ColorBrewer

ColorBrewer screenshot

ColorBrewer is an online tool for selecting map color schemes based on palettes created by Cynthia Brewer.[1] It was launched in 2002 by Brewer, Mark Harrower, and The Pennsylvania State University. Suggested color schemes are based on data type (sequential, diverging, or qualitative). It also provides options for varied display environments, such as laptop, photocopy, and LCD projector, and colorblind safe options.[2]

ColorBrewer is licensed using Apache 2.0 software license, which is similar to CC-BY-SA 3.0.[3]

Brewer palettes

Valid names and a full color representation for each palette are shown below. If this is viewed in a compliant browser, moving the mouse cursor over each box will pop up the corresponding color number as a tooltip.

Sequential (1-9)

• YlGn
                                     
• YlGnBu
                                     
• GnBu
                                     
• BuGn
                                     
• PuBuGn
                                     
• PuBu
                                     
• BuPu
                                     
• RdPu
                                     
• PuRd
                                     
• OrRd
                                     
• YlOrRd
                                     
• YlOrBr
                                     
• Purples
                                     
• Blues
                                     
• Greens
                                     
• Oranges
                                     
• Reds
                                     
• Greys
                                     

Divergent (1-11)

• PuOr
                                             
• BrBG
                                             
• PRGn
                                             
• PiYG
                                             
• RdBu
                                             
• RdGy
                                             
• RdYlBu
                                             
• Spectral
                                             
• RdYlGn
                                             

Qualitative (1-8/12)

• Accent
                                 
• Dark2
                                 
• Paired
                                                 
• Pastel1
                                     
• Pastel2
                                 
• Set1
                                     
• Set2
                                 
• Set3
                                                 

Applications

Palette chosen by climatologist Ed Hawkins in his warming stripes graphics for portraying global warming

Example of a display with warming stripes, at a climate conference

In 2018, climate scientist Ed Hawkins chose the eight most saturated blues and reds from the ColorBrewer 9-class single-hue palettes in his design of warming stripes graphics, which visually summarize global warming as an ordered sequence of stripes.[4]

See also

• Map coloring
• Choropleth map
• Chorochromatic map

References

1. Miller, Greg. "The Cartographer Who's Transforming Map Design". Wired. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
2. Olson, Judy M.; Brewer, Cynthia A. (March 1997). "An Evaluation of Color Selections to Accommodate Map Users with Color-Vision Impairments". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 87 (1): 103–134. doi:10.1111/0004-5608.00043.
3. Harrower, Mark; Brewer, Cynthia A. (2003), "ColorBrewer.org: An Online Tool for Selecting Colour Schemes for Maps" (PDF), The Cartographic Journal, 40 (1): 27–37, Bibcode:2003CartJ..40...27H, doi:10.1179/000870403235002042, S2CID 140173239, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-10, retrieved 2013-01-03
4. Bugden, Erica (3 December 2019). "Do you really understand the influential warming stripes?". Voilà Information Design. Archived from the original on 5 December 2019.

External links

• Official website