R help - Mar 2009 - Selecting / creating unique colours for behavioural / transitional data

Dear all,

This seems like a simple problem but i've searched the help files and tried
various options but failed, so apologies in advance for asking what i'm sure
is an easy thing to do!

In short, I have displayed behavioural data using the TraMineR package such
that there is a colour change between the transition of behaviours, however,
all the methods that i have used thus far have given me gradual changes in
colour such that it is impossible to tell the difference from several of the
behaviours. I have looked in the help section here, and looked at various
books and help files in R, but most seem intent on gradual changes in colour
for heat, terrain, depth, etc - i may not be looking in the correct places,
or perhaps i don't know what i'm looking for, exactly.

The code below is the closest i can get to colours being not too similar,
but it's still hard to tell apart:

col <- rainbow(15,start = 0, end = 1, gamma = 0.5)

What i ideally want to do is create a palette with random colours that are
no where near one another so that i can tell the 15 different behaviours
apart - is this possible?

If anyone can help i would be most greatful!

Best wishes,

Ross
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Try

#install.packages('RColorBrewer')
example(brewer.pal, pack='RColorBrewer')


hth,
Kingsford Jones

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 3:20 AM, Ross Culloch <ross.culloch at dur.ac.uk>
wrote:
>
> Dear all,
>
> This seems like a simple problem but i've searched the help files and
tried
> various options but failed, so apologies in advance for asking what i'm
sure
> is an easy thing to do!
>
> In short, I have displayed behavioural data using the TraMineR package such
> that there is a colour change between the transition of behaviours,
however,
> all the methods that i have used thus far have given me gradual changes in
> colour such that it is impossible to tell the difference from several of
the
> behaviours. I have looked in the help section here, and looked at various
> books and help files in R, but most seem intent on gradual changes in
colour
> for heat, terrain, depth, etc - i may not be looking in the correct places,
> or perhaps i don't know what i'm looking for, exactly.
>
> The code below is the closest i can get to colours being not too similar,
> but it's still hard to tell apart:
>
> col <- rainbow(15,start = 0, end = 1, gamma = 0.5)
>
> What i ideally want to do is create a palette with random colours that are
> no where near one another so that i can tell the 15 different behaviours
> apart - is this possible?
>
> If anyone can help i would be most greatful!
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Ross
> --
> View this message in context:
http://www.nabble.com/Selecting---creating-unique-colours-for-behavioural---transitional-data-tp22492438p22492438.html
> Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>

> library(colorRamps)
> image(matrix(1:150, 10), col = blue2green2red(15))
Regards,

Olivier Delaigue


Ross Culloch wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> This seems like a simple problem but i've searched the help files and
> tried various options but failed, so apologies in advance for asking what
> i'm sure is an easy thing to do!
> 
> In short, I have displayed behavioural data using the TraMineR package
> such that there is a colour change between the transition of behaviours,
> however, all the methods that i have used thus far have given me gradual
> changes in colour such that it is impossible to tell the difference from
> several of the behaviours. I have looked in the help section here, and
> looked at various books and help files in R, but most seem intent on
> gradual changes in colour for heat, terrain, depth, etc - i may not be
> looking in the correct places, or perhaps i don't know what i'm
looking
> for, exactly.
> 
> The code below is the closest i can get to colours being not too similar,
> but it's still hard to tell apart:
> 
> col <- rainbow(15,start = 0, end = 1, gamma = 0.5)
> 
> What i ideally want to do is create a palette with random colours that are
> no where near one another so that i can tell the 15 different behaviours
> apart - is this possible?
> 
> If anyone can help i would be most greatful!
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Ross
> 
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Hi Ross,

If you really need 15 colors, maybe you can use the Set3 palette 
provided by RColorBrewer (this is the one used by TraMineR up to 12 
states) and add yourself 3 more colors ?

For example (you can mix the hexadecimal color numbers from the 
RColorBrewer palette and real color names in the same vector) :

library(RColorBrewer)
mycolors <- brewer.pal(12,"Set3")
mycolors <- c(mycolors, "blue", "green",
"yellow")

All the best,
Alexis.

Hi Ross,

If you really need 15 colors, maybe you can use the Set3 palette 
provided by RColorBrewer (this is the one used by TraMineR up to 12 
states) and add yourself 3 more colors ?

For example (you can mix the hexadecimal color numbers from the 
RColorBrewer palette and real color names in the same vector) :

library(RColorBrewer)
mycolors <- brewer.pal(12,"Set3")
mycolors <- c(mycolors, "blue", "green",
"yellow")

All the best,
Alexis.

Hi Alexis,

In my opinion you are nothing short of genius! That worked a treat, i
thought it would be something simple, but i could not find the script or an
example anywhere!!!

That was a massive help and has salvaged my day! :clap:

Thanks very much to everyone else that helped, it was much appreciated! I
only hope i can get to a point in R where i can help people solely for the
sake of helping them!

Cheers,

Ross


Hi Ross,

If you really need 15 colors, maybe you can use the Set3 palette 
provided by RColorBrewer (this is the one used by TraMineR up to 12 
states) and add yourself 3 more colors ?

For example (you can mix the hexadecimal color numbers from the 
RColorBrewer palette and real color names in the same vector) :

library(RColorBrewer)
mycolors <- brewer.pal(12,"Set3")
mycolors <- c(mycolors, "blue", "green",
"yellow")

All the best,
Alexis.

-- 
View this message in context:
http://www.nabble.com/Selecting---creating-unique-colours-for-behavioural---transitional-data-tp22492438p22500457.html
Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.