Many templates produce rather long items names.  Switches in particular get messy with interface names.  When putting the graph on a screen, I often have to give the graph extra real estate just so the max values don't get cut off the screen.

Proposition would be to add an option to graphs and/or screens that would allow you to choose an alignment for the legend text, and then a maximum number of characters.  So if you chose align+left and max char 20, you would see the first 20 characters of each item's name in the legend.  If you chose align+right and 10 characters, you would only see the last 10 characters of each item's name in the legend.