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Colorblind Safe Color

Colorblind safe color reference

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69 views4 pages

Colorblind Safe Color

Colorblind safe color reference

Uploaded by

kazi habiba
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NCEAS Science Communication Resource Corner

Last updated: 6/29/22 Alexandra Phillips


Colorblind Safe Color Schemes
Background:
Why use colorblind safe palettes?
- 8% of men have color vision impairment! Using colorblind friendly colors
increases accessibility
- A study of 580 papers in biological sciences found that roughly half had figures
that were completely or partially inaccessible for red-green colorblindness
(deuteranopia)
When should you use colorblind safe palettes?
- You should use color blind friendly schemes for all scientific publications
- For artwork, posters, presentations, and more casual science communication,
you can try more creative color schemes (see our other guide)

Tips:
1. Avoid red, especially with green
- Red-blindness is the most common form of color blindness (deuteranopia)
- If you have to use red/green, try to change brightness/hue
- try blue/red, blue/orange, or one of the sets that I have developed below:

- For divergent schemes try red to blue or purple to green:


NCEAS Science Communication Resource Corner
Last updated: 6/29/22 Alexandra Phillips
2. Use pre-existing colorblind safe palettes
- There are a lot of color schemes out there already that are tested for color
blindness - I’ve compiled my favorites below

- ColorBlindness R Package: Compilation of >15 color blind safe palettes for


plotting and other data visualizations with discrete color palettes
3. Avoid rainbows color maps
- For continuous color maps, try the Viridis R Package, which includes eight
perceptually uniform color blind tested options
NCEAS Science Communication Resource Corner
Last updated: 6/29/22 Alexandra Phillips
- For maps where specific colors are needed, like ice cover or oceanographic
data, check CMOcean for MATLAB or R
4. Check with colorblind visualization software
- There are a few options out there, but I prefer Color Oracle, a free color
blindness simulator that applies a full screen filter to visualize color blindness
and grayscale

5. Don’t rely just on color


- When possible, avoid conveying information purely through color! Consider
varying texture, symbols, typography, or annotation.
NCEAS Science Communication Resource Corner
Last updated: 6/29/22 Alexandra Phillips
References:

Crameri, Fabio, Grace E. Shephard, and Philip J. Heron. “The Misuse of Colour in Science
Communication.” Nature Communications 11, no. 1 (October 28, 2020): 5444.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19160-7.

Jambor, Helena, Alberto Antonietti, Bradly Alicea, Tracy L. Audisio, Susann Auer, Vivek Bhardwaj,
Steven J. Burgess, et al. “Creating Clear and Informative Image-Based Figures for Scientific
Publications.” PLOS Biology 19, no. 3 (March 31, 2021): e3001161.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001161.

Jenny, Bernhard, and Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso. “Color Design for the Color Vision Impaired.”
Cartographic Perspectives, no. 58 (September 1, 2007): 61–67. https://doi.org/10.14714/CP58.270.

Katsnelson, Alla. “Colour Me Better: Fixing Figures for Colour Blindness.” Nature 598, no. 7879
(October 4, 2021): 224–25. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02696-z.

Muth, Lisa Charlotte. “What to Consider When Visualizing Data for Colorblind Readers -
Datawrapper Blog.” Accessed May 2, 2022. https://blog.datawrapper.de/colorblindness-part2/.

Nichols, David. “Coloring for Colorblindness.” http://www.davidmathlogic.com/colorblind/.

Thyng, Kristen, Chad Greene, Robert Hetland, Heather Zimmerle, and Steven DiMarco. “True
Colors of Oceanography: Guidelines for Effective and Accurate Colormap Selection.”
Oceanography 29, no. 3 (September 1, 2016): 9–13. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2016.66.

Tol, Paul. “Paul Tol’s Notes: Introduction to Color Schemes.” https://personal.sron.nl/~pault/.

Wong, Bang. “Points of View: Color Blindness.” Nature Methods 8, no. 6 (June 1, 2011): 441–441.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1618.

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