In Context

How to Use

Use the palette chooser to create a series of colors that are visually equidistant. This is useful for many data visualizations, like pie charts, grouped bar charts, and maps.

Note: there are two other modes besides palette mode – check out single-hue scales and divergent scales as well.

Creating visually equidistant palettes is basically impossible to do by hand, yet hugely important for data visualizations. Why? When colors are not visually equidistant, it’s harder to (a) tell them apart in the chart, and (b) compare the chart to the key. I’m sure we’ve all looked at charts where you can hardly use the key since the data colors are so similar.

For instance, Google Analytics does a terrible job with this:

Just try to use this key. I dare you.

It’s better to use use a range of hues so users can cross-reference with the key easier. It’s far simpler for our brains to distinguish, say, yellow from orange than blue from blue-but-15%-lighter.

Ahh! Much better.

This color picker allows you to specify both endpoints of the palette. You can choose at least one to be a brand color, which gives you significant flexibility in creating a palette that will work for your visualizations, yet be customized for your brand.

Here are a few tips for getting the best palette:

Try picking very different endpoint colors – e.g. one warm, one cool; one bright, one darker – so that your palette covers a wider range

– e.g. one warm, one cool; one bright, one darker – so that your palette covers a wider range If you’re using a brand color for one endpoint, don’t be afraid to modify the saturation and brightness a bit if it creates a more pleasing palette. Users will recognize your brand color by its hue much far more than by it’s exact saturation/brightness.

for one endpoint, don’t be afraid to a bit if it creates a more pleasing palette. Users will recognize your brand color by its hue much far more than by it’s exact saturation/brightness. For data visualizations where you’re showing the strength of a single value, try using the Single Hue Palette Generator instead.

Oh, and...

More on Color

If you're new to color in UI design, I highly recommend the following resources:

Anyhow, I've created this to be the tool I wish I had for creating data visualization palettes. Is there another feature you'd like to see in it? Let me know.