Creative Cloud Charts (Preview) was introduced in the June 2015 release of Illustrator CC as a technology preview to gather real-world feedback from customers on the new service. Based on customer feedback, the Illustrator team has decided to pause Charts and revisit the design of the feature. The Charts preview won’t be included in Illustrator with the November 2015 release.
After November 30, 2015 when an Illustrator document containing a chart is opened, the Chart will be converted to standard Illustrator vector graphics. Customers who have Chart data they would like to save will have until January 15, 2016 to visit the Creative Cloud Charts service and copy the chart data to a spreadsheet that can be saved to their desktop. Please refer to the Creative Cloud Charts FAQ for more information.
Creative Cloud Charts (CC Charts) — a new Creative Cloud service — allows designers to create compelling charts and infographics.
Illustrator supports the following types of charts:
Scale by Value chart
You can now use any custom art to represent data values in the chart's design. Users now have unprecedented control and flexibility on chart elements – they can be stylized and treated for visual appeal, to create aesthetic charts, without breaking the link to the underlying data.
Column chart
Represent numerical data with column charts (histograms). From the CC Charts web view, you can edit the data or the layout of the chart.
Here's how a typical workflow looks like:
- Use the CC Charts tool to create a column chart or drag an available chart from a library in the Libraries panel to the artboard.
- (For Scale by Value charts) In Illustrator:
- In the Chart object context menu, click Edit on Creative Cloud. A new browser tab or window is opened.
- In the browser interface:
Creating a brand new chart
Get Started!
Creative Cloud Charts web view
All the action happens here!
Modifying chart layout
Move stuff around - customize!
Chart options
Change the layout - customize!
Editing chart appearance
Change the appearance - customize!
Importing/ Defining chart data
Get your numbers in!
Editing chart data
Make your numbers count!
Tell us what you think
A short survey for you to tell us how we're doing.
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CC Charts context menu
Use the Charts menu to
- Change the chart type.
Note: Currently, Illustrator supports the Scale by Valueand Columns charts
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- Duplicate the current chart
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- Edit the chart data and layout in the Creative Cloud Charts web view.
- Change the chart type.
When you create a column chart object, to work with the layout of the chart, import or modify data, and more, you must edit the chart online in Creative Cloud.
When you edit a chart on Creative Cloud, in addition to modifying the data and the appearance of the chart, you can perform other actions.
- Details. Click the link to view various details about the chart.
- Zoom. In the Chart tab, specify a zoom value, choose fit the chart to the available space, or a realistic 1:1 view.
Note: The zoom value is only for display purposes and does not affect the dimensions of the chart artwork. - Share. Click Share > Send Link to forward a link of the image of the chart to a mail recipient.
- Actions. Choose from these actions:
- Rename. Provide a new name for the Chart.
- Delete. Delete the chart.
For the column chart, you can change the layout for the:
- Complete chart
- Value (Y) axis
- Category (X) axis
- Chart data
The options available for each of the parts of the column chart are specific to the section. These options are described in the next section of this article.

Category (X) axis:
Click the X axis. This includes the axis line or on the categories displayed on the axis


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Each chart type contains a number of configurable options. Click the respective chart type tab below.
Scaling |
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Stretch artwork | Option available when Scaling = Stretch-to-fit:
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Layout |
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Direction | Option available when Layout = Flow:
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Alignment | Option available when Layout = Flow:
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Spacing | Option available when Layout = Flow Use the slider to alter the spacing between successive artwork. |
Note:
Some options are common to different parts of the column chart. For conciseness, the common options are not repeated.
Chart |
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CATEGORY (X) AXIS |
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VALUE (Y) AXIS |
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- Between Columns: Space between the chart columns within a set. The value is a percentage of the width of the chart columns
- Between Sets: Space between the sets of columns
- W: Chart width in pixels
- H: Chart height in pixels
: Changing the width or height proportionately updates the other dimension. Choose unlock to change each dimension independent of the other.
To change the Value (Y) or Category (X) axis specific options, click the Y or X axis
OVERRIDE SCALE |
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GRIDLINES |
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POSITION |
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POSITION |
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POSITION |
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Format | Choose the format of the data labels
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You can change the appearance of the chart. For example, you can change the artwork in Scale by Value charts or the color of bars in Columns charts.
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Change the appearance of individual objects to highlight your data points
Note:
Some complex appearances such as effects, multiple fills, etc. do not appear while editing the chart on Creative Cloud. However, these appearances are preserved inside Illustrator.
You can change the appearance of an entire chart, all the bars on the chart, a bar group, or a single bar. To change the appearance of a specific component of a chart, use the chart selection functionality in column charts.
A column chart contains different levels of selection. Illustrator, provides a drill-down functionality that allows you to successively select charts components at different levels.
For the column chart, the drill-down functionality works for the bars in the chart, the grid lines, and the axis lines.
To drill down the bars in a chart:
- To select the entire Column chart, click once on a bar on the chart area.
- To select all the bars in the chart, click again on a bar.
- To select a bar group in the chart, click again on a bar.
- To select a single bar, click again on the bar.
- To select the entire Column chart, click once on the chart area.
- To select all the grid line in the chart, click again on a grid line.
- To select a single bar, click again on the bar.
- To select the entire Column chart, click once on the chart area.
- To select an axis and its tick marks, click again on the axis or its tick marks.
- To select the axis line, click the axis line.
OR
To select a tick mark, click the axis tick mark.
The chart drill-down functionality allows you to successively drill down the components in the chart. However, to directly select a component at the lowest level, you can use the Direct Selection tool.
To select a single bar, choose the Direct Selection tool (A), and click the bar.
Similarly, to select a single grid or axis line, choose the Direct Selection tool (A), and click the line.
By using the component selection functionality for charts, you can choose to change the appearance specific components of a chart.
To change the color of a group of bars:
- Use the drill-down functionality, to select a group of bars.
- Using the Illustrator Fill, choose a color to apply to the bars.

Similarly, you can change the colors of the other bar groups. You can also change the appearance of the grid lines.
- Again, use the drill-down functionality, to select the grid lines.
- Using the Illustrator Stroke, change the lines to dotted lines.

You can also change the appearance (such as font-family, font-size) of the text on the chart.
Select the entire chart.
- Open the Character panel (Window > Type > Character).
- Choose from the options in the Character panel, to change the text appearance.
To select specific text objects in the chart, you need to use the Direct Selection tool.
Note:
When you change data in the Charts tab, remember to click Apply, and then click Save, to ensure that the chart is updated in Illustrator.
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Add, modify, and refine your data, and then click Save.
Each time you click Save, the chart is updated in Illustrator.
Note:
The speed at which the chart is updated in Illustrator depends on the speed of internet connectivity. This may vary from as little as nearly-immediately to upto 12-15 seconds.
Note:
When you change data in the Charts tab, remember to click Apply, and then click Save, to ensure that the chart is updated in Illustrator.
Here's a really quick survey that helps us understand your level of satisfaction with the Creative Cloud Charts (Preview) feature. Where possible, please provide as many details as possible. Thanks!
Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CC_Charts_Feedback.