Very Simple Donut Chart With Pure HTML CSS

Welcome to a tutorial on how to create a simple donut chart using pure HTML and CSS. Want to display a pie chart in your project? But without using complicated third-party libraries? Yes, it is possible to draw a donut chart using only HTML CSS – Read on for the example!

ⓘ I have included a zip file with all the source code at the start of this tutorial, so you don’t have to copy-paste everything… Or if you just want to dive straight in.

 

 

TDLR – QUICK SLIDES

Fullscreen Mode – Click Here

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

 

QUICK NOTES

If you spot a bug, feel free to comment below. I try to answer short questions too, but it is one person versus the entire world… If you need answers urgently, please check out my list of websites to get help with programming.

 

EXAMPLE CODE DOWNLOAD

Click here to download all the example source code, I have released it under the MIT license, so feel free to build on top of it or use it in your own project.

 

DONUT CHART DEMO

 

 

 

PART 1) PIE CHART

1A) THE HTML

<!-- (A) DONUT CHART -->
<div class="donut"></div>

A <div class="donut"> is all the HTML we need to get started.

 

1B) THE CSS

/* (A) PIE CHART */
.donut {
  /* (A1) CIRCLE */
  width: 300px; height: 300px;
  border-radius: 50%;
 
  /* (A2) SEGMENTS */
  background: conic-gradient(
    red 0deg 80deg,
    green 80deg 190deg,
    blue 190deg 360deg
  );
}

• (A1) Use width: 300px height: 300px to create a square, and add border-radius: 50% to turn it into a circle.
• (A2) Next, we specify the segments using conic-gradient. As you already know, a full circle is 360 degrees. So we just specify the segments using COLOR START-DEGREE END-DEGREE.

Yes, I know. This is a pie and not a donut. Have some patience, we will get into that in the next step.

 

 

PART B) DONUT CHART

2A) THE HTML

<!-- (A) DONUT CHART -->
<div class="donut"><div class="hole"></div></div>

How does one convert a pie into a donut? Punch a <div class="hole"> in the middle.

 

2B) THE CSS

/* (B) DONUT "CONVERSION" */
/* (B1) SMALLER CIRCLE */
.hole {
  width: 180px; height: 180px;
  border-radius: 50%;
  background: #fff;
}
 
/* (B2) "CONVERT PIE TO DONUT" - CENTER SMALLER CIRCLE */
.donut {
  display: flex;
  align-items: center;
  justify-content: center;
}

• (B1) That’s right. We create a smaller circle within the pie chart.
• (B2) Then using CSS flex, we center this smaller circle in the middle of the pie chart – This effectively “converts” the pie chart into a donut chart.

 

 

PART C) THE LEGEND

3A) THE HTML

<!-- (B) LEGEND -->
<div class="legend">
  <div class="segment1"></div> <div>First</div>
  <div class="segment2"></div> <div>Second</div>
  <div class="segment3"></div> <div>Third</div>
</div>

Some other tutorials on the Internet do some “not-so-simple calculations” to put the labels/segments directly in the chart itself… I figured that is “too confusing”, and the easiest way is to create a separate legend.

 

3B) THE CSS

/* (C) LEGEND */
/* (C1) LEGEND CONTAINER */
.legend {
  display: flex;
  margin-top: 30px;
}
 
/* (C2) SEGMENTS */
.legend div { padding: 0 10px; }
.segment1 { background: red; }
.segment2 { background: green; }
.segment3 { background: blue; }

Lastly, there is not much of a mystery here. The legend is just a simple “flexbox legend bar”.

 

 

 

NOT GREAT FOR COMPLEX DONUTS

Of course, we can build simple donut charts using pure HTML and CSS. But when it comes to a complex multiple segments chart, it quickly becomes extremely painful with manual calculations and placements. So a little bit of Javascript to “automate” the calculation will do great – I shall leave that as a possible future update.

 

COMPATIBILITY CHECKS

• CSS Flexbox – CanIUse
• CSS Conic Gradient – CanIUse

CSS flex and conic gradient are well-supported on all modern “Grade A” browsers.

 

LINKS & REFERENCES

• Javascript Pie Chart – Code Boxx
• HTML CSS Gantt Chart – Code Boxx
• HTML CSS Bar Chart – Code Boxx
• HTML CSS Pie Chart – Code Boxx
• Example on CodePen – CSS Donut Chart

 

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