Find, filter, select, build, play, download and follow charts drawn from live signals, with collections, forecasts, markers, videos and live links.

Charts live under Charts in the menu (press C) and publicly at palanor.com/charts. A chart is a definition, not a picture: it names its signals and window, and every view, download and link redraws it from today's data.

Finding a chart

The Charts page has three columns. On the left: search, every topic with how many charts it holds, and ways to narrow the list (sort by relevance, popularity, latest data or what moved; a region or country; a chart type; only current data, downloadable data or new data). In the middle: the chart of the moment and two more drawn in full, then Top Charts, what moved, what just got new data, collections and your own charts; any search or filter lists matching charts there instead. On the right: Numen's picks for you, each with the reason it was picked (a signal on your watchlist, one your organization follows or uses in its scenarios, a chart you opened, an interest you set in Settings → Numen). Collapse that column with the panel button; Not for me hides a pick. Every filter, plus bulk download and collections, is in the Library with the Type filter set to Charts (Every filter in the Library, at the foot of the left column).

Search by meaning. Type a question as you'd ask it ("are stocks expensive", "is the housing market cooling") or a name or code ("UNRATE", "jobless claims"). Search reads what each chart's series measure, not just its title, and puts a chart whose main series you named first.
Filters are the ones you know from signals, worked out from the series each chart draws on: geography (a region includes its countries), source, category, cadence and topics. Charts add their own: subject, chart type (line, ranked bars, map, treemap …), history (5, 10, 25 or 50+ years), freshness, new data, whether the data can be downloaded, and who made it (Palanor, Studio, Discovery). The counts beside each filter are charts.
Versions. Charts that draw the same series, such as a state map and the same states as ranked bars, show once, with their other versions listed under the card. Every chart page lists its other versions too.
Grid or list. The list shows each chart's shape, latest reading and date, sources, places, how far back it goes, and whether its data downloads.
Every signal page lists the charts that use it, and Numen can find charts for you: ask him for a chart of anything.

Working with many charts

Tick the box on any chart (shift-click to tick a range, or tick every chart on the page from the header). A bar appears:

Download up to 24 charts as one zip: a PNG of each, plus a CSV where the data may be shared, and a README with each chart's live link and sources.
Follow them all. You'll hear when each gets new data.
Save to collection. Pick one of yours or name a new one.

Collections

Collections are charts that belong together. Palanor keeps a few (the U.S. labor market, the household balance sheet, AI and the economy, energy and oil, government debt). Yours are private. Open a collection from the Charts page or the Collections filter; owners can rename it, delete it, or remove charts from it in the list view.

Reading a chart

The headline and the comparison under it ("the highest since…") are computed from the data; nobody types them. Show the numbers opens the table behind the chart. The dot by the date says whether the data is current, overdue or from a source that has stopped.

On charts with three or more lines, a breadth line says how many are rising or above a year earlier.

A line breaks where a source skipped a period, rather than joining the readings on either side. October 2025 is the common case: the 2025 lapse in appropriations stopped the Consumer Price Index and the household survey for that month, so charts of prices and of the household survey break there.

Charts on politics, such as party identification and party registration, carry no headline, comparison or breadth line, so no party is singled out by being listed first. Palanor's own party charts list the parties alphabetically in neutral colours. The date the data runs to still shows. Surveys that ask about party in different ways, such as the Cooperative Election Study and Pew Research Center's National Public Opinion Reference Survey, are charted separately rather than on one axis.

The American Dream Ledger

The American Dream Ledger is Palanor's own measure of what a middle-class American life costs over a lifetime: a home, cars, raising two children, college, health care, retirement savings, vacations and pets. Every part is a live signal built only from public data and repriced every month. Each signal's page states its sources and assumptions.

Maps and treemaps

Maps colour U.S. states, European countries, world countries or Europe's NUTS 2 regions by each one's latest value in the window. The legend gives the bins, and areas without data are hatched. The NUTS 2 map draws the outermost regions (Canarias, Açores, Madeira and the French overseas regions) in boxes on the left, each on its own scale, and prints the credit for its boundary files under the map. Hover or tap an area for its name, value and date. When the window holds more than one date, a slider steps the map back through them. A ranked, sortable table sits under every map.
Treemaps size each rectangle by its latest value and colour it by group, such as continent. The headline gives the largest item's share of the total and the top three's.

To build one, pick Map or Treemap and fill it from a family of signals, such as country.{iso3}.gdp_usd_bn. The builder shows which areas matched. Data downloads have one row per area per date.

Stacked bars by country

Some stacked bar charts compare places instead of years. Each bar is one country (or sector), split into its parts, such as spending on old age, health and family. Each part shows its latest reading. Bars sort by their total. When every bar adds up to 100%, as in an electricity mix, they sort by the first part instead. Show the numbers lists each part, the total and the year of each bar's data. Data downloads have one row per bar, part and date.

Scatter charts

A scatter chart puts one point per item at its latest reading on two measures, such as an AI model's capability score against its price. Points are coloured by group and can be joined per group. Labels are placed where they fit; the table under the chart lists every point with both readings. To build one, pick Scatter and give each series an x signal. Data downloads have one row per point with both dates.

Forecasts and markers

Line charts, area charts and bar charts over time have a forecast switch. Charts that can take one say Forecast available on their card and above the chart. It is off until you turn it on:

Continuation extends the recent trend, flattening. It is open to everyone.
Palanor Foresight™ reads the signals that move with each series. It needs a free account.

On a line or area chart, the dashed line is the forecast and the shaded area its likely range. On a bar chart over time, the forecast periods are faint bars with a dashed outline after the last actual bar, and the whisker on each shows its likely range (where about two in three outcomes land).

Some charts can't be forecast:

Stacked charts and contributions: forecasting each part of a total separately doesn't add up to a forecast of the total.
Maps, treemaps, rankings and scatter charts: they show one latest value per item, with no time axis to extend.

Markers (line and area charts) can add recession shading, the 5-year range and record highs and lows.

Published forecasts

Some series include a forecast made by their source, such as the IMF's World Economic Outlook projections. On a chart, those points are dashed (or faint bars), and the label says whose forecast it is and which edition, for example "IMF forecast · Oct 2026". The headline, the "highest since" line, the change and the data date use actual data only. Palanor doesn't add its own forecast to these charts. The forecast switch still shows, grayed out, and a short line under it (also on hover or keyboard focus) says why: the chart already shows the source's own forecast, and Palanor doesn't draw its forecast over a published one. A forecast setting in the link is ignored. Data downloads mark which values are the source's forecast.

Downloads and live links

Images: PNG or SVG in four sizes, dark or light. Forecasts and markers are drawn only when you ask for them.
Data: CSV, Excel or JSON. Forecast columns sit beside the actual data, labelled, and need a signed-in account.
Live links: the image and data links always serve today's numbers. Paste the image link in a deck, or the CSV link into Google Sheets with IMPORTDATA.
Embed puts the live chart on another site.

Some charts are image-only because a source allows display but not redistribution of its data.

Play and download as video

Line, area, stacked area, bar, contributions, ranking, ranked bar, map, scatter and treemap charts with more than one period have a Play button under the chart. It plays the chart through its history: the line draws on from its first reading, a date counter shows how far it has got, and the latest reading rides the end of the line. The axes stay fixed, so nothing jumps. Play never starts by itself.

The chart slows at up to three moments the data makes notable, such as the highest or lowest reading on the chart, the largest single move, a new leader on a ranking, or the start of a U.S. recession when recession shading is on. A short caption names the moment. Captions are worked out from the data, never written by hand or by a model.

Some chart types play in their own way:

Ranked bar charts play as a bar chart race: the bars re-sort as their values pass each other, and each value ticks up or down as the period counter moves. The race pauses when a new leader takes first place. Ranking charts with up to 15 entries can play as a race too (choose Race under the chart); their bars carry the rank, not a value.
Maps play as a timelapse: the colours change period by period, and the legend stays the same throughout, so a colour means the same thing in every year.
Scatter charts whose points have a history play with trails: each point moves from period to period and leaves a fading trail of where it stood. Only the highest points are labelled, so labels don't pile up.
Treemaps play with tiles that grow and shrink as their shares change.

Line and area charts can Follow the line: the axes fit what has been drawn so far and grow with the line. Fixed scale (the default) keeps the full-range axes.

Controls: play and pause (or the space bar), the scrubber (or the left and right arrow keys), speed 0.5×, 1× or 2×, loop and restart. If your device asks for reduced motion, Play steps between those moments instead of animating.

Download → Video makes the same animation as a file, in your browser:

MP4 in square (1080 × 1080), portrait (1080 × 1350), vertical (1080 × 1920, with room for app buttons) or landscape (1920 × 1080), dark or light, short (8 s), standard or long (20 s).
GIF, 8 seconds, 720 px wide, for Slack and email.
Pause on notable moments is on by default; turn it off for an even pace.
Fixed scale or Follow the line for line and area charts, and Bump chart or Race for rankings, as on the player.

Every video carries the title, the source line and the chart's address, and ends on a short card with the address. Forecasts are not drawn in videos, and videos have no sound. Browsers that can't make MP4 files save a WebM instead. A video can be made of any chart that can be downloaded as an image.

Building your own

New chart starts from an existing chart, a Numen suggestion, your followed signals, or a signal finder that also suggests related series. Pick the type, the window and any transform (such as change from a year earlier), and see it update as you edit. Charts can be private or public.

Follow, track and make a signal

Follow sends a notification when new data lands.
Track in a Study (full seats) puts the chart in a Study and tells its creator about new data and unusual moves.
Make this a signal proposes a total, spread, ratio or share from the chart as a new signal. A Palanor operator reviews each one before it is built.