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Wednesday
May272009

Colorbrewer 2.0

by AuthorAlphachimp DateWednesday, May 27, 2009 at 10:51AM

© Cynthia Brewer, Mark Harrower and The Pennsylvania State University. www.axismaps.com

When building maps and information graphics, choosing the right colors to help designate variables--whether population, temperature, or campaign dollars--is a time-consuming challenge.

How does one choose colors that are effective in communicating data, that can be read by the colorblind, that can be considered print fiendly and/or "photocopy-able" ? 

The folks at Penn State have built Colorbrewer 2.0, an effective tool to swiftly aid in the process.

Once a palette is chosen, this free on-line tool allows for easy export to ArcGIS (a mapping app), Excel, or any Adobe product. You can also simply copy and paste the RGB, CMYK or HEX values.

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  • Source
    Source: Choosing Colour Ranges
    by David Heyman at FlowingData
    From on-line forums. "There's been lots of research done on this in the field of static cartography, mostly related to color perception. For sequential ramps like the one you're working on, it maxes out at 9 classes total. After that, users will have a hard time distinguishing between the colors but if you need more classes total, the blend tool should fill in the rest."