This documentation is available in both CHM and HTML formats. Both formats can be downloaded from http://www.advsofteng.com/download.html.

CHM is the recommended format because of the search facilities in CHM viewers. For HTML, it is recommended Internet Explorer 5.x or Netscape 6.x or above be used to view this document. This document may look badly formatted in older browsers, and the content tree may not expand and collapse properly.

This documentation is written using relative font size. You may change the font size to fit your reading habit. For CHM, there should be a font button on the tool bar to change the font size. For HTML, you may change the font size using "View >> Text Size" from the browser menu.

ChartDirector is a powerful chart component for creating professional looking charts for web and windows applications. Key features include:

• Fast and Efficient : ChartDirector is specially designed to handle the demanding requirements of server side usage. It multi-threaded design handles multiple concurrent requests quickly and efficiently.
  
  
• Flexibility : ChartDirector's object oriented API allows you to control and customize chart details, providing you with tremendously flexibility to design the charts you want.
  
  ChartDirector even includes a general purpose graphics API, so you can add annotations, custom text, shapes and images to decorating your charts the chart in custom ways. It is possible to use ChartDirector as a general-purpose graphics library.
  
  
• Comprehensive Chart Styles : Include pie, bar, line, spline, step-line, trending, curve-fitting, inter-line coloring, area, scatter, bubble, box-whisker, HLOC, candlestick, simple gantt, radar, polar line, polar area, polar spline, polar scatter, polar bubble.
  
  In additional, all chart styles support XY axis swapping. For example, bar charts can be horizontal or vertical, and the same applies to line charts, area charts, etc. Many chart styles also support 3D effects.
  
  
• Layer Architecture : Enables new chart styles to be composed easily using chart layers as building blocks. For example, a line chart with error symbols can be composed easily using a line layer and a box-whisker layer. With alpha transparency support, bottom layers remain visible even if hidden by top layers.
  
  
• CDML : The innovative ChartDirector Mark Up Language (CDML) technology allows rich formatting of text with embedding icons and images. CDML is supported in all ChartDirector text positions, including chart titles, legend keys, axis labels, data labels, etc.
  
  
• Advanced Color System : In addition to ARGB colors, all objects in ChartDirector can use dynamic colors - colors that change based on position. Colors can change abruptly at certain boundarys (zone and threshold colors), gradually (gradient and metallic colors), or periodically (pattern colors).
  
  
• Bandwidth Efficient : Optimized color reduction algorithm for creating palette based charts that looks as good as true color charts, but with much smaller file size. Ensures fast Internet download.
  
  
• Interactive : ChartDirector can generate image maps for various chart objects, so charts become interactive. Ideal for "drill-down" capabilities, "tool tip" help messages, "onMouseOver" event handlers, or adding hypertext links or buttons to charts.
  
  
• Easy to use : Producing charts requires just a few lines of code. ChartDirector comes with comprehensive documenation and numerous sample programs that can be used as program templates.
  
  
• Browser Friendly : Produces charts in PNG, JPEG, BMP, WBMP and GIF, which are viewable in virtually all browsers, including those in mobile phones and electronic organizers. Charts can be imported to email or word documents. No Java or ActiveX control required.
  
  
• Internationalization : Unicode characters support. Configurable number and date/time formats.

ChartDirector is available in the following programming languages and component technologies.

• ASP / COM / Visual Basic / VBScript / JScript
• .NET (C#, VB.NET, Managed C++, JScript.NET)
• Java
• PHP
• Perl
• Python
• C++

ChartDirector for Java is in pure Java and is platform independent. ChartDirector for ASP/COM/VB and .NET are supported on Windows 2000/2003/NT/XP/ME/98. ChartDirector for PHP, Perl, Python and C++ are supported on Windows 2000/2003/NT/XP/ME/98, Linux(Intel), FreeBSD(Intel) and Solaris(Sparc).