Customize default legends

You can quickly change the position, the font, the text size or the background color:

using System.Windows.Forms;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.WinForms;
using ViewModelsSamples.Axes.Multiple;

namespace WinFormsSample.Axes.Multiple;

public partial class View : UserControl
{
    private readonly CartesianChart cartesianChart;

    public View()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        Size = new System.Drawing.Size(50, 50);

        var viewModel = new ViewModel();

        cartesianChart = new CartesianChart
        {
            Series = viewModel.Series,
            YAxes = viewModel.YAxes,
            LegendPosition = LiveChartsCore.Measure.LegendPosition.Left,
            LegendTextPaint = viewModel.LegendTextPaint,
            LegendBackgroundPaint = viewModel.LedgendBackgroundPaint,
            LegendTextSize = 16,

            // out of livecharts properties...
            Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 0),
            Size = new System.Drawing.Size(50, 50),
            Anchor = AnchorStyles.Left | AnchorStyles.Right | AnchorStyles.Top | AnchorStyles.Bottom
        };

        Controls.Add(cartesianChart);
    }
}

View model

[ObservableObject]
public partial class ViewModel
{
    public ISeries[] Series { get; set; } = { ... };
    public Axis[] YAxes { get; set; } = { ... };

    public SolidColorPaint LegendTextPaint { get; set; } = // mark
        new SolidColorPaint // mark
        { // mark
            Color = new SKColor(50, 50, 50), // mark
            SKTypeface = SKTypeface.FromFamilyName("Courier New") // mark
        }; // mark

    public SolidColorPaint LegendBackgroundPaint { get; set; } = // mark
        new SolidColorPaint(new SKColor(240, 240, 240)); // mark
}

Legend control from scratch

You can also create your own legend, the recommended way is to use the LiveCharts API (example bellow) but you can use anything as legend as soon as it implements the IChartLegend<T> interface. At the following example we build a custom control to render legends in our charts using the LiveCharts API.

CustomLegend.cs

using System.Linq;
using LiveChartsCore;
using LiveChartsCore.Drawing;
using LiveChartsCore.Kernel.Sketches;
using LiveChartsCore.Measure;
using LiveChartsCore.Painting;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.Drawing.Geometries;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.Drawing.Layouts;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.Painting;
using SkiaSharp;

namespace ViewModelsSamples.General.TemplatedLegends;

public class CustomLegend : IChartLegend
{
    private readonly Container _container;
    private readonly StackLayout _stackLayout;
    private bool _isInCanvas = false;
    private DrawablesTask? _drawableTask;

    public CustomLegend()
    {
        _container = new Container
        {
            Content = _stackLayout = new()
            {
                Padding = new Padding(15, 4),
                HorizontalAlignment = Align.Start,
                VerticalAlignment = Align.Middle
            }
        };
    }

    public void Draw(Chart chart)
    {
        var legendPosition = chart.GetLegendPosition();

        _container.X = legendPosition.X;
        _container.Y = legendPosition.Y;

        if (!_isInCanvas)
        {
            _drawableTask = chart.Canvas.AddGeometry(_container);
            _drawableTask.ZIndex = 10099;
            _isInCanvas = true;
        }

        if (chart.LegendPosition == LegendPosition.Hidden && _drawableTask is not null)
        {
            chart.Canvas.RemovePaintTask(_drawableTask);
            _isInCanvas = false;
            _drawableTask = null;
        }
    }

    public LvcSize Measure(Chart chart)
    {
        BuildLayout(chart);

        return _container.Measure();
    }

    public void Hide(Chart chart)
    {
        if (_drawableTask is not null)
        {
            chart.Canvas.RemovePaintTask(_drawableTask);
            _isInCanvas = false;
            _drawableTask = null;
        }
    }

    private void BuildLayout(Chart chart)
    {
        _stackLayout.Orientation = chart.LegendPosition is LegendPosition.Left or LegendPosition.Right
            ? ContainerOrientation.Vertical
            : ContainerOrientation.Horizontal;

        if (_stackLayout.Orientation == ContainerOrientation.Horizontal)
        {
            _stackLayout.MaxWidth = chart.ControlSize.Width;
            _stackLayout.MaxHeight = double.MaxValue;
        }
        else
        {
            _stackLayout.MaxWidth = double.MaxValue;
            _stackLayout.MaxHeight = chart.ControlSize.Height;
        }

        foreach (var visual in _stackLayout.Children.ToArray())
            _ = _stackLayout.Children.Remove(visual);

        foreach (var series in chart.Series.Where(x => x.IsVisibleAtLegend))
        {
            var sl = new StackLayout
            {
                Padding = new Padding(12, 6),
                VerticalAlignment = Align.Middle,
                HorizontalAlignment = Align.Middle,
                Children =
                {
                    new RectangleGeometry
                    {
                        Fill = (series as IStrokedAndFilled)?.Fill?.CloneTask(),
                        Stroke = new SolidColorPaint(new SKColor(30, 30, 30), 3),
                        Width = 20,
                        Height = 50
                    },
                    new LabelGeometry
                    {
                        Text = series.Name ?? string.Empty,
                        Paint = new SolidColorPaint(new SKColor(30, 30, 30)),
                        TextSize = 20,
                        Padding = new Padding(8, 2, 0, 2),
                        MaxWidth = (float)LiveCharts.DefaultSettings.MaxTooltipsAndLegendsLabelsWidth,
                        VerticalAlign = Align.Start,
                        HorizontalAlign = Align.Start
                    }
                }
            };

            _stackLayout.Children.Add(sl);
        }
    }
}

View

using System.Windows.Forms;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.WinForms;
using ViewModelsSamples.General.TemplatedLegends;

namespace WinFormsSample.General.TemplatedLegends;

public partial class View : UserControl
{
    private readonly CartesianChart cartesianChart;

    public View()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        Size = new System.Drawing.Size(50, 50);

        var viewModel = new ViewModel();

        cartesianChart = new CartesianChart
        {
            Series = viewModel.Series,
            LegendPosition = LiveChartsCore.Measure.LegendPosition.Right,
            Legend = new CustomLegend(),

            // out of livecharts properties...
            Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 0),
            Size = new System.Drawing.Size(50, 50),
            Anchor = AnchorStyles.Left | AnchorStyles.Right | AnchorStyles.Top | AnchorStyles.Bottom
        };

        Controls.Add(cartesianChart);
    }
}