The Color section in the Style tab controls two related things: how series are colored, and how they are stacked or grouped relative to each other. These settings apply across bar, line, area, scatter, and heatmap charts.
Color faceting
Mapping a field to the Color channel in the Fields tab creates one series per unique value in that field, each assigned a color from the active palette. How this field is typed affects the available options:
| Data type | Palette options |
|---|
| String / nominal | Discrete palettes (one color per category value) |
| Date / temporal | Discrete (nominal) or continuous (temporal gradient) |
| Numeric / quantitative | Discrete (nominal) or continuous (quantitative gradient) |
Palettes
Discrete palettes
For discrete data, colors from the palette are applied in palette order, matching the sort order of the query results. Change the palette order by adjusting the sort in your query.
Enable Reverse colors to reverse the order colors are applied.
Continuous (gradient) palettes
For continuous data, the gradient palette maps to the range of values in your results. Select a different gradient from the palette dropdown to change the color treatment.
Custom palettes
If none of the provided palettes fit your needs, you can build a custom palette for an individual chart:
- Open the Color section of the Style tab.
- Select the last option in the palette menu: Custom palette.
- Click Customize to open the palette editor.
- Add, remove, and edit individual hex colors.
- Use Open hex code editor to toggle a bulk editor and paste a comma-separated list of hex values.
To reuse a custom palette across charts, copy the hex codes and paste them into the custom palette editor of another chart.
Series color controls
When no Color channel is assigned (single measure, no color-by), each series gets an individual color picker in the Series section of the Style tab. Click the color swatch next to a series to change its color.
Stacking options
The stacking behavior controls how multiple series at the same X-axis value are positioned relative to each other. The available modes:
| Option | Behavior |
|---|
| Automatic | Cube selects the best option based on chart type and data |
| Stack | Series are stacked on top of each other |
| Group | Series are placed side-by-side (bar charts only) |
| Overlay | Series are drawn on top of each other from the same baseline |
| Stack % | Series are stacked and normalized to 100% — tooltip shows raw value |
Per-axis stacking
Stacking can also be set independently per Y-axis series in the Y-axis series configuration. This enables creating grouped clusters of stacked sub-groups — for example, two stacked grouplets placed side-by-side.
Stacked segment sorting
When stacking is active, control how segments within each stack are ordered using Sort stack by:
| Option | Description |
|---|
| Label | Alphabetical by dimension value (default) |
| Value | By measure value within each individual stack (bar/column only) |
| Sum | By total sum across all stacks — useful for ordering by overall contribution |
| Unsorted | Preserves the original data order from the query results |
The Value sorting option is only available for bar and column charts. For area and line charts, use Sum or Label.
| Option | Description |
|---|
| Position | Right, left, top, or bottom |
| Hidden | Remove the legend entirely |
