Plot color palettes (to see their colors)

Source: R/color_fun_1.R

seecol provides an interface to plotting (or "seeing") the colors of a palette or comparing multiple color palettes.

seecol(
  pal = "unikn_all",
  n = "all",
  alpha = NA,
  hex = NULL,
  rgb = NULL,
  col_bg = NULL,
  col_brd = NULL,
  lwd_brd = NULL,
  grid = TRUE,
  scale_x = FALSE,
  main = NA,
  sub = NULL,
  title = NULL,
  mar_note = NA,
  pal_names = NA,
  ...
)

Arguments

pal

A single color palette (as a vector of colors), multiple color palettes (as a list), or a recognized keyword (as a character string). Default: pal = "unikn_all" (i.e., plot all color palettes provided by the unikn package).

Recognized keywords are:

  1. "all": All color palettes of the unikn package.

  2. "all_unikn" or "unikn_all": All uni.kn color palettes (of the University of Konstanz).

  3. "unikn_basic": All basic uni.kn palettes.

  4. "grad_all": All uni.kn palettes with color gradients.

  5. "pair_all": All uni.kn palettes with pairwise colors.

  6. "pref_all": All preferred uni.kn colors and their gradients.

  7. "add": Additional/contributed color palettes (deprecated, as additional color palettes were migrated to the unicol R package).

seecol does also recognize keywords (e.g., "all_unikn") or keywords without "unikn" (e.g., "basic").

n

Number of colors to show or use. If n is lower or higher than the length of the current color palette pal, the color palette is reduced or extrapolated (using grDevices::colorRampPalette). Default: n = "all" (i.e., show all colors in palette).

alpha

A factor modifying the opacity alpha (as alpha.f in adjustcolor) to a value in [0, 1]. Default: alpha = NA (i.e., no modification of opacity).

hex

Should HEX color values be shown? Default: hex = NULL (i.e., show HEX color values when there is sufficient space to print them).

rgb

Should RGB color values be shown? Default: rgb = NULL (i.e., show RGB color values when there is sufficient space to print them).

col_bg

Color of plot background. Default: col_bg = NULL.

col_brd

Color of shape borders (if shown). Default: col_brd = NULL.

lwd_brd

Line width of shape borders (if shown). Default: lwd_brd = NULL.

grid

Show grid in the color plot? Default: grid = TRUE.

scale_x

Scale color shapes (when comparing multiple palettes) to a fixed total width? Default: scale_x = FALSE.

main

Main plot title (as a character string). Default: main = NA creates a default title.

sub

Optional subtitle (as a character string). Default: sub = NULL (i.e., no subtitle).

title

Deprecated plot title. Use main instead.

mar_note

Optional margin note (on bottom right). Default: mar_note = NA (i.e., no margin note).

pal_names

Names of color palettes or colors (as a character vector). Default: pal_names = NA (for default names).

...

Other graphical parameters (passed to plot).

Details

seecol has two main modes, based on the contents of its pal argument:

  1. if pal is set to a specific color palette (or a vector of multiple colors or color palettes):

    Plot the current color palette and optional details on its colors.

  2. if pal = "unikn_all" or a list of multiple color palettes:

    Plot visual vectors of all current color palettes for comparing them.

Specifying distinct = TRUE removes visual duplicate colors (based on HEX values, ignoring transparency), but only when showing an individual color palette pal.

Various title options (i.e., main, sub, and mar_note) and a pal_names argument add control over plotted text labels. However, the length of a character vector provided to pal_names must correspond to the number of (custom) color palettes or colors.

See also

usecol for using color palettes; simcol for finding similar colors; newpal for defining new color palettes; grepal for finding named colors; shades_of to defining shades of a given color; ac for adjusting color transparency; pal_unikn for the default uni.kn color palette.

Other color functions: ac(), demopal(), grepal(), newpal(), shades_of(), simcol(), usecol()

Examples

# See multiple color palettes: 
seecol()  # default: seecol(pal = "all") 


# See details of one color palette: 
seecol(pal_unikn)  # see a specific color palette


# Combining colors or color palettes: 
seecol(c(rev(pal_seeblau), pal_seegruen))        # combine color palettes

seecol(c(rev(pal_seeblau), "white", pal_pinky))  # combine color palettes and color names

seecol(c("black", "firebrick", "gold"))          # combine color names


# Scale a set of color palettes to a fixed width:
seecol(scale_x = TRUE)


# Using n to reduce or extend color palettes:
seecol(n =  3)  # viewing reduced ranges of all palettes

seecol(n = 12)  # viewing extended ranges of all palettes


seecol(pal_unikn, n = 5, 
       main = "Reduced version of pal_unikn (n = 5)")  # reducing pal_unikn

seecol(pal_seeblau, n = 8, 
       main = "Extended version of pal_seeblau (n = 8)")  # extending pal_seeblau


# Combining and extending color palettes: 
seecol(c(rev(pal_seeblau), "white", pal_bordeaux), n = 17, 
       main = "Diverging custom color palette (with 17 colors)")


# Defining custom color palettes:
pal_mpg <- c("#007367", "white", "#D0D3D4")  # mixing hex values and color names
names(pal_mpg) <- c("mpg green", "mpg white", "mpg grey")  # color names

pal_bdg <- usecol(c(Bordeaux, "gold"), n = 5)  # using usecol

# Viewing extended color palette: 
seecol(pal_mpg, n = 9, main = "Custom color palette of the Max Planck Society")


# Comparing (and labeling) custom color palettes: 
seecol(list(pal_mpg, pal_bdg, pal_unikn), scale_x = TRUE,
       pal_names = c("Max Planck", "Bordeaux-Gold", "Uni Konstanz"), 
       main = "Comparing and labeling custom color palettes")


## Viewing color palettes from other packages: 
# library(RColorBrewer)
# seecol(brewer.pal(name = "RdBu", n = 11))  # viewing "RdBu" palette from RColorBrewer

## Extending color palettes:
# seecol(brewer.pal(name = "RdBu", n = 11), n = 15)  # extending palette to 15 colors