Scientific Color Palette Generator
Generate colorblind-friendly color palettes for scientific figures and research visualizations. Get hex codes for Okabe-Ito, Viridis, and Nature journal recommended colors.
Scientific Color Palette Generator
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Color Palette Examples
Browse scientific color palettes and chart examples with hex codes you can copy
Okabe-Ito Categorical Palette
The gold standard colorblind-friendly palette for categorical data with 8 distinct colors.
Viridis Sequential Palette
Perceptually uniform colormap ideal for sequential data and heatmaps.
Nature Journal Style
Professional color scheme inspired by top scientific journals.
Bar Chart Color Scheme
Example showing how to apply accessible colors to bar charts.
Line Graph Colors
Time series visualization with accessible colors and line styles.
Heatmap Color Scale
Heatmap example with perceptually uniform color scale and annotations.
4 more examples available
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What is a Scientific Color Palette?
A scientific color palette is a carefully selected set of colors optimized for data visualization in research publications. Unlike decorative palettes, scientific palettes are designed for accessibility (colorblind-friendly), perceptual uniformity (equal visual weight), and reproducibility across different displays and print media. The most widely used palettes include Okabe-Ito for categorical data, Viridis for sequential/continuous data, and journal-specific schemes from Nature, Science, and Cell.
Why Use Colorblind-Friendly Palettes?
- Approximately 8% of men and 0.5% of women have some form of color vision deficiency
- Many journals now require or recommend accessible color schemes
- Colorblind-friendly palettes look great for all readers, not just those with color vision issues
- Using standard palettes like Okabe-Ito makes your work immediately recognizable as professional
- Accessible figures get more citations because more people can understand them
- Your figures will reproduce correctly in grayscale printing
Popular Scientific Color Palettes
- Okabe-Ito: 8 colors optimized for all types of color blindness, ideal for bar charts and categorical data
- Viridis: Perceptually uniform purple-to-yellow gradient for heatmaps and continuous data
- Plasma: Similar to Viridis but with magenta-orange-yellow range
- Cividis: Optimized specifically for deuteranomaly and protanomaly color blindness
- ColorBrewer: Sets of palettes for qualitative, sequential, and diverging data
- Nature/Science style: Sophisticated colors matching top journal aesthetics
How to Use These Hex Codes
Copy the hex codes directly from our palette examples and paste them into your preferred software. In Excel: Format > Shape Fill > More Colors > Custom > enter hex code. In PowerPoint: Format Shape > Fill > Color > More Colors > Custom. In R: use the hex code directly in ggplot2 with scale_color_manual() or scale_fill_manual(). In Python matplotlib: pass hex codes to the color parameter. In Illustrator: double-click the fill/stroke color and enter the hex code.
Frequently Asked Questions
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