Orson Charts

Powerful and beautiful 3D charts for the Java™ platform!

Orson Charts is a 3D chart library for the Java™ platform that can generate a wide variety of 3D charts for use in client-side (JavaFX and Swing) and server-side applications. Powerful and yet very easy to use, Orson Charts is the perfect tool to provide intuitive and interactive visualisations to your users.

  • CategoryMarkerDemo1.png
  • RangeMarkerDemo1.png
  • AreaChart3DDemo2.png

Our aim ... to balance power and ease-of-use for the developer, and deliver stunning interactive charts to end users.

David Gilbert - creator of Orson Charts

Key features include:

  • multiple chart types: pie charts, bar charts (regular and stacked), line charts, area charts, scatter plots and surface charts;
  • a built-in lightweight 3D rendering engine based on Java2D (no OpenGL or other dependencies, therefore easy deployment);
  • mouse-enabled chart viewer components (in Swing and JavaFX) provide 360 degree rotation and zooming for precise end-user view control;
  • configurable tool-tip support;
  • interactive charts (mouse event support on all chart elements);
  • flexible data sources;
  • JSON format import and export;
  • regular and logarithmic axes;
  • auto-adaptive axis labeling, including stepped category labels;
  • value and range markers for all numerical axes;
  • support for PDF, SVG, PNG and JPEG export of charts for reporting;
  • a clean and well-documented API with a high degree of chart configurability.


Open Source

Orson Charts is Free Software, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3. You can download (orsoncharts-1.5.zip) right now! In the download there is a demo application that you can run to quickly explore the capabilities of Orson Charts. If you want to start coding your own charts, here is a useful resource to get you started:


Commercial Licensing

For companies that do not wish to be bound by the terms of the GPL, a commercial license for Orson Charts can be purchased for GBP1,150. Please contact us for reseller and bulk discounts. The license permits royalty-free redistribution of the Orson Charts runtime code as part of your own application. Purchasers will receive free updates during a 1 year maintenance period following purchase.

Support is provided by e-mail (support@object-refinery.com) and the maintenance period is extendable (at a cost of 25% of the current license fee).


Other Info

Orson Charts provides 3D charts only, if you also require 2D charts we recommend JFreeChart (by the same author). Although they are independent libraries, Orson Charts and JFreeChart can easily be used side-by-side in the same application.

If you are developing for Android, please note that we have also developed Orson Charts for Android, so that you can incorporate 3D charts into your Android mobile apps.

The Java and Android versions of Orson Charts share around 90% common code...so we can invest in both simultaneously.

David Gilbert - creator of Orson Charts

Version History

Orson Charts 1.6
2 November 2016

This release includes a change notification mechanism for the XYZSeriesCollection dataset, generics for classes throughout the API, plus upgrades to the FXGraphics2D and JFreeSVG dependencies brining in bug fixes and other improvements.new line renderer.

Orson Charts 1.5
28 January 2016

This release includes a new line renderer, an option to invert axes, improved Maven support, updated SVG and PDF export, improved JavaFX support, and numerous bug fixes.

Orson Charts 1.4
27 May 2014

This release includes support for JavaFX, JPEG export, element hinting for markers and item labels (for SVG generation), enhancements for the axis auto-range calculations, and various bug fixes.

Orson Charts 1.3
11 April 2014

This release includes new interactivity features including mouse events for all chart elements, tool-tips, item label support, new rendering hints for enhanced SVG export (supporting tooltips and mouse events), JSON format dataset import and export, and multiple bug fixes.

Orson Charts 1.2
7 March 2014

This release includes a new logarithmic axis, new value and range markers for both category and XYZ plots, additional axis labelling options (tick label orientation, and stepped labelling for category axes), localisation support, chart themes, JPEG export, rendering engine efficiency improvements and numerous bug fixes.

Orson Charts 1.1
23 December 2013

Orson Charts version 1.1 is now available to download. This release includes surface charts, enhanced legend layout options, performance improvements and bug fixes.

Orson Charts 1.0
17 November 2013

Orson Charts version 1.0 is now available to download. This is the first public release of the library and we welcome your feedback!

"Finally, a Swing-based 3d chart rendering engine! Congratulations!"