4 Choosing colors

I don’t know about you, but I cannot intuitively match colors to save my life. I kid you not, I legitimately keep a little color wheel in my closet that I use when picking out my clothes on those rare days when I leave my house to do something besides grocery shopping. So, while I can’t promise that this chapter will tell you a secret that will magically demystify how to create a nice color palette (i.e., a group of colors that go nicely together for use in a design), I do promise to help you understand color better, so you can use it effectively to make some really awesome visualizations (and maybe help you pick out your clothes, too!).

4.1 A little (or maybe big) bit of color theory

4.1.1 The additive model of color

4.1.2 The primary colors of light

4.1.3 The subtractive model of color

4.1.4 Color vision deficiency

4.2 A few color spaces

4.2.1 RGB space

4.2.2 HSB or HSV space

4.2.3 HSL space

4.2.4 The CIELAB or L*a*b* color space

4.3 Different kinds of color palettes and how to make them

4.3.1 Continuous palettes

4.3.2 Discrete palettes

4.3.3 Coming up with categorical color palettes

4.4 Inclusive color palettes

4.4.1 Designing for color blindness