Observable has launched the beta version of Observable Plot, an open-source JavaScript library that enables developers to easily create visual representations to explore and interpret data.

According to the company, Observable Plot distills more than 10 years of visualization experience into a powerful and easy-to-learn API. Rather than get bogged down with the technical details of rendering graphics, Observable Plot helps users think about the data they’re working with and keeps them focused on finding insights.

Observable Plot packs sensible defaults into a concise API that is easy to remember. With just a few lines of intuitive code, you can construct a meaningful visualization. Then you can quickly change perspective with small additions such as facets, scales, and data transformations.

Observable Plot has powerful built-in functions for working with tabular and time-series data. With one line of code, you can apply a moving average to a line chart or bin data by time period. These techniques are composable — users are not limited to a fixed set of predefined charts.

As users get to know their data they can easily and quickly customize all the important aspects of their visualizations. For those who want to push the limits of customization, Plot can be extended with plugins using D3.js. Observable Plot was purposefully designed to work with Observable or as an independent open-source library.