Charts As Image/Svg

View model

using CommunityToolkit.Mvvm.ComponentModel;
using LiveChartsCore;
using LiveChartsCore.Geo;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.Drawing.Geometries;

namespace ViewModelsSamples.General.ChartToImage;

public partial class ViewModel : ObservableObject
{
    public ISeries[] CatesianSeries { get; set; } =
    {
        new LineSeries<int> { Values = new int[] { 1, 5, 4, 6 } },
        new ColumnSeries<int> { Values = new int[] { 4, 8, 2, 4 } }
    };

    public ISeries[] PieSeries { get; set; } =
    {
        new PieSeries<int> { Values = new int[] { 10, } },
        new PieSeries<int> { Values = new int[] { 6 } },
        new PieSeries<int> { Values = new int[] { 4 } }
    };

    public IGeoSeries[] GeoSeries { get; set; } = new HeatLandSeries[]
    {
        new()
        {
            Lands = new HeatLand[]
            {
                new() { Name = "bra", Value = 13 },
                new() { Name = "mex", Value = 10 },
                new() { Name = "usa", Value = 15 },
                new() { Name = "can", Value = 8 },
                new() { Name = "ind", Value = 12 },
                new() { Name = "deu", Value = 13 },
                new() { Name= "jpn", Value = 15 },
                new() { Name = "chn", Value = 14 },
                new() { Name = "rus", Value = 11 },
                new() { Name = "fra", Value = 8 },
                new() { Name = "esp", Value = 7 },
                new() { Name = "kor", Value = 10 },
                new() { Name = "zaf", Value = 12 },
                new() { Name = "are", Value = 13 }
            }
        }
    };
}

XAML

Having the previous data (ViewModel), we add 3 charts to the UI, a CartesianChart, a PieChart and a GeoMap.

<UserControl x:Class="WPFSample.General.ChartToImage.View"
             xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
             xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" 
             xmlns:lvc="clr-namespace:LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.WPF;assembly=LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.WPF"
             xmlns:vms="clr-namespace:ViewModelsSamples.General.ChartToImage;assembly=ViewModelsSamples">

    <UserControl.DataContext>
        <vms:ViewModel></vms:ViewModel>
    </UserControl.DataContext>
    
    <Grid>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="*"/>
            <RowDefinition Height="*"/>
            <RowDefinition Height="*"/>
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        <lvc:CartesianChart
            Grid.Row="0"
            x:Name="cartesianChart"
            Series="{Binding CatesianSeries}">
        </lvc:CartesianChart>

        <lvc:PieChart
            Grid.Row="1"
            x:Name="pieChart"
            Series="{Binding PieSeries}">
        </lvc:PieChart>

        <lvc:GeoMap
            Grid.Row="2"
            x:Name="geoChart"
            Series="{Binding GeoSeries}">
        </lvc:GeoMap>
    </Grid>
</UserControl>

You will get the following plot in the UI.

You can take any control in the UI and build an image from it, in the next example, for simplicity, we build an image of our charts once the view is loaded.

using System.Windows.Controls;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.SKCharts;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.WPF;

namespace WPFSample.General.ChartToImage;

/// <summary>
/// Interaction logic for View.xaml
/// </summary>
public partial class View : UserControl
{
    public View()
    {
        InitializeComponent();

        // in this case, when the view is loaded // mark
        // we render our chart controls as images // mark
        Loaded += View_Loaded;
    }

    private void View_Loaded(object sender, System.Windows.RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        CreateImageFromCartesianControl();
        CreateImageFromPieControl();
        CreateImageFromGeoControl();
    }

    private void CreateImageFromCartesianControl()
    {
        // you can take any chart in the UI, and build an image from it // mark
        var chartControl = (CartesianChart)FindName("cartesianChart");
        var skChart = new SKCartesianChart(chartControl) { Width = 900, Height = 600, };
        skChart.SaveImage("CartesianImageFromControl.png");
    }

    private void CreateImageFromPieControl()
    {
        var chartControl = (PieChart)FindName("pieChart");
        var skChart = new SKPieChart(chartControl) { Width = 900, Height = 600, };
        skChart.SaveImage("PieImageFromControl.png");
    }

    private void CreateImageFromGeoControl()
    {
        var chartControl = (GeoMap)FindName("geoChart");
        var skChart = new SKGeoMap(chartControl) { Width = 900, Height = 600, };
        skChart.SaveImage("MapImageFromControl.png");
    }
}

Build an image in the server side or console app

LiveCharts can render images without the need of any UI framework, you can build images in the server side or in a console application as far as you install the SkiaSharp view package, it is available from NuGet:

LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView

The next code block build a CartesianChart, a PieChart and a GeoMap chart as images, to reproduce this sample create a new ConsoleApplication in VisualStudio 2022, select .Net 6.0 as the framework.

Finally build the images in the Program.cs file.

using LiveChartsCore;
using LiveChartsCore.Drawing;
using LiveChartsCore.Geo;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.Drawing.Geometries;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.Painting;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.SKCharts;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.VisualElements;
using SkiaSharp;

var cartesianChart = new SKCartesianChart
{
    Width = 900,
    Height = 600,
    Series = new ISeries[]
    {
        new LineSeries<int> { Values = new int[] { 1, 5, 4, 6 } },
        new ColumnSeries<int> { Values = new int[] { 4, 8, 2, 4 } }
    },
    Title = new LabelVisual
    {
        Text = "Hello LiveCharts",
        TextSize = 30,
        Padding = new Padding(15),
        Paint = new SolidColorPaint(0xff303030)
    },
    LegendPosition = LiveChartsCore.Measure.LegendPosition.Right,
    Background = SKColors.White
};

// you can save the image to png (by default)
// or use the second argument to specify another format.
cartesianChart.SaveImage("cartesianChart.png");

// additionally you can save a chart as svg:
// for more info see: https://github.com/mono/SkiaSharp/blob/main/tests/Tests/SKCanvasTest.cs#L396
using var stream = new MemoryStream();
var svgCanvas = SKSvgCanvas.Create(SKRect.Create(cartesianChart.Width, cartesianChart.Height), stream);
cartesianChart.DrawOnCanvas(svgCanvas);
svgCanvas.Dispose(); // <- dispose it before using the stream, otherwise the svg could not be completed.

stream.Position = 0;
using var fs = new FileStream("cartesianChart.svg", FileMode.OpenOrCreate);
stream.CopyTo(fs);

// you can also save the image of any other charts:
var pieChart = new SKPieChart
{
    Width = 900,
    Height = 600,
    Series = new ISeries[]
    {
        new PieSeries<int> { Values = new int[] { 10, } },
        new PieSeries<int> { Values = new int[] { 6 } },
        new PieSeries<int> { Values = new int[] { 4 } }
    },
    LegendPosition = LiveChartsCore.Measure.LegendPosition.Right
};

pieChart.SaveImage("pieChart.png");

var geoHeatMap = new SKGeoMap
{
    Width = 900,
    Height = 600,
    Series = new IGeoSeries[]
    {
        new HeatLandSeries
        {
            Lands = new HeatLand[]
            {
                new() { Name = "mex", Value = 10 },
                new() { Name = "usa", Value = 15 },
                new() { Name = "can", Value = 8 }
            }
        }
    }
};

geoHeatMap.SaveImage("geoHeatMap.png");

// alternatively you can get the image and do different operations:
using var image = cartesianChart.GetImage();
using var data = image.Encode();
var base64CartesianChart = Convert.ToBase64String(data.AsSpan());

Console.WriteLine("Images saved at the root folder!");