Color Use Guidelines for Mapping and Visualization
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122 TERRY A. SLOCUM, ET AL. IBM Visualization Data Explorer (DX) Software Specifications Version 2.0. IBM, 8 Skyline Drive, Hawthorne, NY 10532, USA. Phone: 1-800-388- 9820. For information on DX modules available through Internet, telnet to info.tc.cornell.edu. Information about DX is available via Usenet news group comp.graphics.data-explorer. CHAPTER 7 Hardware/Software Requirements Memory: 32 MB minimum recommended (interactive playback of animated time Color Use Guidelines for Mapping series will require additional memory). Disk: 30MB minimum. 8-bit color XWindow support (12- and 24-bit color displays and three-dimensional graphics hardware is and Visualization supported if installed). Data Explorer runs on IBM Rise Systems and Power Visualization Systems, Sun, SGI, HP and DG. CYNTHIA A. BREWER* Khoros Department of Geography San Diego State University Software Specifications San Diego, CA 92182, USA Version l.O.S (August 1993). The Khoros Group, Khoral Research Inc., 4212 Courtney NE, Albuquerque, NM 87108, USA. E-mail: khoros [email protected]. Cost is free if acquired from various FTP sites including ftp .eece.unm.edu (129.24.24.10); code is located in the directory Introduction / pub/khoros (answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) are in the directory When color is used "appropriately" on a map, the organization of the perceptual / pub/khoros/release]. By mail the cost is $250 US/Canada, $350 International; send dimensions of color corresponds to the logical organization in the mapped data. A e-mail to [email protected] for an order form. Optional color scheme typology is presented here that matches a comprehensive listing of consortium membership fee is $50,000/yr, and optional affiliate membership fee is the ways in which data are organized to corresponding organizations of hue and $5000/yr. Consortium members receive free training and proportionately greater lightness, with secondary attention to saturation. Appropriate use of ~olo~ for .data influence on software development. All members receive alpha and beta copies of display allows interrelationships and patterns within data to be easily v1suahzed. new software. The careless use of color will obscure these patterns. Careful use of color on maps Current information and help can be obtained through Internet news (comp.soft is particularly important in interactive and animated map the map sys.khoros) and the Khoros mailing list (subscribe by sending mail to khoros context~, wh~re reader must attend to changing patterns on the maps and has little ume to look [email protected]). back and forth to a map legend, if one is offered at all. A spontaneously under- Hardware and Software Requirements stood color scheme is a great asset in these contexts. Recommendations on the use of color have a long tradition in cartography :"'ith respect to the UNIX workstation, binaries available from the Khoros Group (Robinson 1952), and Bertin's (1981) frequently cited work describe~ the use of a mclude: DEC MIPS (Ultrix 4.2), SUN4, Spare (SunOS 4.1.3), SUN3 (SunOS 4.1.1), set of visual variables for map symbolization that includes hue and lightness. SGI (OS 4.0), IBM RS/6000 (AIX 3.2), HP 9000, Intel 486 (Interactive Unix 3.2.2). Guidelines in cartography texts are generally limited to instructions to use hue for UNIX user compilations includ~: SUN4 (Solaris 2.2), Convex (ConvexOS 8.1, 9.1), qualitative differences on maps and to use lightness for quantitative or ordered Cray (Unicos 5_., 6.0, 6.1), DG Avian, IBM RIS 6000 (AIX v3.x), Intel PC's with differences (Robinson et at. 1984; Campbell 1991; Muehrcke and Muehrcke 1992; Linux, Alliant, Apollo, Fujitsu, Intergraph, Sequent, Sony. Dent 1993; Monmonier 1993). The recommendations in this chapter extend these 75-150 MB disk, depending on how binaries are linked and whether sample data, sources and manuals are kept on-line. X Windows version X11R4 or X11R5. • Present Address: Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA. 123 124 CYNTI:I!A A. BREWER COLOR USE GUIDELINES FOR MAPPING AND VISUALIZATION 125 basic guid~lines to a more detailed categorization of data conceptualizations correspondmg color scheme types and their combinations. The recommendar ' TABLE 7.2 are based on 1 . Ions . my persona expenence, cartographic convention and the writings Color Scheme Types of Olson and Mersey. Figure Riferences (at right) Provide Examples for these Previously Proposed Scheme Types and g:aph1cs o: others. They have not yet been thoroughly tested. Th1s d1scuss1on of color schemes is limited to the use of color f,o · Olson's schemes (1987, and personal communications in 1993) dat · d d' r representmg a assoc~ate 1rectly with map areas. The guidelines offered apply to many ty • Qualitative Fig. 7.3a of them r b h pes • Single-sequence monochrome Fig. 7.3c and 7.4a a IC maps: ot classed and continuous-tone choropleth maps filled · I" maps and qu I"t r I ' ISO me • Single-sequence polychrome Fig. 7.4b and c . a 1 a 1ve area extent maps. The guidelines may also be extended to • Shading scheme (relief shading) maps wnh color~d point and line symbols and to the other numerous graphic forms • Double-ended bipolar Fig. 7.5b and c • Double-ended balance Fig. 7.7b for wh1ch color IS used to represent data. The use of lightness for relief shading and • Qualitative/quantitative Fig. 7.6b advances m s~rface rendering, such as transparency and gloss effects, used to • Two-variable quantitative Fig. 7.6c and 7.7a produce reahsuc three-dimensional forms are beyond the scope of this chapter. • Three-variable proportions Fig. 7.7c • Multi-variable counts (multi-color dot map) Sha~mg and other rendenng techniques. however, reduce the variation in color available fo~ thematic data mapped onto modeled surfaces. Brewer and Marlow Mersey's series for one-variable choropleth maps 0990) 0993) des.cnbe a scheme for terrain visualization (shown on the cover of this book) • Hue series • Double-ended Fig. 7.5b and c ll that combmes shaded relief, aspect, and slope representations. • Spectral Fig. 7.5a , • Hue value Fig. 7.4b Terminology • PMS value Fig. 7.4a • Black and white Fig. 7.3c 1n addition to recommendations on color use, a focus of this chapter is to establish u.namb1guous vocabulary that is easy to use during spoken explanation. Many dis- C!phnes, other than cartography d h an geograp y, use color to visualize data: engi- neering, medicine, statistics, computer science, graphic design and psychology, for example. Members of this diverse group are unlikely to know or care about the . TABLE 7.1 nuances of color theory or cartographic conventions in terminology, so recom Termmology from Diverse Sources. Alternatives to, Variations on and Qualttauve and Quantitative that have been Used to Describe r I S hSubsets of mendations about color use that are accompanied by opaque language will be Data Organ · · c.o or c emes and tza1 zons. 5orne Disctplines Class Ordinal Data with Categorical Rather ignored. Cartographers do have a substantial store of knowledge and expertise to than Quantitative Data offer the visualization community. Use of readily understood terms is critical if car Qualitative tographic recommendations are to be welcomed in diverse fields that share similar Quantitative graphic challenges. Nominal Naming Semi-quantitative Hue, lightness and saturation are the three perceptual dimensions of color used Categorical Ordered, ordering in these recommendations. Hue is the aspect of color described by the color names Ranked Classification we use such as red, yellow and green. Dominant wavelength is the physical Selective Ordinal Denotative Interval/ratio correlate of hue. Color is sometimes used synonymously with hue, but color more Identily Scalar accurately describes the combination of all three perceptual dimensions. Many Discrete Continuous, continua Progressive different terms are used for the lightness dimension in the work listed in the Mutually exclusive Different, differential Ordered progression references and bibliography: value, darkness, brightness, luminance, intensity. Different in: Monotonically increasing Value is a frequently used term and is often clarified with lightness as its definition. Magnitude change Kind Use of value is awkward, however, because simultaneous discussion of data values Type Differences in amount Name Single-sequence and color values becomes confusing. Unipolar Category The third dimension, saturation, can be thought of as the amount of hue in a Double-ended Class color. For example, reds of constant lightness can range from grayish to pure red. Binary Bipolar Balance Alternative terms for saturation are purity, chroma, colorfulness and intensity (avoid intensity, which is used in a confusing manner for both lightness and saturation). Of these choices, saturation is the most commonly used term in the varied disciplines represented in the references and bibliography. In addition, I feel that COLOR USE G IDEUNES FOR MAPPING AND VISUAUZATION 127 126 CYNfHIA A. BREWER TABLE 7.3 One-variable Data Types and Color Schemes Data conceptualization Perceptual characteristics of scheme and scheme type (emphasis of data display) Hue Lightness Qualitative Hue steps Similar in (not ordered) lightness Binary Neutrals, Single lightness (special case of qualitative) one hue or step one hue step Sequential Neutrals, Single sequence one hue or of lightness steps hue transition Diverging Two hues, Two diverging one hue and sequences of neutrals, or lightness steps two hue transitions saturation is more readily understood than chroma by readers who are not familiar with color jargon because the meaning of saturation is akin to the lay use of the word. White, grays and black are neutral colors that have no saturation or hue. Continuing on the topic of terminology, Table 7.1 lists the terms used to describe color schemes and data characteristics in a wide range of fields.