![The icon used to represent this chart type in the ChartType drop-down in Visual Studio's properties window.](Images/Chart_About_Stack_Spline_Area_Charts_01.png)
A stacked spline area chart is an area chart in which areas do not overlap, because they are cumulative at each point. In a stacked 100% area chart, the areas reach a total of 100% of the axis range at each point.
An area chart is a form of line chart, but the area between the horizontal (x) axis and the line connecting the data markers is filled with color. This makes it easy to see where the points encompassed by the different data series overlap.
A stacked spline area chart is different from a stacked area chart because it uses spline tension to connect points in each line.
If you want your chart to display data in chronological order, and plot points across the x-axis according to elapsed time, see Display Data on a Time-Scale Axis.