This week, we’ll discuss color. As we’ve already seen, there’s a lot to this topic. So, not surprisingly, we should read about several different perspectives to figure out what to do about it. I am linking 2 lectures worth of reading together here. Because the assignment is posted late, I am not expecting people to have read much for Monday’s lecture (beyond what has already been in the various readings we’ve seen already). But you might want to get a head start on the big set of readings for Wednesday.
There are 11 readings here, not all are required, but I will list them first.
Basics of Color:
- (1) Color – Chapter 4 of Visual Thinking for Design by Colin Ware. (the textbook, available online).
- (2) Maureen Stone’s Course on Color would be fantastic. Her course notes are power-point slides that convey a lot of content, but really were meant to augment her presentation. So, while these are a great resource, they are probably not the only thing to look at: PDF for slide handouts, at screen resolution: Part 1 and Part 2. It’s an amazing survey of all the issues from perception, through the different ways to use color.
Choosing color ramps:
- (3) Cynthia Brewer’s work is a common standard for choosing color sets where you want a sequence of distinct colors (as opposed to continuous ramps). You should play with the ColorBrewer tool to see some of the set suggestions (and use it when you need a set of colors). You should read either a brief explanation or a paper.
- (4) Everyone should read this paper on the rainbow color map. Borland and Taylor. Rainbow Color Map (still) Considered Harmful. IEEE CG&A, March 2007. (ieee page – the university has access)
- (5) Expert Color Choices for Presenting Data – by Maureen Stone
- (6) Colin Ware. Color Sequences for Univariate Maps: Theory, Experiments and Principles. IEEE CG&A, September 1988. (pdf here on Colin’s site – the official versions don’t have color!). While I am a big fan of Colin’s work, and I think this inspired a lot of later stuff, it is almost a little redundant with the above.
The technical issues in representing color on a computer
- (7) Representing Color as Three Numbers (CG&A tutorial, July 2005). Last time, students didn’t like this reading as much as I expected – too much linear algebra, and not enough insight. It’s one of those things that makes more sense after the lecture.
- (8) Charles Poynton has an excellent “FAQ on Color” – it’s a bit technical, and there is a lot of video specific stuff. But its the best place to learn about concepts like Color Temperature. It might help you understand why XYZ and xyY and LAB are all different.
Some more design oriented thoughts
- (9) Color and Information – Chapter 5 of Envisioning Information by Tufte. (in protected reader – (low res 4MB) (hires warning, it’s 53M file!)
- (10) There was a 3 part web tutorial on color for web designers. I really like this since it gets at the artistic and aesthetic issues and how they communciate.
And if you want even more resources…
- (11) No more excuses: a list of references to learn how to use color (blog post by Enrico Bertini) http://fellinlovewithdata.com/guides/no-more-excuses-a-list-of-references-to-learn-how-to-use-color
The required readings:
- Look over Stone’s slides (2) to get a sense of the range of issues (you may want to come back to them and look at the details later).
- Read Ware (1) since it’s a nice survey that connect perception to design in Colin’s usual, fantastic way.
- Have a look at Color Brewer (3) and get a sense from one of its readings to get a sense of where it comes from.
- Read the rainbow colormap paper(4) – although you may have gotten the message from other readings, most students appreciate this paper since it covers a lot of the arguments.
- Look at at least part 1 of Color Theory for Designers (10) AFTER all the others – and notice the contrast in the approach of how things are discussed.
Strongly recommended:
- Tufte (9) has wonderful examples, and actually discusses them in a constructive way for a change.
- Getting a handle on the technical issues from Poynton (8) is really valuable, but you might need to have the questions first before having him answer them (and he will!). Reading Stone (7) will make you as those questions.
- Reading more of the Smashing Magazine tutorial (10) will help you appreciate the aesthetics of color.
- Spending more time with 3,5,6 will help you actually pick colors for your visualizations. Or at least convince you to let Color Brewer do it for you (my usual approach).
With this many readings, the online discussion will be interesting, but let’s try it. By Wednesday, 3/7, make a post on the Piazza page about Color Readings giving us a sense of what you’ve learned from the various readings. The discussions have been really interesting.
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