Horizontal Bar
Show and compare categorical data, months, years, product categories rather than continuous time series or quantitative data. Horizontal orientation makes reading labels easier.

Horizontal Stacked Bar
Categorical data, grouped or stacked to assist comparison. Use when part-to-whole comparison is key. Horizontal orientation makes reading labels easier.

Vertical Bar
Also refered to as column charts. In general, use bars/columns when individual values are important. Use without column labels or very short labels.

Vertical Stacked Bar
Also referred to as stacked column charts. Use when part-to-whole comparison is key. Keep column labels short.

Horizontal Floating Bar
Show and compare categorical data as a range, typically hi/low or min/max but can also be used to show differences or deviation. Numerous applications.

Vertical Floating Bar
Also referred to as a floating column chart. Same usage as the Horizontal Floating Bar, typically a range of data. However, a vertical orientation may be preferable when additional  data such as a median test score is included.

Line (time-series)
Show and compare time series or sequential data. Frequently used to show trends and performance. Line charts can also be used to identify relationships between data sets. A good choice for use with large data sets, missing data and log scaling.

Line Chart (categorical)
Show and compare categorical data. User defined axis labels offer flexibility in the use of line charts. In some instances categorical-based Line charts may be used as an alternative to bar charts.

Scatter
Generally, quantitative scales on both axes. Frequently used to show or identify relationships between data sets.

Regression
Quantitative, sequential or time series data. Used to demonstrate the extent to which variables are correlated. Also used to fit trend lines to time-series data.

Bar/Area or Bar/Line
Used primarily to compare and contrast data sets with very different Y-axis scaling but the same categorical, sequential or time series data.

Bar, Line or Area
Multi-axis charts with a single data set can be used as a means of converting or translating information, such as mile per hour to kilometers per hour or US dollars to French Francs etc. 

Line/Line
Time-series and sequential data with different Y-axis scaling are frequently used to identify potential correlations between data sets. Especially effective in identifying leading and lagging indicators

Pie
Use to show the relative size of each component (slice) to one another and to the whole. At times difficult to visually distinguish differences in slice sizes. Try and limit the number of slices to no more than 5 and add labels to help communicate quantitative information. Bar and column charts using percentage as the Y-axis, as well as stacked bar and column charts may be preferable alternatives.

Stacked Area
Use to show the relative sizes of components that make up a whole. Stacked area charts can be confused with layered area charts; however, using KavaChart's 3-D effect may help avoid this confusion.

Area
Single data set area charts are effective for highlighting trends, and suffer less from misintrepretation than other types of area charts.

Bar/Area
Combination charts, in effect, superimpose one chart type over another. Use to improve clarity and highlight relationships between data sets.

Line/Bar
Use the line chart to empahsize a trend and bars to emphasize specific values. Line/Bar combinations may work better by de-empahsizing bars through the use of subtle colors. 

Speedos
Speedos, dials and gauges use a familar metaphor to communicate key performance indicators. In addition, comparative measures, such as a target level or threshold are frequently included as are qualitative indicators, such as good, satisfactory and bad.

Candlestick
Typically high, low, open, close price data. Trading volume is frequently included. Candlestick charts tend to highlight the relationship between opening and closing price.

Bar or Stick
Bar or stick charts are basically the same as candlestick charts but  emphasize high, low and changes in closing price. Technical charting overlays such as trend lines, moving averages, resistance lines, etc are frequently included.

Beyond the extensive gallery of out-of-the-box charts there is literally no limit to the charts you can create using KavaChart. The special purpose charts here don't include a variety of others that are available such as Histograms, Stem-Leaf charts, Box-Whisker plots, Box-Jenkins plots, Pareto charts, and numerous interactive charts (zooming and scrolling) -- to see a few interactive demos, go to AlaCarte applet demos.

Bubble
Can be used with categorical, sequential or time-series data. Bubble size and location combine to effectively display 3-D data on a 2-D chart. Bubble charts can also be displayed in quadrants, allowing for negative X and Y values.

Sector Map
A Sector Map is partitioned into "sectors" with each sector representing a dataset. The size of each rectangle within a sector is proportional to the total for that dataset, like a pie chart. Color is also used to convey information 

Radar
Also referred to as a Spider, Polar, and Kiviat chart. Best used in applications with cyclical data (ie. a 24 hour clock). Can be effective  comparing a mix of qualitative and quantitative information on the same chart. Qualitative data is often "normalized" to a range, say 0-1.

Gantt
Use to plan, track and manage program activities over time. Generally, each horizontal bar represents an activity involved in completing an overall program. Bar length represents duration with a start and end time. Activities with indefinite end times are represented with a "torn" edge.