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§9.1.2

Chart With a Printed Data Grid

A chart with its numbers printed beneath—annotate the chart or the grid?

✅ NormativeSettled. The requirement holds as written.📄 Page ruleCan be applied from the page alone.Read §9.1.2 in the RFC ↗

The requirement

When a chart prints its data grid beside or beneath the canvas, the output MUST render that grid exactly as printed — same orientation, same headers, same row order — and MUST NOT render any other table for the chart.

When it applies

Some charts print their numbers as a small grid next to the canvas: a bar chart with bucket-columns × metric-rows underneath, for example. That printed grid is often transposed relative to the [Category, Value] shape a chart is usually reasoned about in.

Sketch of the printed page — layout, not output
Printed under the bar chart:            Transposed reconstruction — non-conforming:
| Metric   | $0–1k | $1k–5k | $5k+ |    | Bucket | Avg Premium |
| Avg Prem | 412   | 388    | 351  |    | $0–1k  | 412         |
                                        | $1k–5k | 388         |

Reading the examples. Each one pairs a source page with the output the rule expects. ✅ Sample: the rule applies. ❌ Counter-sample: it looks like it applies and does not, or a rendering got it wrong. A non-conforming output, in red, is shown only for contrast. … marks content left out of an excerpt.

Requirements

  • The table representing the chart MUST open with <table data-source="chart">, including when its values come from the printed grid.
  • The grid MUST be transcribed in its printed orientation. Metrics that run across the top stay across the top.
  • The grid MUST NOT be transposed, and its rows and columns MUST NOT be reordered into a more natural shape.
  • The output MUST NOT add a second, reconstructed version alongside it. One grid is printed; one grid is rendered.
  • Values MUST NOT be re-keyed off the chart canvas — bars, points and axis ticks are not the source. Only what is printed as text in the grid counts.

A transposed version is non-conforming even when it reads better, in the same way that rewriting a cell's text is non-conforming.

Why as printed

This is the verbatim posture the whole protocol takes: transcribe what is on the page, do not improve it (see Cell Text Fidelity (§9.6.3), Accounting Number Formats (§9.6.1)). A second reconstructed copy also creates the duplication described in Duplicated Tables (§9.2.4) and Titles Banners Captions (§9.7.3) — two tables where the page printed one (never invent).

01

✅ SampleThe rule applies

two charts with their grids beneath

Each chart prints a four-row grid under its bars — one row per series, one column per quarter, with the year as a spanning row between the quarters and the values. The grid is the rendering; the bars are not re-keyed.

Source page
Chart With a Printed Data Grid — two charts with their grids beneath. Source page.
Expected output · excerpt, the left chart

Aeronyl

11% growth at CER to $329m in Q1 2026

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1
2024 2025 2026
EM 68 59 72 66 91 82 96 87 109
ERoW 13 18 17 19 21 23 25 26 28
Europe 28 32 34 39 41 43 47 51 60
US 98 112 133 139 139 138 156 143 140
Chart With a Printed Data Grid · Source page

two charts with their grids beneath

Chart With a Printed Data Grid — two charts with their grids beneath. Source page.

More

Rule id tables-chart-with-a-printed-data-grid · tables charts orientation