Colour-related links

Links to resources about the use of colour for maps, plots and diagrams.

Links to information

• Crameri, F., Shephard, G.E. and Heron, P.J. 2020. The misuse of colour in science communication. Nature Communications. 11(1), p.5444.
• Colour perception and presentation - a very good summary by a former member of SEE.
• How to choose colours for your data visualizations
• Simple tools for mastering color in scientific figures
• Best color palettes for scientific figures and data visualizations
• A series of blogs by Lisa Charlotte Muth:
  • Which color scale to use when visualizing data
  • When to use quantitative and when to use qualitative color scales
  • When to use sequential and when to use diverging color scales
  • When to use classed and when to use unclassed color scales
  • How to choose an interpolation for your color scale - e.g. linear, quantile, Jenks etc.
• The rainbow colour map (repeatedly) considered harmful - blog by the author of the Nature paper above, Fabio Crameri
• Creating a colour style sheet - as in picking a limited range of colours to use in a variety of situations.

Colour blindness

• RGS Colour blind accessible mapping article
• Blog series on colour and colour blindness by Lisa Charlotte Muth
  • How your colorblind and colorweak readers see your colors
  • What to consider when visualizing data for colorblind readers
  • What's it like to be colorblind

Tools to help with colour choices

• ColorBrewer - tool to choose colour schemes for cartography
• Coblis colour blindness simulator
• Colour resources - Includes a very long list of colour names.
• Scientific colour maps - downloadable colour maps and the theory behind them.
• Paul Tol's Colour Schemes - implemented for use in R. Hex codes are given for each colour scheme.
• Adobe Color Accessibility Tools

Colour contrast tools

• WCAG Contrast Checker - enables you to see how colours for fonts and backgrounds look together. Allows you to share a sample of the colours.
• Colour Contrast Checker - enables you to see how colours for fonts and backgrounds look together.
• Color Safe - creating colour palettes based on WCAG contrast guidelines.
• Accessible colour contrast - University of Sussex. Choose a palette, then check contrast.
• TPGi Colour Contrast Analyser - tool to install on Windows or Mac. Provides eye-dropper tool to enter colours and check contrast.