# piratepal(): Color palettes for R Pirates

## piratepal()

`piratepal()` is a function that returns color palettes. The function has four main arguments:

- `palette`: The specific palette you want to use. For example, `palette = "appletv"` will give you the appletv palette. You can also specify `palette = "all"` to see all the palettes, or `palette = "random"` to get a random palette.

- `trans`: A number between 0 and 1 indicating how transparent to make the colors. 1 is fully transparent (e.g. invisible), and 0 is not transparent at all. Personally, I like at least slightly transparent colors (e.g.; `trans = .3`)

- `length.out`: An optional number indicating how many colors to return (if `length.out` is larger than the number of colors in the palette, they will just be repeated).

- `plot.result`: A logical value indicating whether or not to display the palette.

## Examples

To see all of the palettes, run `piratepal("all")`

    piratepal(palette = "all")

Once you find a palette you’d like to use, you can return the colors as a vector by specifying the name of the palette in the `palette` argument. Here is the Google palette

    piratepal(palette = "google")

    ##        blue         red      yellow       green
    ## "#3D79F3FF" "#E6352FFF" "#F9B90AFF" "#34A74BFF"

If you want to see a palette in detail (and possibly some images that inspired the palette), include the argument `plot.result = T`. Here’s where the `southpark` palette comes from.

    piratepal(palette = "southpark",
              trans = .5,
              plot.result = T)

You can look at a random palette by setting `palette = "random"`:

    piratepal("random", plot.result = T)

    ## Here's the xmen palette

Some of the palettes are darker than others. Here’s the nightmare-inducing evildead palette (I’ll up the transparency to .5 to make it a bit less scarring…)

    piratepal(palette = "evildead",
              trans = .5,
              plot.result = T)

Here’s a scatterplot using the xmen palette with `piratepal('xmen', trans = .5)`:

    xmen.cols <- piratepal(palette = "xmen",
                         trans = .5)

    x <- rnorm(100)
    y <- x + rnorm(100)

    plot(x = x, y = y,
         col =  xmen.cols,
         pch = 16,
         cex = 2,
         main = "piratepal('xmen', trans = .5)")

### Plotting the Up house

Let’s use the basel palette to draw the house from Up Up Trailer

    # Set up balloons
    balloon.colors <- piratepal("basel", trans = .2)
    balloon.x <- rnorm(500, 0)
    balloon.y <- rnorm(500, 4, 1)

    par(mar = rep(.1, 4))
    plot(1, xlim = c(-15, 7), ylim = c(-15, 7),
        xlab = "", ylab = "", type = "n",
        xaxt = "n", yaxt = "n", bty = "n")

    # skyline
    start.x <- runif(200, -15, 7)
    start.y <- sort(runif(200, -15, -12), decreasing = T)
    heights <- runif(200, 2, 4)
    widths <- runif(200, .25, 1.5)

    rect(start.x, start.y, start.x + widths, start.y + heights,
         col = "white", border = gray(.4))

    # house
    rect(-2, -6, 2, -2)
    polygon(c(-2, 0, 2),
            c(-2, 0, -2))
    rect(-.5, -6, .5, -4)
    points(.3, -5)

    # strings
    line.start.x <- rnorm(500, 0, .2)
    line.start.y <- -1 + rnorm(500, 0, .1)
    segments(line.start.x,
             line.start.y,
             balloon.x, balloon.y,
             lty = 1, col = gray(.5, .1), lwd = .2)

    # balloons
    points(balloon.x, balloon.y, pch = 21,
           bg = balloon.colors,
           col = gray(.9), cex = rnorm(100, 2, .3))

### Have a favorite palette?

If you have a favorite palette that you’d like me to add, just contact me at yarrr.book@gmail.com and I’ll see what I can do :)