Do these palettes pass accessibility rules?

Several of them do, and each page says which pairs and at what ratio. Contrast belongs to a pair of colours, not to a palette, so always check the colour against the ground behind it.

Where do the hex values on this shelf come from?

From published sets wherever one exists. The colour blind safe set is Okabe and Ito. The two data palettes are ColorBrewer. The contrast figures are measured against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Can I use a functional palette in a picture rather than an interface?

Yes, and the prompt on each page is written for exactly that. A chart palette makes a good poster, and a clinical white makes a good product shot. The rules that make them work do not change.

Functional palettes

Palettes chosen to do a job, with the real numbers behind them.

Every other shelf in this catalogue picks colours for how they feel. These ten are picked for what they have to do: be read at a distance, stay apart for a colour blind reader, sit under somebody else's logo, or run on a screen in a dark room. That makes them the only palettes here with a pass mark, so the numbers on these pages are real ones. The contrast ratios are measured against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and the hex values come from published sets rather than from taste.

Seen by everyone

Three palettes built around a reader, not a subject. Two of them carry a measured pass mark and the third trades one away on purpose.

High Contrast

A near-black ground with white, yellow and cyan on it, every pair well past 7 to 1.

Night Safe Red

Deep reds on pure black, so a reader keeps their dark adapted eyes.

Interfaces and data

Three palettes made for a screen. One is the room the interface sits in, and two are the rules a chart has to obey before anybody can read it.

Dark Interface

Three near-black surfaces, two greys of text and one cool accent.

Categorical Data

Sequential Data

One hue in six even steps, pale to deep, for a number that goes up.

Selling something

Four palettes that have to work for a business. Each one is a convention, and each convention exists because breaking it costs money.

Brand Safe Neutrals

Six warm neutrals, pale to near-black, that sit under anybody's logo.

Clinical White

Cool whites and pale blue greys, with one green for the instrument.

Food Warm

Creams, honey ambers and roasted browns, with one green for something fresh.

Two Ink Duotone

Two inks and the paper, plus the third colour where the two cross.

Run one of them

Copy a palette into a prompt and pay for that one run. No subscription.

Open an image model

Other palette groups

Colour harmonyThe ways to choose a set of colours, and the wording that gets each one.10 harmony schemes Period palettesThe sets of colours that date a picture, and the wording for each one.15 period palettes Screen palettesThe palettes from film and television, and the wording for each one.12 screen palettes Nature and materialPalettes taken from landscapes and materials, with the words for each.12 natural palettes

Print stylesDesigning the whole poster rather than choosing its colours? The same reference, for ink on paper.

A set of colours picked to do a job rather than to set a mood: to be read at a distance, to stay apart for a colour blind reader, to sit under a logo, or to rank a number on a map.