Tufte: sparkline theory and practice

Type: practitioner. Reviewed: 2026-09-13.

Source

Edward Tufte. Sparkline theory and practice. May 27, 2004; evolving author-hosted discussion.

Original / authoritative source

Scope

Author text on spatial adjacency, context, framing, and multiple sparklines.

Limitations

Supports putting trends near the things being described and questioning visually dominant framing. Historical screen-resolution remarks are not current device specifications. The pricing demonstration is our adaptation; the source did not test its expansion or action flow.