Table of contents

  1. Introduction to colour
  2. Using colour in bar charts
  3. Using colour in line charts
  4. Using colour in pie charts
  5. Using colour to connect information
  6. Choosing the right colours
  7. Tools
  8. Colour association
  9. Branding with colour
  10. Accessibility and colours
  11. Colour combinations
  12. Using red and green
  13. Further information about colour theory

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Accessibility and colours

Approximately 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women suffer from colour blindness. There are many different forms of colour blindness:

Normal Vision

A spectrum of the colours users with normal vision can see, ranging from red and orange to blue and pink.

Deuteranomaly

A spectrum of the colours users with Deuteranomaly can see, who can have difficulty telling the difference between shades of green and red.

Protanomaly

A spectrum of the colours users with Protanomaly can see, who also can have difficulty tellign the difference between shades of green and red.

Protanopia

A spectrum of the colours users with Protanopia can see, who see red and green as shades of black and yellow and also have difficulty with different shades of blue.

Deuteranopia

A spectrum of the colours users with Deuteranopia can see, who see red and green as shades of beige and brownish-yellow.

Tritanopia

A spectrum of the colours users with Tritanopia can see, who have normal red and green vision but cannot tell shades of blue and yellow apart.

Tritanomaly

A spectrum of the colours users with Tritanomaly can see, where shades of blue and green will look alike, and shades of red and yellow will look alike.

Achromatopsia

A spectrum of the colours users with Achromatopsia can see, where all colours and shades appear as black and white.

 

Use these three helpful rules when choosing your colours

“Get it right in black and white”

Make sure your design works in greyscale (black and white) before adding in colour. Do not assume colours will signal meaning when used on their own.

“The safest hue is blue”

The richest colour across all types of colour blindness is blue, so blue is often a good colour choice.

“Red and green should never be seen”

Avoid using red and green together as they are difficult to distinguish from one another in the more common types of colour blindness.