CARTO Safe
CARTOColors — Safe (CVD-safe qualitative)
-
#88ccee -
#cc6677 -
#ddcc77 -
#117733 -
#332288 -
#aa4499 -
#44aa99 -
#999933 -
#882255 -
#661100 -
#6699cc
On a map
A synthetic demo grid, classed with equal intervals — the point is the palette against real basemap ink, not the data. Switch themes to see how much basemap the palette leaves room for.
Metadata
Provenance
Safe is the colorblind-friendly qualitative scheme from CARTOColors, the palette set CARTO published for web cartography and released openly under CC BY 4.0. The scheme derives from Paul Tol's accessible qualitative work, extended to eleven swatches so mapmakers do not run out of colors at the point where most accessible sets stop. CARTOColors were tuned specifically for slippy maps rather than print, which is why the swatches hold up against tiled basemaps at a range of zooms.
When to use it
CARTO Safe is the accessible option when eight categories are not enough — administrative units, operators, route families, mixed land-use classes. Eleven distinguishable hues is close to the practical ceiling for a categorical map legend, so if your data needs more, consider grouping the long tail into an 'other' class rather than adding swatches. Its moderate saturation makes it more forgiving than Okabe–Ito on a busy or dark basemap.
License
CC BY 4.0 · source
The color specification carries this license, which is separate from the MIT license on this site. See attribution.