Product	Release
SAS/GRAPH	9.2

Controlling The Appearance of Your Graphs

Overview

Along with table and page attributes, ODS styles contain a collection of graphical attributes such as color, marker shape, line pattern, fonts, and so on. Many carefully designed styles that enhance the visual impact of the graphics are shipped with SAS. In addition to creating visually appealing graphics, the styles provide the following key elements of effective graphics:

maximum contrast between backgrounds and data
ease of discrimination between different groups
equal emphasis for data with equal importance

These default styles produce professional-looking graphics without modification. However, you can use SAS/GRAPH statement options to override specific elements in the styles, or you can modify style elements to create a customized style for your organization.

Levels of Customization
Method	Description	Level of Complexity
Specify a different style template. See Changing the Current Style by Using the STYLE= Option in ODS Destination Statements.	Specify a style template with the STYLE= option to change the appearance of the entire graph. Requires no further modification.	Low
Use appearance options. See Overriding Style Defaults With SAS/GRAPH Statement Options.	Specify an appearance option using SAS/GRAPH procedure options or global statement options to change various aspects of your graph. This method requires modification of your SAS/GRAPH program.	Medium
Modify individual style elements. See Modifying a Style.	Specify or change style attributes in order to modify a style element. This requires the use of PROC TEMPLATE style statements.	High

Note: This document deals only with device-based graphics. See Device-Based Graphics And Template-Based Graphics. [cautionend]

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SAS/GRAPH(R) 9.2 Reference

Overview