The ColorWise Book

A data storyteller's guide to the intentional
use of color

Data has become the most powerful tool in business today, and telling its story effectively is critical to decision making. Yet color is the most neglected tool in data visualization.
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We learn about color from an early age, but understanding how it connects our eyes to our brains and how the proper usage can transform graphics is an elusive subject for many.

That’s why I decided to undertake this project; to go on a mission to teach business people, and data professionals the proper use of color for data visualization & data storytelling.

“I frequently see a staggering and frustrating amount of data visualizations where color is being poorly used.”

Kate Strachnyi
Kate Strachnyi
Founder of DATAcated

What is ColorWise?

With this book, author and DATAcated founder Kate Strachnyi provides the ultimate guide to the correct use of color for representing data in graphs, charts, tables, and infographics.

Ideal for data and business analysts, data scientists, and others who design infographics and data visualizations, this practical resource explores color tips and tricks, including the theories behind them and why they work the way they do.

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Foundation

The role that color theory plays in data visualization and storytelling.

Technique

Various color techniques you can use to improve your data visualizations.

Theory

How different colors affect your audience's understanding of data visualizations

Intentionality

How to use color intentionally to help guide your audience

Tips

Tips for using colors that can be interpreted by individuals with color vision deficiency

Implementation

How to apply the book's guidelines for use in your own projects

What you’ll learn

ColorWise covers the psychology, history, and culture of a number of different colors. This book is also a useful teaching tool for learning about proper use of color for data storytelling techniques and dashboarding.

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Testimonials

Don’t just take our word for it

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"Everyday, in businesses all around the world, I see the unintentional mis-use of color, leading to poorer insights from data. The correct use of color can really propel data storytelling and dashboard design to new heights. Kate Strachnyi has done an amazing job pulling together everything you will ever need to know about the use of color for effective data visualisation."
Bernard Marr
Position, Company name
"Color is one of those things we often take for granted, especially when it comes to data. Colorwise opened my mind to the ways color can be used to greatly improve the storytelling impact of data visualizations."
Joe Reis
Position, Company name
"Choosing what colors to use in our data visualizations and data storytelling has the potential to convey our messages better, but only if done so properly. The usage of color is both a science and an art and Kate does a great job at teaching us on how to use color wisely."
George Firican
Position, Company name
“This is more than a colour book.  It’s an education – there’s history, biology, science and soo much knowledge shared about colour, I’ll never think of it in the same way.  This book is a must-read!”
Susan Walsh
Position, Company name
"The ability to build powerful data visualizations can be key to driving data stories and analytical work.  One element that can help make a visualization stand out and pop is the color utilized within.  Kate has written a wonderful book on the topic of color.  Pick it up today and utilize it to make your data visualizations stand out and be seen."
Jordan Morrow
Position, Company name
“This is more than a colour book.  It’s an education – there’s history, biology, science and soo much knowledge shared about colour, I’ll never think of it in the same way.  This book is a must-read!”
Brent Dykes
Position, Company name
Resources

Helpful tools to leverage on your data storytelling journey

Viz Palette

Shows you how the color palette will look on a dashboard with various charts and graphs, and allows you to view the dashboard with color-blindness filters, as well as gray-scale mode.

Canva Color Wheel

Helps you build a color palette for projects based on color theory, and then export your palette for use in your design application or a Canva project.

Coolors

Generates color palettes with a tap of your space bar.

Color Thief

Grab the color palette from an image using just JavaScript. Works in the browser and in Node. just drag an image into your browser and you’ll get a color palette, along with a dominant color.

Palette Generator

Use the palette chooser to create a series of colors that are visually equidistant. This is useful for many data visualizations, like pie charts, grouped bar charts, and maps.

i want hue

Colors for data scientists. Generate and refine palettes of optimally distinct colors.

Colormind

Colormind is a color scheme generator that uses deep learning. It can learn color styles from photographs, movies, and popular art.

Coblis

Choose an image through the upload functionality or just drag and drop your image in the center of the Color BLIndness Simulator.

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book today!

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