Forest Plot
Visualize results from multiple academic, medical, or scientific studies.
About Forest Plot
A forest plot, also known as a bloogram, is a graphical display of estimated results from a number of scientific studies addressing the same question, along with the overall results.
How to Use
- Paste your study data — copy Study Name, Effect Size, and Confidence Intervals (Lower/Upper bounds).
- Map your columns — assign labels to the study names and numeric values to the statistical bounds.
- Identify significance — the vertical 'null' line helps you instantly see which studies are statistically significant.
- Calculate summary — optionally provide a pooled effect size to show the cumulative meta-analysis diamond.
- Export — download as a high-density PNG or SVG for medical journal submissions.
Common Use Cases
- Meta-Analysis — summarize results from multiple clinical trials for a new medication.
- Academic Research — compare across different experiments in psychology or social sciences.
- Environmental Impact Studies — visualize findings from multiple site assessments.
- Policy Evaluation — compare the effectiveness of social programs across different regions.
Technical Details
Powered by Apache ECharts. Implements custom error-bar rendering and proportional diamond shapes for meta-analytic weighting.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What does the diamond represent?
- The diamond typically represents the pooled result or 'weighted average' of all the studies in the meta-analysis.
- What data is a forest plot best suited for?
- Forest plots are the standard visualization for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Each row represents one study, displaying its effect size (e.g., odds ratio, relative risk, or mean difference) as a square and the confidence interval as a horizontal line. A pooled diamond at the bottom shows the overall combined effect.
- How do I export my forest plot to PowerPoint?
- Click 'Download PPTX'. The forest plot is exported as a high-resolution image embedded in a PowerPoint slide, preserving study labels, confidence interval lines, the null-effect reference line, and the summary diamond. This is ready to include in academic presentations and journal submission supplementary materials.
- How should I format data for a forest plot?
- Prepare columns for: Study Label (e.g., 'Smith 2020'), Effect Size (numeric, e.g., odds ratio), Lower CI bound, and Upper CI bound. Each row is one study. Paste from Excel with headers in the first row. The tool plots a vertical reference line at 1.0 (for ratios) or 0.0 (for differences) and sizes the square markers proportionally to study weight if a weight column is provided.
- Is my data processed securely?
- Yes. All forest plot rendering — including confidence interval lines, study markers, and the summary diamond — is computed client-side in your browser. Study-level data is never uploaded to any server, keeping pre-publication research data private.
- Does the Forest Plot tool calculate odds ratios or effect sizes automatically?
- No. The Forest Plot tool is a visualization tool — you must provide the pre-calculated effect sizes and confidence intervals for each study. It does not perform statistical meta-analysis calculations. You would typically run your analysis in R (using the meta or metafor package), Python (scipy, statsmodels), or a dedicated meta-analysis tool, then paste the resulting estimates and 95% CI values into this tool to produce a publication-ready chart for your paper or report.
Chart Data in PNG — Resume Editing
What is embedded chart data?
PNG exports and shared links may include your original chart data and settings. Anyone with the file or complete link may recover them.
How to use it
- Export your chart to PNG
- Keep the PNG file
- Drop or paste it into the "Resume Chart from PNG" tool any time you need to edit it again
- Your chart restores exactly as you left it — make changes and export again
Why this is better than static images
Other chart tools export PNG images that are final — once exported, you cannot edit them without redoing the work from scratch.
- No need to save the source spreadsheet separately — the PNG IS your backup
- Share a PNG with a colleague and they can restore and edit it without the original data
- Years later, if you need to update a chart, open the PNG and resume — no searching for old files
- For archival: keep PNGs alongside your reports and presentations; they are fully self-contained
Is it secure?
PNG exports and shared links may include your original chart data and settings. Anyone with the file or complete link may recover them.
Embed URL — Interactive Chart for Presentations
What is the Embed URL?
The Embed URL opens a clean, interactive version of your chart in a browser — showing only the chart with no tool interface, no settings panel, and no export buttons. Tooltips and hover interactions work fully. The chart data is encrypted in the URL, just like the Recovery Link.
Where to find it
- Click the "🔗 Embed URL" button on the chart tool page — it copies the URL to your clipboard instantly
- The embed URL is also saved below the slide boundary in your exported PPTX file, labeled "Embed URL — interactive view"
Using the Embed URL in Other Tools
The Embed URL works anywhere that supports iframes or URL embeds:
- Notion — paste the URL as an embed block (type /embed in Notion)
- Confluence — use the HTML macro or iframe macro with the embed URL
- SharePoint — embed via the Embed web part
Any website or intranet page — use a standard HTML iframe:
<iframe
src="YOUR_EMBED_URL"
width="800"
height="500"
frameborder="0"
allowfullscreen>
</iframe>Note on self-hosted deployments: If your organisation uses the self-hosted version of Lokaltools on your intranet, embed URLs point to your internal domain. These will only work for viewers on your company network or VPN — which may be exactly what your IT security team requires.
Chart Colors — Brand-Consistent Palettes in Seconds
Most charting tools give you a fixed color palette you cannot change, or require you to manually pick every color one by one. Lokaltools uses a three-step color system that starts from your company's brand color and builds a complete, harmonious palette automatically.
Step 1 — Brand Anchor
Enter your company's primary brand color as a hex code (e.g. #0066CC) in the Brand Anchor field. This is typically your main logo color, primary button color, or the dominant color from your brand guidelines. The brand anchor color is used as the starting point for all palette generation. Every color in your chart traces back to this single input — so your chart always feels on-brand without manual color selection.
Step 2 — Harmony
The Harmony dropdown selects the color theory rule used to generate the remaining chart colors from your brand anchor. Each harmony produces a different relationship between colors.
| Harmony | What it produces | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Analogous | Colors adjacent on the color wheel — subtle, cohesive | Single-theme data, when colors should feel similar |
| Complementary | Two colors directly opposite — high contrast | Two-series comparisons, positive vs negative |
| Triadic (Balanced) | Three evenly spaced colors — vivid but balanced | Most business charts, 3-6 data series |
| Split Complementary | One anchor + two colors flanking its complement | Good contrast without full complementary tension |
| Tetradic | Four colors forming a rectangle on the wheel — rich | Charts with 4+ series needing maximum distinction |
Triadic (Balanced) is the default and works well for most business presentations. Switch to Analogous for a more subtle, conservative look, or Complementary when you want two data series to visually contrast strongly (e.g. budget vs actual).
Step 3 — Generated Swatches (Manual Override)
Below the harmony selector, the tool displays 5–6 generated color swatches — these are the actual colors that will appear on your chart. If any individual color does not work, click that swatch to open a color picker and replace it with any color you choose. Manual overrides are preserved in the recovery link.
Background mode (Light / Dark toggle): switches the palette lightness to suit your slide background. This adjusts the generated colors automatically so they remain readable.
Tips for Brand Color Usage
- Finding your exact brand hex code: Check your company's brand guidelines PDF, or right-click your company logo on the website → Inspect → find the CSS color value.
- When to use Analogous vs Triadic: Use Analogous when your chart has one dominant message and you want colors to feel unified. Use Triadic when each series represents a genuinely different thing (e.g. Revenue, Cost, Profit).
- Matching exported chart colors to your PowerPoint template: The PPTX Exact export preserves colors pixel-perfectly — what you see in the browser is exactly what appears in your PowerPoint slide.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does this tool work offline?
- Yes — once the page has loaded, the tool works fully without an internet connection. The only exception is the Embed URL interactive view, which requires the chart tool page to be reachable when the embed is displayed.
- Can I use this for confidential or sensitive data?
- Yes. Your data is processed entirely in your browser using WebAssembly. It is never sent to Lokaltools servers or any third party. This makes the tool suitable for financial data, patient data, legal documents, and any other sensitive information.
- What data formats can I paste?
- Copy cells directly from Excel, Google Sheets, or Apple Numbers and paste — the tool auto-detects the format. CSV file upload is also supported. Data copied from web pages or PDFs may not paste correctly — clean it in Excel first.
- How do I find my company's brand hex color?
- Check your company's brand guidelines document or open your company website, right-click the logo or a branded button, select "Inspect", and look for a CSS color value starting with #.
- Can I save my brand color so I don't have to re-enter it every time?
- The brand anchor color is saved in the Recovery Link along with all other chart settings. Export your chart, then use the Recovery Link next time to restore your brand color automatically.
- Is the embedded chart data permanent?
- Yes. The embedded data is stored in the PNG file itself — not on any server — so there is no expiry. As long as you have the PNG file, you can restore and edit your chart.
- Can I share the PNG with a colleague?
- Yes — anyone with the PNG file can restore and edit the chart using the "Resume Chart from PNG" tool. Treat the PNG like a shared document: share only with people who should have access to the underlying data.
- What is the difference between embedded PNG data and Embed URL?
- Embedded PNG data contains your full chart state encrypted in the PNG file — you can drop it into the "Resume Chart from PNG" tool to edit and re-export. The Embed URL opens a view-only interactive chart with no editing capability.
Privacy & Security
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your data follows this path: Your spreadsheet → Your browser → Your exported file. Nothing else. No upload step. No server processing. No analytics on your data content.
Chart PNG exports may contain the original chart data and settings as recoverable metadata. Recovery and embed links contain data and the key needed to open it in the URL fragment. Anyone with the file or complete link may recover that data. Share only with intended recipients. A fragment is normally omitted from HTTP requests, but JavaScript and services you share a link with can read it.
For organisations requiring formal confirmation: Lokaltools cannot read your data, does not store your data, and has no technical mechanism to access your data even if legally compelled to do so. This is not a policy — it is an architectural fact.
Technical Details
Powered by Apache ECharts for high-performance canvas rendering, PapaParse for intelligent CSV and tab-separated data parsing, and PptxGenJS for native OOXML chart objects. Magic link encryption uses the browser's built-in Web Crypto API (AES-256-GCM) with pako compression — no external encryption library required. All processing is 100% client-side. No data is transmitted at any point.
Local processing
Our local file, text and chart tools process content on your device using JavaScript, browser APIs and, where needed, WebAssembly. Our usage events do not include filenames, file contents, input text, chart values, raw errors, emails or license references. Network lookup tools (such as DNS, WHOIS, IP and speed tests) contact external services for their stated purpose. Loading the website, fonts, libraries and models also makes network requests. WebAssembly itself does not prevent network access.