Iceberg chart templates
An iceberg chart template is the levels with the entries left out: the tip above the waterline, the depths below it, and the level names that frame the subject. Start from the blank iceberg below, open a built-in catalog with entries already placed, or fill in a template somebody has published. Everything opens in the editor as your own copy.
Start from a blank iceberg chart
Start with an empty iceberg chart and fill it in yourself, or pick one of the templates below and change it.
Templates
Browse iceberg charts
Live templates, not images to draw over
Most iceberg templates floating around are pictures: an empty iceberg you load into a paint program and letter by hand, squeezing text until it stops fitting. The templates on this page are documents. The levels are real levels you can rename, recolor and reorder, entries are objects you drag between depths, and the picture is drawn from all of that at export time, at full resolution, every time you change something.
That difference matters most on the fifth revision. An iceberg is never right on the first pass; somebody always points out that your level three entry is common knowledge and your tip entry is actually obscure. With a live template, moving them is a drag, not a re-lettering job.
What a template fixes, and what stays yours
A template decides the frame: how many levels there are, what each depth is called, and how many levels sit above the waterline. The classic frame is six levels with one in daylight, and that is what the blank opens with, but a template author can run anywhere from two to ten and can put more of the iceberg above the surface when the subject calls for it.
Everything else stays yours. Your copy takes its own entries, with a note on any entry for the explanation readers see when they tap it on the published page. You can change the color ramp, override a single level color, swap the drawn iceberg scene for flat bands or your own background image, and pick the font. The template author chose a starting point, not a look you are stuck with.
The built-in catalogs
Alongside community templates, this page lists the catalogs that ship with the editor: conspiracy theories, gaming secrets, internet mysteries, music deep cuts and a generic fandom-lore frame. Each opens with entries already placed by rough consensus obscurity, which gives you two things a blank cannot: a working example of how depth ordering reads, and a head start you are free to disagree with.
Disagreeing is the point. A catalog iceberg becomes yours the moment you drag an entry to the level where you think it actually belongs, delete what you never cared about, and add the entries the catalog missed.
How to use a template
Opening any template gives you your own draft; the original stays exactly as its author published it.
- Open the template. It loads in the editor as a copy that belongs to you.
- Read the level names first: they decide what counts as shallow and what counts as deep for this subject.
- Fill the levels, top down. Press Enter after each entry to keep adding; drag anything that lands on the wrong depth.
- Add notes to the deep entries. A bottom-level entry with no explanation is a name nobody can do anything with.
- Download the PNG, or publish it to get a page where every entry is clickable and its note is readable.
Publish a template of your own
The scarce part of a good iceberg is the frame: a subject worth mapping and level names that make the depth ordering feel inevitable. If you have that, publish it with the levels named and the entries left out (or seeded with a few examples per depth), and choose "Publish as template" in the publish dialog. It appears on this page, and everyone who opens it starts from your frame with their own opinions.
- Iceberg chart maker: the editor itself, with the starters and every styling option.
- Community iceberg charts: finished icebergs people have published here.
Common questions
What is a blank iceberg chart?
The levels with nothing on them: a tip above the waterline, the depths below, and default level names ready to be replaced. The blank at the top of this page opens one in the editor with six levels; you can add levels down to ten, cut back to two, and move the waterline.
How many levels should an iceberg template have?
Six is the classic and the default, and it is enough for almost every subject: one level of common knowledge and five descending grades of obscurity. Go bigger only when you genuinely have ten distinguishable depths; a template with more levels than the subject has layers just spreads the same entries thinner.
Can a template include entries, or must it be empty?
Either. A pure frame publishes with just the level names; a seeded template carries a few example entries per depth so people can see the intended calibration. The built-in catalogs on this page are the seeded kind, and anyone opening either kind gets a copy they can change completely.
Can I put pictures on the levels?
Yes. Any entry can be an image with a caption, and the whole background can be a picture of your own instead of the drawn iceberg. Most icebergs stay text-heavy because the deep levels are usually names and phrases, but nothing stops an all-image iceberg.
Does using a template change the original?
No. You get your own copy the moment you open it, and anything you publish afterwards is a separate page. The author keeps their version untouched.
Where do the templates on this page come from?
Two places: the built-in catalogs that ship with the editor, and people who chose "Publish as template" when publishing. Nothing here is stock content scraped from elsewhere.
How do I publish an iceberg template for other people?
Name the levels, decide what to seed, then choose "Publish as template" in the publish dialog and give it a title. It appears on this page, and anyone who opens it starts from your levels.
Make an iceberg chart of your own
Collect a pool, leave it unranked, and publish it as a template. It appears on this page, and anyone can open a copy. Open the iceberg chart maker to start from scratch.