Exploring PlotOptions

The plotOptions object is a wrapper object for config objects for each series type supported in Highcharts. These configurations have properties such as plotOptions.line.lineWidth, common to other series types, as well as other configurations such as plotOptions.pie.center that is only specific to the pie series type. Among the specific series, there is plotOptions.series, which is used for common plotting options shared by the whole series.

The preceding plotOptions object can form a chain of precedence between plotOptions.series, plotOptions.{series-type}, and the series configuration. For example, series[x].shadow (where series[x].type is 'pie') has a higher precedence than plotOptions.pie.shadow, which in turn has a higher precedence than plotOptions.series.shadow.

The purpose of this is that the chart is composed of multiple different series types. For example, in a chart with multiple series of columns and a single line series, the common properties between...