Colorblind Safe Color Schemes

NCEAS Science Communication Resource Corner

Last updated: 6/29/22 Alexandra Phillips

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 - Iʼve 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 soware

- 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. Donʼt 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 Tolʼs 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.