TEMPLATE Procedure: ODS Graphics Overview (Experimental)

ODS Graphics Style Elements and Attributes

Getting Familiar with ODS Graphics and Style References

An ODS style definition is composed of a set of style elements. A style element is a collection of style attributes that apply to a particular feature or aspect of the output. A value is specified for each attribute in a style definition.

Style definitions control the overall appearance of ODS tables and graphs. For ODS graphs, style definitions specify the following features:

background color
graph dimensions (height and width)
borders
line styles for axes and grid lines
fonts, sizes, and colors for titles, footnotes, axis labels, axis values, and data labels
marker symbols, colors, and sizes for data points and outliers
line styles for needles
line and curve styles for fitted models and predicted values
line and curve styles for confidence and prediction limits
fill colors for histogram bars, confidence bands, and confidence ellipses
colors for box plot features
color for surfaces
color ramps for contour plots

In the ODS statistical graph definitions that SAS provides, options for plot features are specified with a style reference in the form style-element:attribute, rather than a specific value. For example, the symbol, color, and size of markers for a basic scatter plot is specified in a SCATTERPLOT statement as follows:

scatterplot x=X y=Y/
   markersymbol=GraphDataDefault:markersymbol
   markercolor=GraphDataDefault:contrastcolor
   markersize=GraphDataDefault:markersize

The above style references guarantee a common appearance for markers used in all basic scatter plots, which is controlled by the GraphDataDefault element of the style definition that you specify.

In order to create your own style definition, or to modify a style definition to use with ODS Graphics, you need to understand the relationship between style elements and graph features. For more information, see "ODS Statistical Graphics and ODS Styles: Usage and Reference (Experimental)" at http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/base/.

Style definitions are created and modified with the TEMPLATE procedure. For more information, see "TEMPLATE Procedure: Creating a Style Definition" in SAS Output Delivery System: User's Guide

Style Elements for ODS Graphics

The following table lists the ODS Graphics style elements. For information about ODS Graphics and style definitions, see "ODS Statistical Graphics and ODS Styles: Usage and Reference (Experimental)" at http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/base/.

ODS Graphics Style Elements
Style Element	Affected Graph Feature	Valid Style Attributes
Graph	graph size and border around it	CELLPADDING CELLSPACING BORDERCOLOR BORDERWIDTH OUTPUTWIDTH OUTPUTHEIGHT
GraphAxisLines	axis lines	FOREGROUND LINESTYLE LINETHICKNESS THRESHOLD
GraphAxisTickMarks	axis tick marks	FOREGROUND TICKDISPLAY MINOR
GraphBackground	background of the graph	BACKGROUND
GraphBorderLines	frame around axis area and legend	FOREGROUND LINESTYLE LINETHICKNESS
GraphDataDefault	graphics primitives related to non-grouped data items	FOREGROUND CONTRASTCOLOR TRANSPARENCY MARKERSYMBOL MARKERSIZE LINESTYLE LINETHICKNESS
GraphData1-GraphData12	graphics primitives related to grouped data items	FOREGROUND CONTRASTCOLOR TRANSPARENCY MARKERSYMBOL LINESTYLE
GraphDataText	text for data point/curve label, reference line label	FONT FOREGROUND
GraphFloor	floor color	BACKGROUND TRANSPARENCY
GraphFootnoteText	text for graph footnote(s)	FONT FOREGROUND
GraphGridLines	grid lines	FOREGROUND LINESTYLE LINETHICKNESS
GraphHeaderBackground	background color of headers including legend	BACKGROUND TRANSPARENCY
GraphLabelText	text for axis labels and legend title	FONT FOREGROUND
GraphLegendBackground	background color of the legend	BACKGROUND TRANSPARENCY
GraphOutlines	lines that outline bars, ellipses, bands and other graphical displays	FOREGROUND LINESTYLE LINETHICKNESS
GraphTitleText	text font for title(s)	FONT FOREGROUND
GraphValueText	text for axis tick values and legend entries	FONT FOREGROUND
GraphWalls	wall color	BACKGROUND TRANSPARENCY
ThreeColorAltRamp	contours and surfaces with continuous response	STARTCOLOR ENDCOLOR NEUTRALCOLOR
ThreeColorRamp	contours and surfaces with continuous response	STARTCOLOR ENDCOLOR NEUTRALCOLOR

ODS Graphics Style Attributes

The following table lists the ODS graphics style attributes. For information about ODS Graphics and style definitions, see "ODS Statistical Graphics and ODS Styles: Usage and Reference (Experimental)" at http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/base/.

ODS Graphics Style Attributes
Style Attribute	Data Value Type	Affected Graph Feature	Examples
BACKGROUND	color	background color of the graph, walls, or floor	BACKGROUND=colors ('docbg') BACKGROUND=blue
BORDERCOLOR	color	color of border	BORDERCOLOR=blue
BORDERWIDTH	dimension	width of the border	BORDERWIDTH=10
CELLPADDING	dimension or %	amount of white space around area	CELLPADDING=2%
CELLSPACING	dimension	thickness of spacing between areas	CELLSPACING=5
CONTRASTCOLOR	color	alternate color where contrast is needed	CONTRASTCOLOR=red
ENDCOLOR	color: final color used with 3-color ramp	contours, gradient legends	ENDCOLOR=red
FONT	aggregate definition in parentheses	all text font attributes	FONT= (" 'Courier New', Courier, monospace", 4 ,medium, roman)
FONT_FACE	string	font face	FONT_FACE= "Courier New"
FONT_SIZE	dimension or %	font size	FONT_SIZE= 10pt
FONT_STYLE	string: italic, roman, slant	font style	FONT_STYLE= italic
FONT_WEIGHT	string: light, medium, bold	font weight	FONT_WEIGHT= bold
FOREGROUND	color	color of line or text	FOREGROUND= colors('docfg')
LINECOLOR	color	color of line	LINECOLOR= GraphColors("gdata1") LINECOLOR= blue
LINESTYLE	integer: 1= solid line 2-46= dash/dot line	borders, axis lines, grid, reference, model, confidence lines	LINESTYLE= 2
LINETHICKNESS	dimension or %	width thickness of line	LINETHICKNESS= 2px LINETHICKNESS= 2%
MARKERCOLOR	color	color of marker	MARKERCOLOR= GraphColors("gdata1") MARKERCOLOR= "blue"
MARKERSIZE	dimension or %	marker size	MARKERSIZE= 5px MARKERSIZE= 3%
MARKERSYMBOL	string	marker used	MARKERSYMBOL= "circle" MARKERSYMBOL= "starfilled star"
MINOR	boolean: on or off	display of minor tick marks on all axes	MINOR= on MINOR= off
NEUTRALCOLOR	color: middle color used with 3-color ramp	contours, gradient legends	NEUTRALCOLOR= orange
OUTPUTHEIGHT	dimension or %	height of graph	OUTPUTHEIGHT= 300px OUTPUTHEIGHT=4%
OUTPUTWIDTH	dimension or %	width of graph	OUTPUTWIDTH= 400px
STARTCOLOR	color: initial color used with 3-color ramp	contours, gradient legends	STARTCOLOR= yellow
THRESHOLD	%	axis tick labeling	THRESHOLD= 30%
TICKDISPLAY	INSIDE OUTSIDE ACROSS	all axis tick marks, major and minor	TICKDISPLAY=inside
TRANSPARENCY	number: 0.0= opaque 1.0= transparent	graphic background areas	TRANSPARENCY= 0.2

Top of Page