How to put show an outline for each chart series in a RadChart?

Question

I'm trying to customize the appearance of an ASP Web Forms RadChart where the series have FillType = Solid while still allowing visibility of the lesser point values behind larger ones. What I really want is each series to have an outline placed on top of all the fills (basically the effect of having a ChartSeriesType.Line on top of a ChartSeriesType.Area).

I've experimented with setting LineAppearance.Shadow, color transparency, and combinations of those but it's still too difficult to discern background series values.

Is there not a simple way to turn on an outline for each series when using a solid fill? OR to set the transparency of the background fill only, not the edges?

Note the transparency in the above image. I'm afraid allowing more transparency improves the visibility of background values but results in a horrible collection of pastel colors.

Answer 1

I suggest you to go through telerik documentation page RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX Documentation -Styling Chart Elements and this nice example Creating RadChart Programmatically - more complex example.

Code snippet:

// Define chart and titleRadChart radChart = new RadChart();
radChart.ChartTitle.TextBlock.Text = "My RadChart";
radChart.ChartTitle.TextBlock.Appearance.TextProperties.Color = System.Drawing.Color.Blue;
// Define chart series
ChartSeries chartSeries = new ChartSeries();
chartSeries.Appearance.LabelAppearance.Visible = false;
chartSeries.Name = "GDP";
chartSeries.Type = ChartSeriesType.Line;
chartSeries.Appearance.LineSeriesAppearance.Color = System.Drawing.Color.BlueViolet;
// Define the items in the series
chartSeries.AddItem(1);
chartSeries.AddItem(1.5);
chartSeries.AddItem(2.0);
chartSeries.AddItem(2.5);
chartSeries.AddItem(3.5);
// visually enhance the datapoints
chartSeries.Appearance.PointMark.Dimensions.AutoSize = false;
chartSeries.Appearance.PointMark.Dimensions.Width = 5;
chartSeries.Appearance.PointMark.Dimensions.Height = 5;
chartSeries.Appearance.PointMark.FillStyle.MainColor = System.Drawing.Color.Black;
chartSeries.Appearance.PointMark.Visible = true;
// Define chart series
ChartSeries chartSeries2 = new ChartSeries();
chartSeries2.Appearance.LabelAppearance.Visible = false;
chartSeries2.Name = "GNP";
chartSeries2.Type = ChartSeriesType.Line;
chartSeries2.Appearance.LineSeriesAppearance.Color = System.Drawing.Color.Green;
// Define the items in the series
chartSeries2.AddItem(2);
chartSeries2.AddItem(3);
chartSeries2.AddItem(3.5);
chartSeries2.AddItem(4);
chartSeries2.AddItem(4.5);
// visually enhance the data points
chartSeries2.Appearance.PointMark.Dimensions.AutoSize = false;
chartSeries2.Appearance.PointMark.Dimensions.Width = 5;
chartSeries2.Appearance.PointMark.Dimensions.Height = 5;
chartSeries2.Appearance.PointMark.FillStyle.MainColor = System.Drawing.Color.Black;
chartSeries2.Appearance.PointMark.Visible = true;
// set the plot area gradient background fill
radChart.PlotArea.Appearance.FillStyle.FillType = Telerik.Charting.Styles.FillType.Gradient;
radChart.PlotArea.Appearance.FillStyle.MainColor = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(65, 201, 254);
radChart.PlotArea.Appearance.FillStyle.SecondColor = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(0, 107, 186);
// Set text and line for X axis
radChart.PlotArea.XAxis.AxisLabel.TextBlock.Text = "Years";
radChart.PlotArea.XAxis.AxisLabel.TextBlock.Appearance.TextProperties.Color = System.Drawing.Color.Red;
radChart.PlotArea.XAxis.Appearance.Width = 3;
radChart.PlotArea.XAxis.Appearance.Color = System.Drawing.Color.Red;
// Set text and line for Y axis
radChart.PlotArea.YAxis.AxisLabel.TextBlock.Text = "%";
radChart.PlotArea.YAxis.AxisLabel.TextBlock.Appearance.TextProperties.Color = System.Drawing.Color.Red;
radChart.PlotArea.YAxis.Appearance.Width = 3;
radChart.PlotArea.YAxis.Appearance.Color = System.Drawing.Color.Red;
// Add the series to the chart, chart to page.radChart.Series.Add(chartSeries);radChart.Series.Add(chartSeries2);this.Page.Controls.Add(radChart)

Hope this help..