Like a box plot, a quartile plot summarises a distribution with five statistics: the median (the dot); the upper quartile and the maximum value (either end of the upper centre line); and the lower quartile and the minimum value (either end of the lower centre line). However, a quartile plot reduces a box plot's glyphs to one dot and two lines, so it has a larger data-ink ratio.
For more information about quartile plots, see:
- Tufte, E.R., 2001. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. 2nd ed. Cheshire, CT, USA: Graphics Press.
Refractive indices of samples of six types of glass, gathered for criminological investigation (source).