7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

1/12

Copyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved. Cartography with ArcGIS

(Optional)

Designing for the

color impaired

7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

2/12

Cartography with ArcGISCopyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved.

Lesson 20 overview

Human eyes

Color deficiencies

Colors for the visually impaired

What colors to avoid and what to use

Other useful symbol characteristics

Exercise B

20-2

7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

3/12

Cartography with ArcGISCopyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved.

Human eyes can have deficiencies

Color vision genes are on the X chromosome

Females have X-X chromosomes pairing

Males have X-Y, therefore men are more likely to be color

deficient than women

Colors for the color blind:http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/aboutCB.html

Population that has some form of color blindness

8% of men

0.4% of women

Color deficient vision:http://www.visibone.com/colorblind/

20-3

http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/aboutCB.htmlhttp://www.visibone.com/colorblind/http://www.visibone.com/colorblind/http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/aboutCB.htmlhttp://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/aboutCB.htmlhttp://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/aboutCB.html

7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

4/12

Cartography with ArcGISCopyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved.

Deficiency in which colors?

Most deficiency is with eithergreen orred

Blue/yellow deficiency is very rare

Big misconception

Color-blind people would see black and white or only gray tones

Extremely rare total color blindness

Can be color deficient to some degree

Normal eye

Red cone cells defective

Green cone cells defective

Blue cone cells defective

20-4

7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

5/12

Cartography with ArcGISCopyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved.

What is difficult to distinguish?

Red

Orange

Yellow

Yellow-green

Green

Colors

Dark red symbols

Magenta symbols

Thin lines

on

Black

Dark blue

Symbols

Dark red characters in black text

This is animportantlesson for you

Text

Green

Bluish green

Border colors

Avoid yellow to green colors

20-5

7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

6/12

Cartography with ArcGISCopyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved.

Colors that are easier to identify

0 158 115

240 228 66

0 114 178

0 0 0

230 159 0

86 180 233

213 94 0

204 121 167

R G B

Blue

Bluish green

Yellow

Black

Orange

Sky blue

Vermilion

Reddish purple

Origin colors

Simulated

bluedeficiency

Simulated

green/reddeficiency

20-6

7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

7/12Cartography with ArcGISCopyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved.

Which colors to avoid

Red

Avoid pure red: RGB (255, 0, 0)

Use vermilion: RGB (213, 94, 0)

Change to orange: RGB (230, 195, 0)

Green

Avoid pure green: RGB (0, 255, 0)

Too easily confused with red or brown

Use bluish green: RGB (0, 158, 115)

Light green and yellow appear the same

Avoid Use

20-7

7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

8/12Cartography with ArcGISCopyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved.

Alternatives for point features

Keep the number of colors to a minimum

Use a combination of different shapes and few vivid

colors

Avoid Use

20-8

7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

9/12Cartography with ArcGISCopyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved.

Alternatives for linear features

Use thicker lines

Vary shape of line instead of color

Avoid a separate key: Label directly near lines

ExistingTemporaryPlanned

Temporary

Planned

Existing

20-9

7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

10/12Cartography with ArcGISCopyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved.

Use vivid colors with different levels of brightness

Use textural shades

Avoid separate keys: Label within polygons

Alternatives for areal features

20-10

7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

11/12Cartography with ArcGISCopyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved.

Useful URLs

Color-blind simulation

Vischeck

http://vischeck.com/

ColorBrewer: Web tool for selecting map colors

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/c/a/cab38/ColorBrewer/ColorBrewer_learnMore.html

http://www.personal.psu.edu/cab38/ColorBrewer/ColorBrewer_intro.html

20-11

http://vischeck.com/http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/c/a/cab38/ColorBrewer/ColorBrewer_learnMore.htmlhttp://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/c/a/cab38/ColorBrewer/ColorBrewer_learnMore.htmlhttp://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/c/a/cab38/ColorBrewer/ColorBrewer_learnMore.htmlhttp://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/c/a/cab38/ColorBrewer/ColorBrewer_learnMore.htmlhttp://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/c/a/cab38/ColorBrewer/ColorBrewer_learnMore.htmlhttp://vischeck.com/

7/27/2019 CART93 v2.2 Lec20appB ColorImpaired

12/12Cartography with ArcGISCopyright 2003-2008 ESRI. All rights reserved.

Exercise 20 overview

Using the ColorBrewer application

20-12