The terminology used for describing the components of data graphs is confusing because graphs use many components and the words are applied arbitrarily to each component. For example, the words "graph", "chart", and "plot" could be used interchangeably but in Gnumeric these words are used as explained below.
The term 'graph' will be used, in this documentation, to refer to the entire graphical element placed on the worksheet. A graph has an outline and a background, may have one or more titles, and will have at least one 'chart'.
The term 'chart' will be used to denote an intermediate level element which has an outline and a background, may have one or more titles, may have a legend and will have at least one 'plot'. To support the plot, the chart may have a 'grid' area behind the plotted data, and have one or more axes.
Each 'plot' will be defined to be of a particular type when it is created. Plots will have one or more 'series' of data values which will define the magnitude of the values of to be plotted and may define a number of other related values including errors in the x and y directions.
This terminology can be used to describe in detail the components of a graph in Gnumeric. Figure 10-1 presents the components of a graph.