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First steps

tip

If you haven't already, please read the Introduction. At the bottom of that page, you will find a starting file containing everything you need to get up and running with this tutorial (including some sample data to display on the chart).

Our first task will be to create a chart and get it visible on the page. A more detailed explanation of these steps is available here.

Adding the Lightweight Charts™ script

For this example, we will be loading the Lightweight Charts™ library using the standalone version hosted on a CDN server. This approach allows us to just include the script tag within our HTML file and not be concerned about spinning up a web server to host our files, and thus open the HTML file directly on our computer.

We can add the script tag to the HTML page by including the following code within the <head> element of the page. In this case, we will insert the code between the <title> and <style> elements.

<title>Lightweight Charts Customization Tutorial</title>
<!-- Adding the standalone version of Lightweight charts -->
<script
type="text/javascript"
src="https://unpkg.com/lightweight-charts/dist/lightweight-charts.standalone.production.js"
></script>
<style>

The standalone script will add the library as a global variable named LightweightCharts once it has been downloaded and executed by the browser.

Creating the chart

We can create the chart instance by calling the createChart method on the LightweightCharts global variable, and providing an HTML div element as the first parameter to the method. The createChart method can take a second parameter for options which will be explored and used later in the guide.

We will add the following code to our main script tag which already contains the code to generate the sample data. The sample file contains a // your code here comment as a reference of where to insert the code.

// Create the Lightweight Chart within the container element
const chart = LightweightCharts.createChart(
document.getElementById('container')
);

The createChart method returns an IChartApi instance which will be our main point of contact for interacting with the API.

Creating some sample data

We can create some sample data for the chart by calling the provided generateCandlestickData function and we will assign it to a variable named candleStickData, as follows:

// Create the Lightweight Chart within the container element
const chart = LightweightCharts.createChart(
document.getElementById('container')
);

// Generate sample data to use within a candlestick series
const candleStickData = generateCandlestickData();

Adding a candlestick series

We can now add a candlestick series to our chart by using the addCandlestickSeries method on the chart variable (which is an IChartApi instance). This will return a series instance which we will assign to a variable named mainSeries.

mainSeries will be an instance of ISeriesApi which will provide the API for interacting with the series and it's options.

// Generate sample data to use within a candlestick series
const candleStickData = generateCandlestickData();

// Create the Main Series (Candlesticks)
const mainSeries = chart.addCandlestickSeries();
// Set the data for the Main Series
mainSeries.setData(candleStickData);

Automatically resizing the chart when the window is resized (Optional)

This is an optional step which will enable automatically resizing the chart whenever the browser window is resized.

caution

This code snippet will only work correctly if you want the chart to completely fill the window / iframe.

Adding the following code snippet to the end of the script tag to enable automatic resizing.

// Adding a window resize event handler to resize the chart when
// the window size changes.
// Note: for more advanced examples (when the chart doesn't fill the entire window)
// you may need to use ResizeObserver -> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/ResizeObserver
window.addEventListener('resize', () => {
chart.resize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight);
});

Result

At this point we should have a chart like this:

View in a new window

Next steps

🎉 Congrats! We now have a basic, yet beautiful, candlestick chart rendering on our page.

The rest of the tutorial will focus on how to customise this chart to further match our desired visual style and functionality. The next step will be to adjust the chart colors to better suit a dark theme.

Download

You can download the HTML file for example at this stage here in case you've encountered a problem or would like to start the next step from this point.

Complete code

Click here to reveal the complete code for the example at this stage of the guide.
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8" />
<meta
name="viewport"
content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0"
/>
<title>Lightweight Charts™ Customization Tutorial</title>
<!-- Adding the standalone version of Lightweight charts -->
<script
type="text/javascript"
src="https://unpkg.com/lightweight-charts/dist/lightweight-charts.standalone.production.js"
></script>
<style>
body {
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
}
</style>
</head>

<body>
<div
id="container"
style="position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 100%"
></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
// Function to generate a sample set of Candlestick datapoints
function generateCandlestickData() {
return [
{
time: "2018-10-19",
open: 180.34,
high: 180.99,
low: 178.57,
close: 179.85,
},
{
time: "2018-10-22",
open: 180.82,
high: 181.4,
low: 177.56,
close: 178.75,
},
{
time: "2018-10-23",
open: 175.77,
high: 179.49,
low: 175.44,
close: 178.53,
},
{
time: "2018-10-24",
open: 178.58,
high: 182.37,
low: 176.31,
close: 176.97,
},
{
time: "2018-10-25",
open: 177.52,
high: 180.5,
low: 176.83,
close: 179.07,
},
{
time: "2018-10-26",
open: 176.88,
high: 177.34,
low: 170.91,
close: 172.23,
},
{
time: "2018-10-29",
open: 173.74,
high: 175.99,
low: 170.95,
close: 173.2,
},
{
time: "2018-10-30",
open: 173.16,
high: 176.43,
low: 172.64,
close: 176.24,
},
{
time: "2018-10-31",
open: 177.98,
high: 178.85,
low: 175.59,
close: 175.88,
},
{
time: "2018-11-01",
open: 176.84,
high: 180.86,
low: 175.9,
close: 180.46,
},
{
time: "2018-11-02",
open: 182.47,
high: 183.01,
low: 177.39,
close: 179.93,
},
{
time: "2018-11-05",
open: 181.02,
high: 182.41,
low: 179.3,
close: 182.19,
},
{
time: "2018-11-06",
open: 181.93,
high: 182.65,
low: 180.05,
close: 182.01,
},
{
time: "2018-11-07",
open: 183.79,
high: 187.68,
low: 182.06,
close: 187.23,
},
{
time: "2018-11-08",
open: 187.13,
high: 188.69,
low: 185.72,
close: 188.0,
},
{
time: "2018-11-09",
open: 188.32,
high: 188.48,
low: 184.96,
close: 185.99,
},
{
time: "2018-11-12",
open: 185.23,
high: 186.95,
low: 179.02,
close: 179.43,
},
{
time: "2018-11-13",
open: 177.3,
high: 181.62,
low: 172.85,
close: 179.0,
},
{
time: "2018-11-14",
open: 182.61,
high: 182.9,
low: 179.15,
close: 179.9,
},
{
time: "2018-11-15",
open: 179.01,
high: 179.67,
low: 173.61,
close: 177.36,
},
{
time: "2018-11-16",
open: 173.99,
high: 177.6,
low: 173.51,
close: 177.02,
},
{
time: "2018-11-19",
open: 176.71,
high: 178.88,
low: 172.3,
close: 173.59,
},
{
time: "2018-11-20",
open: 169.25,
high: 172.0,
low: 167.0,
close: 169.05,
},
{
time: "2018-11-21",
open: 170.0,
high: 170.93,
low: 169.15,
close: 169.3,
},
{
time: "2018-11-23",
open: 169.39,
high: 170.33,
low: 168.47,
close: 168.85,
},
{
time: "2018-11-26",
open: 170.2,
high: 172.39,
low: 168.87,
close: 169.82,
},
{
time: "2018-11-27",
open: 169.11,
high: 173.38,
low: 168.82,
close: 173.22,
},
{
time: "2018-11-28",
open: 172.91,
high: 177.65,
low: 170.62,
close: 177.43,
},
{
time: "2018-11-29",
open: 176.8,
high: 177.27,
low: 174.92,
close: 175.66,
},
{
time: "2018-11-30",
open: 175.75,
high: 180.37,
low: 175.11,
close: 180.32,
},
{
time: "2018-12-03",
open: 183.29,
high: 183.5,
low: 179.35,
close: 181.74,
},
{
time: "2018-12-04",
open: 181.06,
high: 182.23,
low: 174.55,
close: 175.3,
},
{
time: "2018-12-06",
open: 173.5,
high: 176.04,
low: 170.46,
close: 175.96,
},
{
time: "2018-12-07",
open: 175.35,
high: 178.36,
low: 172.24,
close: 172.79,
},
{
time: "2018-12-10",
open: 173.39,
high: 173.99,
low: 167.73,
close: 171.69,
},
{
time: "2018-12-11",
open: 174.3,
high: 175.6,
low: 171.24,
close: 172.21,
},
{
time: "2018-12-12",
open: 173.75,
high: 176.87,
low: 172.81,
close: 174.21,
},
{
time: "2018-12-13",
open: 174.31,
high: 174.91,
low: 172.07,
close: 173.87,
},
{
time: "2018-12-14",
open: 172.98,
high: 175.14,
low: 171.95,
close: 172.29,
},
{
time: "2018-12-17",
open: 171.51,
high: 171.99,
low: 166.93,
close: 167.97,
},
{
time: "2018-12-18",
open: 168.9,
high: 171.95,
low: 168.5,
close: 170.04,
},
{
time: "2018-12-19",
open: 170.92,
high: 174.95,
low: 166.77,
close: 167.56,
},
{
time: "2018-12-20",
open: 166.28,
high: 167.31,
low: 162.23,
close: 164.16,
},
{
time: "2018-12-21",
open: 162.81,
high: 167.96,
low: 160.17,
close: 160.48,
},
{
time: "2018-12-24",
open: 160.16,
high: 161.4,
low: 158.09,
close: 158.14,
},
{
time: "2018-12-26",
open: 159.46,
high: 168.28,
low: 159.44,
close: 168.28,
},
{
time: "2018-12-27",
open: 166.44,
high: 170.46,
low: 163.36,
close: 170.32,
},
{
time: "2018-12-28",
open: 171.22,
high: 173.12,
low: 168.6,
close: 170.22,
},
{
time: "2018-12-31",
open: 171.47,
high: 173.24,
low: 170.65,
close: 171.82,
},
{
time: "2019-01-02",
open: 169.71,
high: 173.18,
low: 169.05,
close: 172.41,
},
{
time: "2019-01-03",
open: 171.84,
high: 171.84,
low: 168.21,
close: 168.61,
},
{
time: "2019-01-04",
open: 170.18,
high: 174.74,
low: 169.52,
close: 173.62,
},
{
time: "2019-01-07",
open: 173.83,
high: 178.18,
low: 173.83,
close: 177.04,
},
{
time: "2019-01-08",
open: 178.57,
high: 179.59,
low: 175.61,
close: 177.89,
},
{
time: "2019-01-09",
open: 177.87,
high: 181.27,
low: 177.1,
close: 179.73,
},
{
time: "2019-01-10",
open: 178.03,
high: 179.24,
low: 176.34,
close: 179.06,
},
{
time: "2019-01-11",
open: 177.93,
high: 180.26,
low: 177.12,
close: 179.41,
},
{
time: "2019-01-14",
open: 177.59,
high: 179.23,
low: 176.9,
close: 178.81,
},
{
time: "2019-01-15",
open: 176.08,
high: 177.82,
low: 175.2,
close: 176.47,
},
{
time: "2019-01-16",
open: 177.09,
high: 177.93,
low: 175.86,
close: 177.04,
},
{
time: "2019-01-17",
open: 174.01,
high: 175.46,
low: 172.0,
close: 174.87,
},
{
time: "2019-01-18",
open: 176.98,
high: 180.04,
low: 176.18,
close: 179.58,
},
{
time: "2019-01-22",
open: 177.49,
high: 178.6,
low: 175.36,
close: 177.11,
},
{
time: "2019-01-23",
open: 176.59,
high: 178.06,
low: 174.53,
close: 176.89,
},
{
time: "2019-01-24",
open: 177.0,
high: 177.53,
low: 175.3,
close: 177.29,
},
{
time: "2019-01-25",
open: 179.78,
high: 180.87,
low: 178.61,
close: 180.4,
},
{
time: "2019-01-28",
open: 178.97,
high: 179.99,
low: 177.41,
close: 179.83,
},
{
time: "2019-01-29",
open: 178.96,
high: 180.15,
low: 178.09,
close: 179.69,
},
{
time: "2019-01-30",
open: 180.47,
high: 184.2,
low: 179.78,
close: 182.18,
},
{
time: "2019-01-31",
open: 181.5,
high: 184.67,
low: 181.06,
close: 183.53,
},
{
time: "2019-02-01",
open: 184.03,
high: 185.15,
low: 182.83,
close: 184.37,
},
{
time: "2019-02-04",
open: 184.3,
high: 186.43,
low: 183.84,
close: 186.43,
},
{
time: "2019-02-05",
open: 186.89,
high: 186.99,
low: 184.69,
close: 186.39,
},
{
time: "2019-02-06",
open: 186.69,
high: 186.69,
low: 184.06,
close: 184.72,
},
{
time: "2019-02-07",
open: 183.74,
high: 184.92,
low: 182.45,
close: 184.07,
},
{
time: "2019-02-08",
open: 183.05,
high: 184.58,
low: 182.72,
close: 184.54,
},
{
time: "2019-02-11",
open: 185.0,
high: 185.42,
low: 182.75,
close: 182.92,
},
{
time: "2019-02-12",
open: 183.84,
high: 186.4,
low: 183.52,
close: 185.52,
},
{
time: "2019-02-13",
open: 186.3,
high: 188.68,
low: 185.92,
close: 188.41,
},
{
time: "2019-02-14",
open: 187.5,
high: 188.93,
low: 186.0,
close: 187.71,
},
{
time: "2019-02-15",
open: 189.87,
high: 192.62,
low: 189.05,
close: 192.39,
},
{
time: "2019-02-19",
open: 191.71,
high: 193.19,
low: 191.28,
close: 192.33,
},
{
time: "2019-02-20",
open: 192.39,
high: 192.4,
low: 191.11,
close: 191.85,
},
{
time: "2019-02-21",
open: 191.85,
high: 192.37,
low: 190.61,
close: 191.82,
},
{
time: "2019-02-22",
open: 191.69,
high: 192.54,
low: 191.62,
close: 192.39,
},
{
time: "2019-02-25",
open: 192.75,
high: 193.42,
low: 189.96,
close: 189.98,
},
{
time: "2019-02-26",
open: 185.59,
high: 188.47,
low: 182.8,
close: 188.3,
},
{
time: "2019-02-27",
open: 187.9,
high: 188.5,
low: 183.21,
close: 183.67,
},
{
time: "2019-02-28",
open: 183.6,
high: 185.19,
low: 183.11,
close: 185.14,
},
{
time: "2019-03-01",
open: 185.82,
high: 186.56,
low: 182.86,
close: 185.17,
},
{
time: "2019-03-04",
open: 186.2,
high: 186.24,
low: 182.1,
close: 183.81,
},
{
time: "2019-03-05",
open: 184.24,
high: 185.12,
low: 183.25,
close: 184.0,
},
{
time: "2019-03-06",
open: 184.53,
high: 184.97,
low: 183.84,
close: 184.45,
},
{
time: "2019-03-07",
open: 184.39,
high: 184.62,
low: 181.58,
close: 182.51,
},
{
time: "2019-03-08",
open: 181.49,
high: 181.91,
low: 179.52,
close: 181.23,
},
{
time: "2019-03-11",
open: 182.0,
high: 183.2,
low: 181.2,
close: 182.44,
},
{
time: "2019-03-12",
open: 183.43,
high: 184.27,
low: 182.33,
close: 184.0,
},
{
time: "2019-03-13",
open: 183.24,
high: 183.78,
low: 181.08,
close: 181.14,
},
{
time: "2019-03-14",
open: 181.28,
high: 181.74,
low: 180.5,
close: 181.61,
},
{
time: "2019-03-15",
open: 182.3,
high: 182.49,
low: 179.57,
close: 182.23,
},
{
time: "2019-03-18",
open: 182.53,
high: 183.48,
low: 182.33,
close: 183.42,
},
{
time: "2019-03-19",
open: 184.19,
high: 185.82,
low: 183.48,
close: 184.13,
},
{
time: "2019-03-20",
open: 184.3,
high: 187.12,
low: 183.43,
close: 186.1,
},
{
time: "2019-03-21",
open: 185.5,
high: 190.0,
low: 185.5,
close: 189.97,
},
{
time: "2019-03-22",
open: 189.31,
high: 192.05,
low: 188.67,
close: 188.75,
},
{
time: "2019-03-25",
open: 188.75,
high: 191.71,
low: 188.51,
close: 189.68,
},
{
time: "2019-03-26",
open: 190.69,
high: 192.19,
low: 188.74,
close: 189.34,
},
{
time: "2019-03-27",
open: 189.65,
high: 191.61,
low: 188.39,
close: 189.25,
},
{
time: "2019-03-28",
open: 189.91,
high: 191.4,
low: 189.16,
close: 190.06,
},
{
time: "2019-03-29",
open: 190.85,
high: 192.04,
low: 190.14,
close: 191.89,
},
{
time: "2019-04-01",
open: 192.99,
high: 195.9,
low: 192.85,
close: 195.64,
},
{
time: "2019-04-02",
open: 195.5,
high: 195.5,
low: 194.01,
close: 194.31,
},
{
time: "2019-04-03",
open: 194.98,
high: 198.78,
low: 194.11,
close: 198.61,
},
{
time: "2019-04-04",
open: 199.0,
high: 200.49,
low: 198.02,
close: 200.45,
},
{
time: "2019-04-05",
open: 200.86,
high: 203.13,
low: 200.61,
close: 202.06,
},
{
time: "2019-04-08",
open: 201.37,
high: 203.79,
low: 201.24,
close: 203.55,
},
{
time: "2019-04-09",
open: 202.26,
high: 202.71,
low: 200.46,
close: 200.9,
},
{
time: "2019-04-10",
open: 201.26,
high: 201.6,
low: 198.02,
close: 199.43,
},
{
time: "2019-04-11",
open: 199.9,
high: 201.5,
low: 199.03,
close: 201.48,
},
{
time: "2019-04-12",
open: 202.13,
high: 204.26,
low: 202.13,
close: 203.85,
},
{
time: "2019-04-15",
open: 204.16,
high: 205.14,
low: 203.4,
close: 204.86,
},
{
time: "2019-04-16",
open: 205.25,
high: 205.99,
low: 204.29,
close: 204.47,
},
{
time: "2019-04-17",
open: 205.34,
high: 206.84,
low: 205.32,
close: 206.55,
},
{
time: "2019-04-18",
open: 206.02,
high: 207.78,
low: 205.1,
close: 205.66,
},
{
time: "2019-04-22",
open: 204.11,
high: 206.25,
low: 204.0,
close: 204.78,
},
{
time: "2019-04-23",
open: 205.14,
high: 207.33,
low: 203.43,
close: 206.05,
},
{
time: "2019-04-24",
open: 206.16,
high: 208.29,
low: 205.54,
close: 206.72,
},
{
time: "2019-04-25",
open: 206.01,
high: 207.72,
low: 205.06,
close: 206.5,
},
{
time: "2019-04-26",
open: 205.88,
high: 206.14,
low: 203.34,
close: 203.61,
},
{
time: "2019-04-29",
open: 203.31,
high: 203.8,
low: 200.34,
close: 202.16,
},
{
time: "2019-04-30",
open: 201.55,
high: 203.75,
low: 200.79,
close: 203.7,
},
{
time: "2019-05-01",
open: 203.2,
high: 203.52,
low: 198.66,
close: 198.8,
},
{
time: "2019-05-02",
open: 199.3,
high: 201.06,
low: 198.8,
close: 201.01,
},
{
time: "2019-05-03",
open: 202.0,
high: 202.31,
low: 200.32,
close: 200.56,
},
{
time: "2019-05-06",
open: 198.74,
high: 199.93,
low: 198.31,
close: 199.63,
},
{
time: "2019-05-07",
open: 196.75,
high: 197.65,
low: 192.96,
close: 194.77,
},
{
time: "2019-05-08",
open: 194.49,
high: 196.61,
low: 193.68,
close: 195.17,
},
{
time: "2019-05-09",
open: 193.31,
high: 195.08,
low: 191.59,
close: 194.58,
},
{
time: "2019-05-10",
open: 193.21,
high: 195.49,
low: 190.01,
close: 194.58,
},
{
time: "2019-05-13",
open: 191.0,
high: 191.66,
low: 189.14,
close: 190.34,
},
{
time: "2019-05-14",
open: 190.5,
high: 192.76,
low: 190.01,
close: 191.62,
},
{
time: "2019-05-15",
open: 190.81,
high: 192.81,
low: 190.27,
close: 191.76,
},
{
time: "2019-05-16",
open: 192.47,
high: 194.96,
low: 192.2,
close: 192.38,
},
{
time: "2019-05-17",
open: 190.86,
high: 194.5,
low: 190.75,
close: 192.58,
},
{
time: "2019-05-20",
open: 191.13,
high: 192.86,
low: 190.61,
close: 190.95,
},
{
time: "2019-05-21",
open: 187.13,
high: 192.52,
low: 186.34,
close: 191.45,
},
{
time: "2019-05-22",
open: 190.49,
high: 192.22,
low: 188.05,
close: 188.91,
},
{
time: "2019-05-23",
open: 188.45,
high: 192.54,
low: 186.27,
close: 192.0,
},
{
time: "2019-05-24",
open: 192.54,
high: 193.86,
low: 190.41,
close: 193.59,
},
];
}

// Create the Lightweight Chart within the container element
const chart = LightweightCharts.createChart(
document.getElementById('container')
);

// Generate sample data to use within a candlestick series
const candleStickData = generateCandlestickData();

// Create the Main Series (Candlesticks)
const mainSeries = chart.addCandlestickSeries();
// Set the data for the Main Series
mainSeries.setData(candleStickData);

// Adding a window resize event handler to resize the chart when
// the window size changes.
// Note: for more advanced examples (when the chart doesn't fill the entire window)
// you may need to use ResizeObserver -> https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/ResizeObserver
window.addEventListener("resize", () => {
chart.resize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight);
});
</script>
</body>
</html>