Customization

BenchBox visualization supports customization for themes, colors, and terminal display options.

Themes

BenchBox provides light and dark themes optimized for different contexts:

benchbox visualize results/*.json --theme light
benchbox visualize results/*.json --theme dark

The light theme is the default and suits light terminals. The dark theme suits dark terminal backgrounds.

Theme Differences:

Aspect	Light Theme	Dark Theme
Background	Terminal default	Terminal default
Text emphasis	Dark gray tones	Light gray tones
Chart palette	Same colorblind-safe colors	Same colorblind-safe colors

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Color Palette

BenchBox uses a colorblind-safe categorical palette designed for data visualization:

Palette Colors:

Color	Hex	Usage
Teal	#1b9e77	Primary series, best performer
Orange	#d95f02	Secondary series
Purple	#7570b3	Tertiary series
Pink	#e7298a	Fourth series
Green	#66a61e	Fifth series
Yellow	#e6ab02	Sixth series
Brown	#a6761d	Seventh series
Gray	#666666	Eighth series

Special Colors:

Purpose	Color	Hex
Best performer	Green	#28a745
Worst performer	Red	#dc3545
Improvement (%)	Green	#66a61e
Regression (%)	Orange	#d95f02

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Terminal Display Options

Color Control

benchbox visualize results/*.json

benchbox visualize results/*.json --no-color

The first command uses full ANSI color output (the default). --no-color disables colors, which suits piping to files or plain terminals.

Character Set

benchbox visualize results/*.json

benchbox visualize results/*.json --no-unicode

The first command uses Unicode block characters (the default): ▏▎▍▌▋▊▉█. --no-unicode uses ASCII-only characters for basic terminals: .-=+#@.

Terminal Width

Charts automatically detect terminal width and constrain output to 40-120 characters. The chart rendering adapts:

• Labels are truncated to fit available space
• Bar widths scale proportionally
• Legends wrap as needed

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Accessibility

BenchBox visualizations are designed for accessibility:

Color Accessibility:

• Palette passes WCAG AA contrast requirements
• Colorblind-safe: distinguishable for deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia
• --no-color flag for screen readers and plain text processing

Screen Reader Support:

• Text-based output is inherently screen reader compatible
• Use --no-color to strip ANSI codes for cleanest plain text
• Consistent labeling with values, legends, and scale notes

Contrast Ratios:

• Text on background: minimum 4.5:1 (WCAG AA)
• Chart elements: minimum 3:1

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Advanced: Python API Customization

For fine-grained control, use the Python API directly:

from benchbox.core.visualization.ascii.base import ChartOptions
from benchbox.core.visualization.ascii.bar_chart import BarChart, BarData

opts = ChartOptions(
    use_color=True,
    use_unicode=True,
    theme="dark",
    width=100,
)

data = [
    BarData(label="Platform A", value=100.5, is_best=True),
    BarData(label="Platform B", value=150.2),
    BarData(label="Platform C", value=200.1, is_worst=True),
]

chart = BarChart(
    data=data,
    title="Custom Chart Title",
    metric_label="Execution Time (ms)",
    options=opts,
)

print(chart.render())

width=100 overrides terminal width detection.

Using the Generic Factory

render_ascii_chart renders any chart type through the generic factory.

from benchbox.core.visualization.exporters import render_ascii_chart

output = render_ascii_chart(
    chart_type="performance_bar",
    data=data,
    title="My Chart",
)
print(output)

Exporting to File

from benchbox.core.visualization.exporters import export_ascii

export_ascii(
    ascii_content=chart.render(),
    output_dir="./charts",
    base_name="performance_comparison",
    format="txt",
)

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Configuration Summary

Option	CLI Flag	Default	Values
Theme	--theme	light	light, dark
Colors	--no-color	enabled	flag to disable
Unicode	--no-unicode	enabled	flag to disable
Template	--template	none	default, flagship, head_to_head, trends, cost_optimization, comparison
Chart type	--chart-type	auto	auto, all, performance_bar, distribution_box, query_heatmap, query_histogram, cost_scatter, time_series