Forum Discussion
Looking for a Donut/Pie Chart Custom Visual with Text Wrap Support for Category Labels
Hi Community,
I'm currently building a Power BI report in Microsoft Fabric and am facing a limitation with the standard Donut/Pie Chart visual.
Many of my categories have long names, and the built-in visual does not support text wrapping for legend/category labels, resulting in truncated text that users cannot fully read without relying on tooltips.
I'm looking for a custom visual (preferably free) that supports:
- Donut or Pie chart visualization
- Text wrapping for category labels or legends
- Displaying the full category name directly on the report page
- Good readability when dealing with long labels
- Compatibility with Power BI / Microsoft Fabric
Has anyone found a custom visual that supports this functionality?
If not, how have you handled long category names in donut/pie charts while keeping the report user-friendly?
Any recommendations or examples would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
2 Replies
- v-csrikanth
Community Support
Hi Ankita_data
Deneb is a free option worth considering, provided your organisation allows custom visuals. It is open source, Microsoft-certified, and can create pie/donut charts in Power BI reports.
The important distinction is that Deneb requires a custom specification—it does not provide a simple “Text wrap” toggle for its default legend. Using Vega, you can build a donut with a custom colour-keyed legend whose category names span multiple lines. Vega text marks support an array of text lines or an explicit line-break delimiter, with configurable line height.
For example, you could place the donut on the left and the full category names across two or three lines on the right, within the same Deneb visual. You would need to define the wrapping rules and allocate enough space between labels. Simply increasing the text limit or removing truncation does not create wrapping.
References: Deneb documentation and Vega multiline text support.
For a simpler, no-code workaround, keep the native donut and hide its legend. Place a Table visual beside it containing the full category names and values/percentages. Enable Text wrap for the table’s values, not just its column headers, and adjust the category column width. If you add colour indicators, use the same fixed category-to-colour mapping in both visuals; the colours will not synchronise automatically.
This keeps the complete names visible on the report page without depending on tooltips. For many categories or particularly long names, the table-based approach is usually easier to read than labels crowded around a donut.
Thanks,
C Srikanth
Community Support Team - DaniyalKhaleel1
Resolver II
You can try Deneb (free) if you're comfortable with Vega/Vega-Lite. It gives you much more control over label formatting, including wrapping and positioning.
For a simpler solution, I’d recommend shortening the legend labels and showing the full category name in a tooltip. Another option is using a bar chart, which handles long category names much better than pie/donut charts.
For Fabric/Power BI, my preference would be:
Long labels → Bar chart
Need donut → Deneb custom visual
Need simple solution → Short label + full name in tooltip
