A legend in a chart is a visual representation of the charts data series that helps readers understand the charted data. It is a box that contains small samples of each color on the graph as well as a short description of what each color means. Most charts use some kind of a legend to make the chart easier to read because it positions the labels for the data series. Whenever you create a chart in Excel, a legend for the chart is automatically generated at the same time. A chart can be missing a legend if it has been manually removed from the chart, but you can retrieve the missing legend. You can add, edit, or remove a chart legend in Excel. Once you add the chart legend, you can customize its appearance, including the font, the border, and the background. You can also change the location of the legend, make it longer or shorter, and arrange the legend text in multiple columns.