Trying to find a good color palette in R is difficult. I think most people search google for ggplot colors and end up looking at some wild image like shown below on the right. These colors are used in grDevices::colors and are actually from the X11 colors that were developed in the 1980s. Unfortunately, they have inconsistent names and the lightness/saturation are all over the place. Using the colorspace::HLS() function however, a smaller, consistent set of colors allows palettes to be made both within one color or across hues.
Here’s a comparison of the base X11 colors (left) and the simplecolors (right).
To get started there are 8 hues, 4 types of saturation, and 5 levels of lightness plus a greyscale. To use a color, just combine the 3 parts:
| optional saturation | color name | lightness |
|---|---|---|
| bright | red | 1 |
| "" | orange | 2 |
| muted | yellow | … |
| dull | … | 5 |
| grey | 0-6 |
For example, the following code will return the corresponding hex values
sc("blue") = #4479E4sc("blue5") = #0D2659sc("dullblue3") = #7489B4sc() functionThis function stands for simplecolors. You can specify base colors
#> [1] "#E44444" "#9444E4" "#E444E4"or add modifiers
#> [1] "#003CB3" "#4D3C19" "#949494"There are multiple ways to access palettes
sc_within() - within 1 hue, the default is a lightness of 2:6, and no modifier (sat == "")sc_across() - holding light and saturation constant (at your choosing), a palette will be built across hues in the order you specify. The palette order is created using the first letter (uppercase) of each color, or “Gy” for “grey”.sc_[color]() there is a shortcut of sc_within() for each of the hues, for example sc_teal(), sc_red(), etc.
#> [1] "#29FFFF" "#00B3B3" "#006666"#> [1] "#86682D" "#2D8686" "#592D86" "#595959"There are 3 main outputs for these palettes that can be specified via return =
sc_within()#> [1] "#9DB9F1" "#4479E4" "#16439C" "#0D2659"| color_name | hex |
|---|---|
| blue2 | #9DB9F1 |
| blue3 | #4479E4 |
| blue4 | #16439C |
| blue5 | #0D2659 |
sc_across()#> [1] "#E44444" "#E4AF44" "#E4E444"| color_name | hex |
|---|---|
| red3 | #E44444 |
| orange3 | #E4AF44 |
| yellow3 | #E4E444 |
Here is a list of all colors abbreviations you can use in the palette
| color | letter |
|---|---|
| red | R |
| orange | O |
| yellow | Y |
| green | G |
| teal | T |
| blue | B |
| violet | V |
| pink | P |
| grey | Gy |
sc_red(), sc_blue(), etc…There is also a sc_within() palette defaulted for each color
#> [1] "#FFCCCC" "#FF8F8F" "#FF2929" "#B30000"| color_name | hex |
|---|---|
| blue5 | #0D2659 |
| blue4 | #16439C |
| blue3 | #4479E4 |
| blue2 | #9DB9F1 |
And here’s an example where you might use it in a ggplot
blue_and_red <- c(
sc_blue(4:2, "bright"),
sc_red(2:4, "bright")
)
iris %>%
mutate(cut = ntile(Sepal.Length, 6)) %>%
ggplot(aes(Sepal.Width, Sepal.Length, color = factor(cut))) +
geom_count(size = 5) +
#setting your custom gradients
scale_color_manual(values = blue_and_red) +
theme_minimal()
