Charting application - Definition and Overview

A charting application is a name for a computer program that is used to graphically create a graphical representation (a chart) based on some non-graphical data that is entered by a user, most often through a spreadsheet application, but also through a dedicated specific scientific application (such as through a symbolic mathematics computing system, or a proprietary data collection application).

Charting applications often have capabilities to create charts of different types. They permit the user to add embellishments to the chart which are not always easily done if a chart is produced using conventional paper-and-pencil methods, such as changing colours, titles, labels, axes, and so on. Charting applications allow the capabilities of adding dynamically trendlines to graphical data and so on.