plotly / plotly/dash

[BUG] Graphs excluded from print pages if they have over 1000 datapoints

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bug P3 size: 10+
Dominant language
Python
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Description

Context
When saving a Dash app as a pdf dcc.Graph behaves wonky if the graph contains more than 1000 datapoints (starting at 1001 points). The actual graph doesn't appear properly in the printed page. Instead, an empty graph is shown (or it could be that the background is printed over the graph).

I tested the behavior in Firefox, Chrome and Edge, and the behavior is different per browser. I tested both printing the page via the browser print page functionality and via the html2pdf library.

In Chrome and Edge, the browser print page functionality works fine with more than 1000 datapoints. In Firefox, the datapoints are gone, and the print preview shows an empty plot.

Using the html2pdf library, all browser have issues. In Chrome and Edge, the plot line seems to have a different scale and is hidden behind the plot background. In Firefox the plot line is completely gone, just showing an empty plot. It could be that it is hidden behind the plot background as well but that the scale is smaller so we don't see it.

It's possibly a bit of an edge case that might not be due to Dash. If it is not, please consider documenting this limitation somewhere.

Expected behavior
The plot should be visible on the printed page regardless how many points are in the plot.

Example app
To reproduce the behavior, take this example app for generating a simple plot and play around with num_points.

import dash
from dash import dcc, html, clientside_callback, Input
import plotly.express as px
import numpy as np

app = dash.Dash(__name__)

num_points = 2000
x = np.linspace(0, 10, num_points)
y = np.sin(x) * 100 + np.random.normal(0, 5, num_points)

fig = px.line(
    x=x,
    y=y,
    title="Line Chart",
)

app.layout = html.Div(
    id="main_container",
    children=[
        html.H1("Plotly Dash App"),
        dcc.Graph(figure=fig),
        html.Div(
            children=[
                dcc.Button(
                    id="save_as_pdf",
                    children="Save as PDF",
                )
            ],
        ),
    ]
)

clientside_callback(
    f"""
    function (button_clicked) {{
        if (button_clicked && button_clicked > 0) {{
            var mainContainerElement = document.getElementById("main_container");

            var opt = {{
                // margin units are those that are defined in jsPDF key below.
                margin: 10,
                filename: 'test_file.pdf',
                image: {{ type: 'jpeg', quality: 0.98 }},
                html2canvas: {{
                    scale: 3,
                    width: 1920,
                    dpi: 300,
                }},
                jsPDF: {{ unit: 'mm', format: 'A4', orientation: 'p' }},
                // pagebreak: {{ mode: ['avoid-all'] }}
            }};
            html2pdf().from(mainContainerElement).set(opt).save();
        }}
    }}
    """,
    Input(component_id="save_as_pdf", component_property="n_clicks"),
)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app.run(debug=True)

Setup

dash 4.0.0
dash-core-components 2.0.0
dash-html-components 2.0.0
dash-table 5.0.0
plotly 6.5.2
numpy 2.4.4

Take html2pdf from here: https://github.com/eKoopmans/html2pdf.js/blob/main/dist/html2pdf.bundle.min.js and put it in the assets folder next to the example app.

  • Browser, Version and OS

    • OS: Windows
    • Browser:
      • Chrome: 150.0.7871.114
      • Firefox: 152.0.4
      • Edge: 150.0.4078.48

Screenshots
Edge/Chrome with 2000 points

Print page (this is also how it shows in all cases when number of points <= 1000)
Image

html2pdf
Image

Firefox with 2000 points

Print page
Image

html2pdf
Image

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the provided example app and vary num_points around 1000, then reproduce printing through browser print and html2pdf across Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. Inspect the dcc.Graph rendering and the assets/html2pdf setup; done means the graph remains visible and correctly scaled in the printed output for more than 1000 points.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
plotly, python
Domain
data-visualization, frontend
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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