How to Change Chart Colors in Google Sheets

Tired of exporting the same default blue bar chart from Google Sheets? You're not alone. While Google's standard color palette is clean, it lacks personality and can make your data look generic. Customizing your chart colors is a simple way to make your reports not only more visually appealing but also much easier to understand. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about changing chart colors in Google Sheets, from quick single-color changes to creating fully branded visualizations.

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Quick and Easy Color Changes: The Chart Editor

The fastest way to start customizing your chart is through the wonderfully straightforward Chart Editor. This panel is your control center for virtually every aesthetic aspect of your graph or chart. First, you need to bring it up.

If you don't already have one, create a simple chart to work with. Select your data, then go to Insert > Chart. Let's imagine you have a basic bar chart showing "Monthly Sales."

To access the editor, just double-click anywhere on your chart. A sidebar titled "Chart editor" will pop up on the right side of your screen. If for some reason that doesn't work, you can click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner of your chart and select "Edit chart."

The editor has two main tabs: "Setup" and "Customize." You'll be spending all your time in the "Customize" tab for color adjustments.

Changing the Color of an Entire Data Series

The most common change you'll want to make is adjusting the color of an entire data series - for example, changing all the bars in your "Monthly Sales" chart from the default blue to your company's brand green.

Here’s how to do it step-by-step:

1. With the Chart editor open, click on the Customize tab.
2. Click to expand the Series section. Here, you'll see your data series listed. In our example, it would just be "Monthly Sales."
3. There's a dropdown menu on the left labeled "Apply to all series" by default. Since we only have one series, you can leave this as is.
4. Right below that, under "Format," you will see a color swatch labeled "Color." Click on it.
5. A color selection box appears. You can choose a new color from the provided palette, or you can create a custom one.
6. To use a specific brand color, click the "+" button under "Custom." Here, you can enter the Hex code (e.g., #4CAF50 for a nice green) or adjust the color using the selector.

That's it! Your entire series of bars will now reflect the new color you selected. If you had a line chart with multiple lines (e.g., "Page Views," "Unique Visitors"), they would each appear as a separate series in the "Series" section, allowing you to customize each one individually.

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Highlighting a Single Data Point

Sometimes you don't want to change the whole theme, you just want to draw attention to a single, critical piece of data. Maybe you want to highlight the highest sales month of the year or a particularly successful campaign in a pie chart. Doing this is incredibly effective for storytelling with data.

Instead of keeping all bars blue, you can make a specific one - say, for December - a vibrant gold to show it was a standout month.

The process is nearly identical to the one above, with one key difference:

1. Double-click your chart to open the editor.
2. Navigate to the Customize > Series tab again.
3. Now, instead of just working in the editor, go back to your chart and double-click the specific bar, slice, or point you want to isolate.
4. You'll notice the Chart editor updates. The dropdown that previously said "Apply to all series" might now show the name of the data point, and a "Format data point" option appears.
5. The color swatch under this section will now only affect the data point you selected. Click on it, choose your emphasis color, and watch that single point change.

This simple trick elevates your chart from a basic data dump into a powerful piece of communication. You are now actively guiding your audience's focus to what matters most.

Creating a Consistent Look: More Customization

Changing series colors is a great start, but true report professionalism comes from customizing the entire chart to feel cohesive. Google Sheets gives you control over backgrounds, text, axes, and more, all within the "Customize" tab.

Changing the Background and Border Color

A stark white background isn't always best. A subtle off-white or light grey can make your data colors pop and feel less harsh on the eyes. Or you can switch to a dark background for a modern "dark mode" dashboard.

• In the "Customize" tab, open the Chart style section.
• You'll find options for "Background color" and "Chart border color."
• Click on the color swatches to choose new colors from the standard palette or by entering a custom hex code. Set your background to something like #f7f9fc for a soft, light blue-grey look.

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Modifying Text and Font Colors

The default black text color may not provide enough contrast if you've selected a dark background. Or, you may want to change the title's color to match your brand's primary color.

You can find font color options in their respective sections within the "Customize" tab:

• Chart & axis titles: Change the font color for your main chart title, subtitle, horizontal axis title, and vertical axis title here.
• Legend: Adjust the text color for the legend entries.
• Horizontal axis & Vertical axis: Directly modify the color of the labels that run along your X and Y axes.

Adjusting Gridlines and Ticks

Thick, black gridlines can be distracting. They are meant to guide the eye, not dominate the chart. You can make them more subtle or change their color to fit your new theme.

• Expand the Gridlines and ticks section.
• You can select which axis' gridlines you want to edit (vertical or horizontal).
• Click the color swatch next to "Major gridlines" and choose a lighter shade. A very light grey (like #e0e0e0) is often a perfect choice, providing guidance without grabbing attention.

Tips for Choosing Effective Chart Colors

Now you know how to change colors, but which colors should you choose? Your color palette is a key part of your data's story. Here are some tips to make sure you're telling the right one.

1. Maintain Brand Consistency

If you're creating reports for your company, use your brand colors. This is the easiest win for making your work look professional and coherent. Grab your brand's style guide, copy the official hex codes for your primary and secondary colors, and use them consistently across all your charts.

2. Use Color to Communicate, Not Decorate

Your goal is clarity. Avoid using a rainbow of colors just for the sake of it, as it can overwhelm your audience and dilute your message. For a bar chart showing different products, for example, it's better to use different shades of one color (sequential palette) than six totally different, competing colors.

3. Prioritize Accessibility with High Contrast

Ensure that there's enough contrast between your colors and the background. This is crucial for viewers with color blindness or other visual impairments. Light grey text on a white background is a classic no-go. Use online contrast checkers to test your color combinations if you're unsure.

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4. Use Intuitive Colors

Leverage common color associations to make your chart instantly readable. For example: Use red to indicate loss or decrease, and green to indicate profit or growth. Don't subvert these expectations unless you have a good reason - it just forces the viewer's brain to work harder.

5. Differentiate with Sequential vs. Diverging Palettes

• Sequential Palette: A gradual change from a light shade to a dark shade of a single color. Perfect for showing a range from low to high, like user engagement scores or sales volume.
• Diverging Palette: Two different colors meeting at a neutral midpoint. Indispensable for showing data with a meaningful center, like temperature (hot to cold) or positive and negative profits.

6. Think in Gray Scale First

One powerful data visualization technique is to design your chart with shades of gray first. Then, add a single, strong accent color to highlight the one piece of data you want to emphasize. This is the single most effective way to direct your audience's attention.

Final Thoughts

Customizing colors in Google Sheets is a simple yet powerful way to transform generic reports into clear, on-brand, and insightful visualizations. By using the Chart Editor, you can easily change everything from a single bar to the entire stylistic theme of your dashboards, making your data more engaging and easier to digest.

While perfecting the look of your charts in Google Sheets is rewarding, the manual process of building, tweaking, and constantly refreshing reports can become tedious. We know that creating even a simple dashboard often requires pulling data from multiple sources and manually formatting every chart. Here at Graphed , we automate all of that by connecting directly to your marketing and sales platforms. You can simply ask for the dashboard you need in plain English - like "create a dashboard showing website traffic from Google Analytics and sales by source from Shopify" - and get live, professional-looking reports in seconds, already beautifully visualized, allowing you to get back to work that moves the needle.