Installation and first chart

Open visual studio 2022, select "Create a new project", then select the Windows Forms Application template.

Name the project and the solution WinFormsSample, and select .NET 6.0 as the framework, if the framework is not available for you, you can also use .NET 5.0, .NET core 3.1 or .NET 4.6.2 or greater.

Install from NuGet

Now install LiveCharts from NuGet. If you need more help to install a package from NuGet, please follow this guide.

Install-Package LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView.WinForms

After the package is installed you should see the LiveCharts controls in your toolbox, drag a new CartesianChart control from your toolbox to the Form1 class.

If the control does not appear in your toolbox, try to rebuild your project and look for it again.

Now go to the code behind of the Form1 class and set the Series property as follows:

using LiveChartsCore;
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView;

namespace WinFormsSample
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            cartesianChart1.Series = new ISeries[] // mark
            { // mark
                new LineSeries<double> // mark
                { // mark
                    Values = new double[] { 2, 1, 3, 5, 3, 4, 6 }, // mark
                    Fill = null // mark
                } // mark
            }; // mark
        }
    }
}

And that's it, start your application and you will see the chart in your main window.

Configure themes and mappers (Optional)

Optionally you could configure LiveCharts to add a theme or a custom mapper, add the following code when your application starts:

Go to the Solution Explorer and browse for Program.cs file, then edit the it as follows.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using LiveChartsCore;// mark
using LiveChartsCore.SkiaSharpView;// mark

namespace WinFormsSample
{
    static class Program
    {
        [STAThread]
        static void Main()
        {
            _ = Application.SetHighDpiMode(HighDpiMode.SystemAware);
            Application.EnableVisualStyles();
            Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
            Application.Run(new Form1());

            LiveCharts.Configure(config =>// mark
                config// mark
                    // registers SkiaSharp as the library backend
                    // REQUIRED unless you build your own
                    .AddSkiaSharp()// mark

                    // adds the default supported types
                    // OPTIONAL but highly recommend
                    .AddDefaultMappers()// mark

                    // select a theme, default is Light
                    // OPTIONAL
                    //.AddDarkTheme()
                    .AddLightTheme()// mark

                    // finally register your own mappers
                    // you can learn more about mappers at:
                    // ToDo add website link...
                    .HasMap<City>((city, point) =>// mark
                    {// mark
                        point.PrimaryValue = city.Population;// mark
                        point.SecondaryValue = point.Context.Index;// mark
                    })// mark
                    // .HasMap<Foo>( .... )// mark
                    // .HasMap<Bar>( .... )// mark
                );// mark
        }
    }
}