instead of fixing anything.
Print the numbers, don't rely on the shape
Because area scales with the square of the radius, two sectors that differ by twenty percent in value can look twice as different by eye. Turn on value labels so the reader isn't left estimating from the picture alone.
Common mistakes when making a Polar Area Chart
The sectors are sorted by value and the cycle is gone
This is usually the sort control defaulting to descending, the same setting that helps a bar chart and ruins a polar area chart. Open the sort setting in the chart settings and switch it back to the sheet's own row order.
The chart looks good but nobody can read a value off it
This means the radial gridlines are off or unlabeled. Turn them on and label at least two rings with real numbers, otherwise the circle is decoration, not a chart.
Labels overlap at the outer edge
Usually too many sectors for the space; past about fifteen categories the labels start colliding no matter how the chart is sized. Group the smallest categories into an "Other" sector, or move to a bar chart if every category needs its own visible label.
Learn more about the Polar Area Chart
Not sure the Polar Area Chart is the right choice? See what it is, when to use it and when not to.
Polar Area Chart: common questions
Two columns and one header row: category names in the first column, one number per category in the second, listed in the order you want them to appear around the circle. CSV and .xlsx both work, and a pasted range from any spreadsheet tool is fine too.
Make your Polar Area Chart now
Free to start with 300+ templates. No credit card required.