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“Color blindness,” or more formally, color vision deficiencies (CVD) affect roughly 10% of the population, mostly men. Few people are truly blind to color; most simply have some degree of weakness perceiving certain parts of the spectrum. People with CVD often compensate by being more sensitive to differences in luminance, texture, and position. Predicting the [...]
Edward Tufte, in his classic book Envisioning Information, begins his chapter on color with the admonition: “Above all, do not harm.” Color used well can enhance and beautify, but color used poorly can be worse than no color at all. For example, if text is displayed on a background that varies in lightness or color [...]
Consider this map of Point Reyes and its surrounding area, created by the National Park Service (PDF). Like most well-designed maps, it is an excellent example of functional color. Color is used systematically to label the different regions (water, land, parkland), and to indicate the different types of roads (major highway, secondary highway, surface roads). [...]