Understanding Color Assignment in Charts

Last updated: September 25, 2025

This article explains how colors are assigned to different values in charts and how to control color consistency across your visualizations.

How Colors are Assigned

When displaying categorical data in charts, colors are assigned using the following algorithm:

  1. All possible chart values across the entire dashboard are collected and sorted alphanumerically

  2. For charts with fewer values than colors in the palette:

    • Values are distributed evenly across the available colors

    • The system ensures no color repeats

  3. For charts with more values than colors in the palette:

    • Color repeats are allowed

    • Colors are reassigned consistently if new values are added later

Ensuring Color Consistency

To maintain consistent colors across charts in a dashboard:

  1. Make sure charts are grouped by the same field

  2. Enable the "Values share colors" option in chart settings

Customizing Colors with Themes

You can customize the color palette used in your dashboards by creating and managing themes:

  1. Navigate to the Styles page

  2. Create a new theme or edit an existing one

  3. Customize the categorical color palette for your charts

When embedding dashboards, you can specify different themes to apply different color palettes based on your needs. Learn more about using multiple themes.

Category Colors

For consistent colors across all dashboards, you can set up category colors if your labels are consistent. See our guide on setting up category colors for more details.