Show growth and impact over time with area charts

Display trends and changes over time while emphasizing the magnitude of values. By filling the space beneath the lines, area charts create a more impactful visual representation of how data builds up or varies.

How Area charts work

Area charts work just like line charts but with the space beneath the line filled in to highlight volume or change.

Types of area charts

There are four types of area charts you can use:


Stacked area chart	Displays multiple data series stacked on top of each other, illustrating how individual parts contribute to the whole over time.
Unstacked Area Chart	Presents multiple data series without stacking, ideal for comparing individual values rather than cumulative totals.
Proportional Area Chart	Highlights the relative size of different values as parts of a whole, useful for comparing proportions like market share.
Streamgraph	Displays data changes over time using smooth, flowing shapes, emphasizing the overall flow and variation in data.

Add area charts

This is the first step in adding area charts. Afterwards, you can add chart data manually or import it from an external source.

Create or open an existing design.
From the editor side panel, select
Charts. If it's not there, select the
Apps tab first, then Charts.
Under Area charts, select the best chart for your data.

Set up chart data

Data Requirements:

A label column (e.g., months, years, or categories)
One or more numerical value columns

You can either add your data manually, import it from a spreadsheet, or connect your data source apps.

Add chart data manually

Enter your data into the chart table, then review each part of the chart to make sure it accurately reflects the data in your table

Add data

Select your chart, then click
Edit on the toolbar.
In the side panel, enter your chart values in the Data table. You can also select
Expand data table for a full-screen view of your data.

Add rows and columns

To add a new row, choose a row, then click
(More).
1. Choose between Insert row before or Insert row after.
2. To remove a row, choose Delete row.
To add a new column, choose a column, then click
(More).
1. Choose between Insert column before or Insert column after.
2. To remove a column, choose Delete column.

Note: When editing data on Canva, use the Shift key on your keyboard to select multiple cells, rows, and columns. You can also click and drag to select multiple cells.

Sort data

To sort your chart data, select a column, then click on
(More).
Click Sort table A-Z to sort in ascending order, or click Sort table Z-A to sort in descending order.

Import chart data

Connect to data from Canva Sheets or connect to a data source app. You can also use a CSV, TSV, or XLSX file to import your data. For now, you can only import up to 1000 rows and 100 columns of data.

Select or add a chart, then select
Edit.
From the side panel, click
Import data.
From here, you can choose to:
1. Select Sheets to connect to data from Canva Sheets.
2. Select a data source from the available options: Google Sheets, Salesforce, Google Analytics, HubSpot, World Bank.
3. Upload a CSV, XLSX, or TSV file by selecting
  Upload data.

Tip: After your data loads, you can use

Data Actions to clean and organise it before importing. See Clean imported data with Data Actions below.

4. If you chose a third-party app, sign in to the app (if required) and grant Canva permission to access your data.

5. Choose the specific dataset you want to use from the imported data.

6. Click Done to sync the data with your chart.

Learn more about adding and managing your chart data. You can also format the values for clarity.

Choose which data to display in area charts

After adding your data, select what data you’d like to show and how you’d like it to be displayed in your line chart. You can customise your chart afterwards.

Click on the chart to open the toolbar, then select
Edit.
In the Chart panel, under the Data table, go to Chart Setup.
Under Labels - What to show, select the category column for the X-axis (the horizontal axis).
Under Lines – What values to show click the drop-down menu, and select column(s) with numerical values (Y-axis).

Customise area charts

After choosing which data to display, enhance your area chart’s readability and clarity.

Enhance your area chart’s readability and clarity

Click on the chart to open the toolbar, then select Edit.
On the Chart panel, select the Customise tab.
To add a title and subtitle, go to the Customise tab and enter your Title and Subtitle in their respective text fields.
Click on the Text dropdown. Toggle on or off the Legend switch.
Click on the X Axis or Y Axis dropdown to toggle Labels on or off and add axis titles.
Under Settings dropdown, you can toggle on or off the Grid lines switch.
Under Settings, you can turn tooltips on to show details when you hover over the chart, or off to hide them.

Change chart colours

Click on the chart to open the toolbar.
On the editor toolbar, select the colour tile you'd like to edit. The Colour panel will open on the side.
To use a colour on your chart, click on a colour tile from the options. Hover over a colour to see its display name.
If the colour you're looking for isn't available, click
Add a new colour (the rainbow colour tile).
To pick a colour from your design, click the
Pick a colour (eyedropper) button and select any colour on the canvas.
To replace a colour across the current page or the entire pages, select Current page or All pages.
If your Team admin or Brand designer has already added the chart style to your team’s Brand Kit, choose from your brand colours. For detailed steps, check out Create on-brand charts.

FAQs

How does the Streamgraph chart work?

A streamgraph is a variation of an area chart where:

The baseline is centred around the X-axis.
Data flows both above and below the centre, creating smooth, coloured bands. Each band represents a category (for example, genre or product type).
It's effective for showing how categories fluctuate over time.

For example, visualising music streaming trends over a year. Each genre (pop, rock, hip-hop, etc.) becomes a stream, showing when each surged or dipped in popularity, like how holiday music spikes in December.

Want more dynamic chart options? Check out Add advanced charts via Flourish to learn more. Explore Flourish charts.

Not sure where to start? Check out Get started with Canva Charts.

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