[R] Color schemes that work for people with color-deficient vision

[Scott Waichler]

A recent article in the earth science literature cited below and available at
http://geography.uoregon.edu/datagraphics/EOS/
points out that rainbow color schemes and mixtures of green and yellow 
can be troublesome for people with color-deficient vision.  
The authors propose alternative schemes that can be viewed and downloaded
in RGB, HSV, CMYK, and RGB256 formats from 
http://geography.uoregon.edu/datagraphics/color_scales.htm.
I have translated their RGB definitions into the hex color names given below.

Ironically, their article appeared on the same page of one that used
a rainbow color pattern to show climate patterns.  I'm not color-blind but
I still had trouble figuring out which end of the scale some of the colors belonged to.

Light A. and P.J. Bartlein, 2004.  "The end of the rainbow?  Color schemes for improved 
data graphics," EOS Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 85(40):385.

BrowntoBlue.10 <- c("#663000", "#996136", "#CC9B7A", "#D9AF98", "#F2DACE", "#CCFDFF", "#99F8FF", "#66F0FF", "#33E4FF", "#00AACC")
BrowntoBlue.12 <- c("#331A00", "#663000", "#996136", "#CC9B7A", "#D9AF98", "#F2DACE", "#CCFDFF", "#99F8FF", "#66F0FF", "#33E4FF", "#00AACC", "#007A99")
BluetoDarkOrange.12 <- c("#1F8F99", "#52C4CC", "#99FAFF", "#B2FCFF", "#CCFEFF", "#E6FFFF", "#FFE6CC", "#FFCA99", "#FFAD66", "#FF8F33", "#CC5800", "#994000")
BluetoDarkOrange.18 <- c("#006666", "#009999", "#00CCCC", "#00FFFF", "#33FFFF", "#66FFFF", "#99FFFF", "#B2FFFF", "#CCFFFF", "#E6FFFF", "#FFE6CC", "#FFCA99", "#FFAD66", "#FF8F33", "#FF6E00", "#CC5500", "#993D00", "#662700")
DarkRedtoBlue.12 <- c("#2A0BD9", "#264EFF", "#40A1FF", "#73DAFF", "#ABF8FF", "#E0FFFF", "#FFFFBF", "#FFE099", "#FFAD73", "#F76E5E", "#D92632", "#A60021")
DarkRedtoBlue.18 <- c("#2400D9", "#191DF7", "#2957FF", "#3D87FF", "#57B0FF", "#75D3FF", "#99EBFF", "#BDF9FF", "#EBFFFF", "#FFFFEB", "#FFF2BD", "#FFD699", "#FFAC75", "#FF7857", "#FF3D3D", "#F72836", "#D91630", "#A60021")
BluetoGreen.14 <- c("#0000FF", "#3333FF", "#6666FF", "#9999FF", "#B2B2FF", "#CCCCFF", "#E6E6FF", "#E6FFE6", "#CCFFCC", "#B2FFB2", "#99FF99", "#66FF66", "#33FF33", "#00FF00")
BluetoGray.8 <- c("#0099CC", "#66E6FF", "#99FFFF", "#CCFFFF", "#E6E6E6", "#999999", "#666666", "#333333")
BluetoOrangeRed.14 <- c("#085AFF", "#3377FF", "#5991FF", "#8CB2FF", "#BFD4FF", "#E6EEFF", "#F7FAFF", "#FFFFCC", "#FFFF99", "#FFFF00", "#FFCC00", "#FF9900", "#FF6600", "#FF0000")
BluetoOrange.10 <- c("#0055FF", "#3399FF", "#66CCFF", "#99EEFF", "#CCFFFF", "#FFFFCC", "#FFEE99", "#FFCC66", "#FF9933", "#FF5500")
BluetoOrange.12 <- c("#002BFF", "#1A66FF", "#3399FF", "#66CCFF", "#99EEFF", "#CCFFFF", "#FFFFCC", "#FFEE99", "#FFCC66", "#FF9933", "#FF661A", "#FF2B00")
BluetoOrange.8 <- c("#0080FF", "#4CC4FF", "#99EEFF", "#CCFFFF", "#FFFFCC", "#FFEE99", "#FFC44C", "#FF8000")
LightBluetoDarkBlue.10 <- c("#E6FFFF", "#CCFBFF", "#B2F2FF", "#99E6FF", "#80D4FF", "#66BFFF", "#4CA6FF", "#3388FF", "#1A66FF", "#0040FF")
LightBluetoDarkBlue.7 <- c("#FFFFFF", "#CCFDFF", "#99F8FF", "#66F0FF", "#33E4FF", "#00AACC", "#007A99")
Categorical.12 <- c("#FFBF80", "#FF8000", "#FFFF99", "#FFFF33", "#B2FF8C", "#33FF00", "#A6EDFF", "#1AB2FF", "#CCBFFF", "#664CFF", "#FF99BF", "#E61A33")
GreentoMagenta.16 <- c("#005100", "#008600", "#00BC00", "#00F100", "#51FF51", "#86FF86", "#BCFFBC", "#FFFFFF", "#FFF1FF", "#FFBCFF", "#FF86FF", "#FF51FF", "#F100F1", "#BC00BC", "#860086", "#510051")
SteppedSequential.5 <- c("#990F0F", "#B22D2D", "#CC5252", "#E67E7E", "#FFB2B2", "#99700F", "#B28B2D", "#CCA852", "#E6C77E", "#FFE8B2", "#1F990F", "#3CB22D", "#60CC52", "#8AE67E", "#BCFFB2", "#710F99", "#8B2DB2", "#A852CC", "#C77EE6", "#E9B2FF", "#990F20", "#B22D3C", "#CC5260", "#E67E8A", "#FFB2BC")

Scott Waichler
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
scott.waichler at pnl.gov