<commit_before>---
layout: docs
menu: docs
title: Mark
permalink: /docs/mark.html
---

Marks are the basic visual building block of a visualization.
In a bar chart, the marks are bars. In a scatterplot, the marks might be circles or squares.

```js
{
  "data": ... ,       
  "mark": ... ,       // mark
  "encoding": ... ,
  ...
}
```


The `mark` property in a Vega-Lite specification defines the visualization's mark type.
Each mark type supports different [encoding channels](encoding.html#mark-channel),
which can be mapped either to a field (a variable in your data) or to a constant value.  

<!-- Replace the following list with a table listing mark types and their supported channels. -->

Vega-Lite supports the following `mark` types:
[`point`](#point-mark),
[`circle`](#circle-and-square-marks),
[`square`](#circle-and-square-marks),
[`tick`](#tick-mark),
[`bar`](#bar-mark),
[`line`](#line-mark),
[`area`](#area), and
[`text`](#text).

## Point Mark
<commit_msg>Describe the purpose of marks. <commit_after>---
layout: docs
menu: docs
title: Mark
permalink: /docs/mark.html
---

Marks are the basic visual building block of a visualization: they are graphical primitives whose properties (such as position, size, and color) can be used to visually encode data. In a bar chart, the marks are bars. In a scatterplot, the marks might be circles or squares.

```js
{
  "data": ... ,       
  "mark": ... ,       // mark
  "encoding": ... ,
  ...
}
```


The `mark` property in a Vega-Lite specification defines the visualization's mark type.
Each mark type supports different [encoding channels](encoding.html#mark-channel),
which can be mapped either to a field (a variable in your data) or to a constant value.  

<!-- Replace the following list with a table listing mark types and their supported channels. -->

Vega-Lite supports the following `mark` types:
[`point`](#point-mark),
[`circle`](#circle-and-square-marks),
[`square`](#circle-and-square-marks),
[`tick`](#tick-mark),
[`bar`](#bar-mark),
[`line`](#line-mark),
[`area`](#area), and
[`text`](#text).

## Point Mark

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