Tol Bright
Paul Tol — bright scheme
-
#4477aa -
#ee6677 -
#228833 -
#ccbb44 -
#66ccee -
#aa3377 -
#bbbbbb
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
Bright is the scheme Paul Tol recommends first in his technical note on color schemes for scientific figures (SRON/EPS/TN/09-002): seven colors — blue, red, green, yellow, cyan, purple, grey — chosen to stay distinct under the common red-green deficiencies while remaining strong enough to read at small sizes. Tol maintains the schemes on his personal pages and asks for citation rather than imposing a license. The values here are transcribed from the khroma R package, which reproduces his lists verbatim.
When to use it
The default qualitative palette to reach for at four to seven classes when the map needs the categories to be unmistakable — transport modes, land use classes, incident types. It is brighter than Tol Muted and holds as thin lines and small point symbols where the muted set would not. The grey seventh color is meant for "other" or "unknown"; use it that way rather than as a peer category.
License
Free to use with citation (no formal license) · source
The color specification carries this license, which is separate from the MIT license on this site. See attribution.