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Atmospheric Administration
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Color palettes to convey information to color-impaired viewers and on different output devices

Color palettes to convey information to color-impaired viewers and on different output devices

Question:

Which of Ferret's color palettes best convey information to color-impaired viewers?

What palettes will show up well if I photocopy the output, or display it using LCD projectors, Laptop and CRT screens, and color printers?

Explanation:

The article "The End of the Rainbow? Color Schemes for Improved Data Graphics", by A. Light and P. J. Bartlein, (2004) EOS 85(40), p. 385, 391 discusses shortcomings of some of the common color schemes used in scientific publication. It explores types of color palettes which better distinguish the desired features of the data. This article is available on-line at http://geography.uoregon.edu/datagraphics/EOS/index.htm

A presentation "A Better Default Color map for Matplotlib, https://youtu.be/xAoljeRJ3lU" discusses making choices of good default color map.

Articles and notes on this topic from EOS are available at http://geography.uoregon.edu/datagraphics/EOS/Light&Bartlein.pdf Look at the last few pages for a response to the original article "Forum: Comment on Color Schemes for Improved Data Graphics" and the reply to this comment. These make a helpful discussion of the issues involved and useful color palettes for different sorts of data.

The article references two web sites where one can view these palettes and access their definitions. The sites are the ColorBrewer tool at https://colorbrewer2.org, and from the University of Oregon Data Graphics Research group, Department of Geography, http://geography.uoregon.edu/datagraphics/color_scales.htm.

Solution:

We have implemented as Ferret palette files some of the color schemes discussed in the EOS article and the two web sites it references. Their palette names, some of their properties,and a simple example of each are in the tables below.

Recall that in Ferret you can change to a new palette using the /PALETTE=qualifier on a SHADE or FILL command:

 yes? SHADE/I=1:10/J=1:10/PAL=green_magenta i-j
 yes? FILL/I=1:100/J=1:100/PAL=blue_darkred cos(i/8) + sin(j/6)

or, you can change to a particular palette for all subsequent plots with the PALETTE command:

 yes? PALETTE blue_green_yellow
 yes? USE etopo20
 yes? SHADE rose
 yes? FILL/x=12w:35e/y=25:60 rose ! this plot also done with blue_green_yellow

 yes? USE levitus_climatology
 yes? PALETTE red_purple ! change to red_purple palette for next plots...
 yes? FILL/K=1 salt

The ColorBrewer tool allows us to view different palettes as color bars and in a sample map. It lists properties and advantages of each one. The types we've implemented for Ferret are sequential and diverging. Here we list whether the color schemes are distinguishable by color-impaired viewers and whether they will withstand black-and-white photocopying. The ColorBrewer site also evaluates how well the color schemes show up on various output devices, such as LCD projectors, Laptop and CRT screens, and color printers.Most of the palettes here are listed in pairs, e.g. blue_green_yellow and yellow_green_blue.These pairs contain the same colors, in reverse order. The purple_red and red_purple palettes contain different sets of colors; purple_red having dark red to light purple and red_purple having dark purple to light red.

Name Type Color-
impaired friendly		 Photo-
copy		 Example script
blue_green_yellow
yellow_green_blue		 sequential Yes Yes blue_green_yellow  
! pal_blue_green_yellow.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the blue_green_yellow palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use etopo20

set region/x=90w:360/y=0:70
shade/palette=blue_green_yellow/lev=20/title="Bathymetry" if rose lt 0 then rose
shade/over/nolab/pal=grey if rose ge 0 then rose
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASblue_green_yellow"

frame/file=blue_green_yellow.gif
green_brown
green_brown		 diverging Yes No green_brown  
! pal_green_brown.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the green_brown palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use levitus_climatology
set reg/x=60:150/y=-20:80
fill/palette=green_brown/lev=20/title="Salinity" salt[k=1]
go fland 20 

label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASgreen_brown"

frame/file=green_brown.gif
purple_orange
orange_purple		 diverging Yes No orange_purple  
! pal_orange_purple.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the orange_purple palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use coads_climatology
can region
let sst_ave = sst[t=@ave,y=@ave]
fill/palette=orange_purple/lev=20/title="SST Anomoly" sst[L=1]-sst_ave
go fland 
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASorange_purple"

frame/file=orange_purple.gif
yellow_orange_brown
yellow_orange_brown		 sequential Yes ? yellow_orange_brown 
! pal_yellow_orange_brown.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the yellow_orange_brown palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use etopo5
set region/x=12w:35e/y=25:60

let land = if rose ge 0 then rose
shade/palette=yellow_orange_brown/lev=20/title="Land" land
shade/nolab/over/palette=blue_dark if rose lt 0 then rose
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASyellow_orange_brown"

frame/file=yellow_orange_brown.gif
orange_red
red_orange		 sequential Yes Yes orange_red  
! pal_orange_red.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the orange_red palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use levitus_climatology
set region/x=180:70w/y=0:50
shade/palette=orange_red/lev=20/title="Salinity" salt[k=1]
shade/over/nolab/palette=grey/lev=(1000,1000,1) missing(salt[k=1],1000)
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASorange_red"

frame/file=orange_red.gif
purple_red sequential Yes ? purple_red 
! pal_purple_red.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the purple_red palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use coads_climatology

fill/palette=purple_red/title="SST"/y=0:90 sst[L=1]
go fland
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASpurple_red"

frame/file=purple_red.gif
red_purple sequential Yes ? red_purple 
! pal_red_purple.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the red_purple palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use coads_climatology

fill/palette=red_purple/title="SST"/y=0:90 sst[L=1]
go fland
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASred_purple"

frame/file=red_purple.gif

 

 

At the University of Oregon site, http://geography.uoregon.edu/datagraphics/color_scales.htm, a number of palettes are defined and discussed. Here is a listof several that we have implemented for Ferret, with comments from the University of Oregon Data Graphics Research group. For all of these palettes except the last, categorical_12_step, there are pairs of palettes which contain the same colors in reverse order.

 

blue_darkred
darkred_blue		 Useful for temperature-like data, with a subjective interpretation (blue=cold, red=hot) blue_darkred /> 
! pal_blue_darkred.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the blue_darkred palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use coads_climatology
let sst_ave = sst[t=@ave,y=@ave]
fill/palette=blue_darkred/title="January SST Anomoly"/lev=20 sst[L=1]-sst_ave
go fland
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASblue_darkred"

frame/file=blue_darkred.gif
blue_brown
brown_blue		 Useful for data with a dry (brown) vs. wet (blue) association blue_brown  
! pal_blue_brown.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the blue_brown palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use etopo20
fill/palette=blue_brown/lev=(-10000,10000,2000) rose
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASblue_brown"

frame/file=blue_brown.gif
blue_darkorange
darkorange_blue		 Useful for data without a specific subjective color association blue_darkorange  
! pal_blue_darkorange.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the blue_darkorange palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use etopo20
set region/x=50:230/y=0:90
fill/palette=blue_darkorange/lev=(-10000,8000,1000) rose
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASblue_darkorange"

frame/file=blue_darkorange.gif
blue_green
green_blue		 Useful for data with a winter (blue) vs. summer (green) association blue_green  
! pal_blue_green.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the blue_green palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use coads_climatology
fill/x=110:200/y=35/palette=blue_green/TITLE="SST Climatology at 35N" sst
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASblue_green"

frame/file=blue_green.gif
blue_orange
orange_blue		 Bright blue to bright orange colors. Useful for data such as sea-level pressure, with a subjective association (blue=low, wet, orange=high, dry) blue_orange  
! pal_blue_orange.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the blue_orange palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use coads_climatology
fill/palette=blue_orange/lev=(970,1034,4) slp[y=-75:75,l=1] 
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASblue_orange"
go fland

frame/file=blue_orange.gif
green_magenta
magenta_green		 Useful for generic diverging data. Colors can be differentiated by color-deficient viewers green_magenta  
! pal_green_magenta.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the green_magenta palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use coads_climatology
let humidity = speh - speh[x=@ave,y=@ave,L=@ave]
shade/l=1/palette=green_magenta/lev=(-12,12,2)/title="SPEH - mean" humidity
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@ASgreen_magenta"
go fland

frame/file=green_magenta.gif
categorical_12_step A categorical color scale with colors that may be distinguishable to all viewers categorical_12_step  
! pal_categorical_12_step.jnl
! Demonstrate use of the categorical_12_step palette

cancel mode logo
set window/size=0.5

use etopo20
set region/x=50:230/y=0:90
fill/palette=categorical_12_step/levels=(0,6000,500) rose
label/nouser `($ppl$xorg)+0.1`,`($ppl$ylen)+0.2`,0, 0, 0.25 "@AScategorical_12_step"

frame/file=categorical_12_step.gif