[yt-dev] Default colormap

Thu Jan 21 10:10:07 PST 2016

I think we should probably put it up for a vote and we should send an
e-mail to yt-users about it.

On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 12:06 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi folks,
>
> I've put up a comparison image:
>
> http://i.imgur.com/Afxdb0G.jpg
>
> Left is Kacper, middle is me, right is Nathan.
>
> Honestly I think all could go in, but we should pick a default -- whether
> it's one of these or a different one.  Anyone have a strong opinion?
>
> -Matt
>
> On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 10:19 AM, B.W. Keller <kellerbw at mcmaster.ca>
> wrote:
>
>> Wow, all of these look great.  I think I like Matt's best for painting
>> our bikeshed, but I would be happy with any of them.
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 11:10 AM, Kacper Kowalik <xarthisius.kk at gmail.com
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> On 01/18/2016 09:45 AM, Matthew Turk wrote:
>>> > Hi all,
>>> >
>>> > I've experimented a bit and come up with this:
>>> >
>>> > https://images.hub.yt/u/fido/m/9bbe3cf6-png/
>>> >
>>> > The script:
>>> >
>>> > http://paste.yt-project.org/show/6151/
>>> >
>>> > This was designed with the viscm project, which is awfully cool.  What
>>> > do folks think?  I think Kacper and Nathan also experimented with
>>> > viscm and have some ideas too, so maybe we should put it up for an
>>> > eventual vote.
>>>
>>> This is my experiment:
>>>
>>> https://images.hub.yt/u/fido/m/f180a901-png/
>>>
>>> Source:
>>>
>>> http://paste.yt-project.org/show/6166/
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Kacper
>>>
>>>
>>> >
>>> > Also, I would campaign for calling whatever our new colormap turns out
>>> > to be one of these three things, in increasing order of my preference:
>>> >
>>> > agar
>>> > kelp
>>> > kanten
>>> >
>>> > -Matt
>>> >
>>> > On Thu, Jan 14, 2016 at 10:57 AM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >> Hi Stuart and everyone else,
>>> >>
>>> >> This is great info.  I appreciate everyone's thoughtful replies.
>>> >>
>>> >> Having both a sequential colormap (which would replace algae) and a
>>> >> diverging colormap, would be awesome.  The Paraview devs shipped the
>>> >> new matplotlib ones (like Inferno) in 5.0.  I think it would be a fun
>>> >> experiment to see if we can come up with something sufficiently
>>> >> "branded" or different.  And then if we can't, fall back on something
>>> >> like Inferno?
>>> >>
>>> >> -Matt
>>> >>
>>> >> On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 12:48 PM, Levy, Stuart A <salevy at illinois.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>> >>> There was a fair bit of discussion about colormaps - terrible,
>>> useful,
>>> >>> beautiful - at IEEE Vis last October.   The viridis colormap was a
>>> featured
>>> >>> one.   So was the traditional rainbow, which lots of info-vis and
>>> perceptual
>>> >>> people piled on to criticize.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Among design criteria for a continuous-valued colormap is whether
>>> it's
>>> >>> "sequential" (like the typical yt colormap, or viridis) or
>>> "diverging".
>>> >>> You'd want a diverging colormap to show signed deviations from a
>>> norm -
>>> >>> where the eye should be caught by places where a value is either
>>> much less
>>> >>> than, or much more than, something in the middle.   Is it worth
>>> offering a
>>> >>> typical divergent colormap, as well as a new typical sequential one,
>>> in yt?
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Note that among the Stefan van der Walt & Nathaniel Smith writeup (
>>> >>> http://bids.github.io/colormap/ ) on their development of better
>>> cmaps, they
>>> >>> use Nathan Goldbaum's galaxy evolution as a test case for six
>>> (sequential)
>>> >>> examples! =>
>>> http://vorpus.org/~njs/goldbaum-galaxies-all-colormaps.mkv
>>> >>>
>>> >>> A neat web site with sample colormaps - aimed at mapping discrete
>>> values on
>>> >>> geographic maps, so not directly applicable but cool - is this, by
>>> Cynthia
>>> >>> Brewer and Mark Harrower at PSU:
>>> >>>     http://colorbrewer2.org/
>>> >>> It has a library of predesigned cmaps, and lets you sift them by
>>> being
>>> >>> colorblind-safe, photocopy safe, etc.
>>> >>> ________________________________
>>> >>> From: yt-dev [yt-dev-bounces at lists.spacepope.org] on behalf of B.W.
>>> Keller
>>> >>> [kellerbw at mcmaster.ca]
>>> >>> Sent: Wednesday, January 06, 2016 12:13
>>> >>> To: yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
>>> >>> Subject: Re: [yt-dev] Default colormap
>>> >>>
>>> >>> There is a really excellent paper on designing color maps called
>>> "Color
>>> >>> Sequences for Univariate Maps: Theory, Experiments, and Principles"
>>> that you
>>> >>> can get here:
>>> >>>
>>> http://ccom.unh.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Ware_1988_CGA_Color_sequences_univariate_maps.pdf
>>> >>>
>>> >>> If we design a new colormap, this would be a good reference along
>>> with those
>>> >>> scipy resources.  I personally would love to have an accessible,
>>> yt-custom
>>> >>> colormap.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 11:50 AM, Erik Schnetter <schnetter at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> I think there are several colourmaps that were created when Viridis
>>> >>>> was invented. I personally like Inferno.
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> -erik
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 11:34 AM, Nathan Goldbaum <
>>> nathan12343 at gmail.com>
>>> >>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>> I would also be for coming up with our own colormap. That said, I
>>> think
>>> >>>>> simply modifying algae won't be enough, since it is too
>>> perceptually
>>> >>>>> nonlinear.
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> On Wed, Jan 6, 2016 at 10:32 AM, John ZuHone <jzuhone at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>> I would go for modifying algae.
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> On Jan 6, 2016, at 11:30 AM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk at gmail.com
>>> >
>>> >>>>>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> Hi folks,
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> For a long time we've used "algae," which was designed by Britton
>>> >>>>>>> about eight years ago, as the default colormap.  This has been
>>> really
>>> >>>>>>> nice for "branding" yt -- if you see an algae plot, it's probably
>>> >>>>>>> (not
>>> >>>>>>> definitely) made with yt.  But it's also not accessible from a
>>> >>>>>>> colorblindness perspective.  Stefan van der Walt has been giving
>>> some
>>> >>>>>>> really great talks lately about building a better colormap for
>>> >>>>>>> matplotlib (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAoljeRJ3lU )
>>> which
>>> >>>>>>> culminated in viridis, which is shipping in recent versions of
>>> >>>>>>> matplotlib and will become the default.
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> In support of this, he built a tool called viscm which can
>>> generate
>>> >>>>>>> reduced versions of colormaps to show what they would be like
>>> with
>>> >>>>>>> varying degrees of insensitivity to color.  I've generated
>>> outputs
>>> >>>>>>> from viscm of three of the custom colormaps we ship with yt:
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> Algae: https://images.hub.yt/u/fido/m/d275d5e1-png/
>>> >>>>>>> Cubehelix: https://images.hub.yt/u/fido/m/8e698928-png/ (I
>>> believe
>>> >>>>>>> this is now also shipped with MPL)
>>> >>>>>>> Kamae: https://images.hub.yt/u/fido/m/e0e40efa-png/
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> I love algae, but it's not the best from an accessibility
>>> >>>>>>> perspective.
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> I'd like to propose that we use a new default colormap.  If we do
>>> >>>>>>> this, I see two options:
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> * Retain a "branding" by developing a new one either by using the
>>> >>>>>>> techniques used by matplotlib (or one of the maps they opted not
>>> to
>>> >>>>>>> use) or by modifying algae to be more accessible; looking at the
>>> >>>>>>> response functions, I suspect it would be reasonably possible to
>>> >>>>>>> modify it.  (Modifying algae is my preference.)
>>> >>>>>>> * Use viridis (which we may then have to ship if we have older
>>> >>>>>>> versions of matplotlib to support)
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> -Matt
>>> >>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>> >>>>>>> yt-dev mailing list
>>> >>>>>>> yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
>>> >>>>>>> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>> >>>>>> yt-dev mailing list
>>> >>>>>> yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
>>> >>>>>> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________
>>> >>>>> yt-dev mailing list
>>> >>>>> yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
>>> >>>>> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> --
>>> >>>> Erik Schnetter <schnetter at gmail.com>
>>> >>>> http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/personal/eschnetter/
>>> >>>> _______________________________________________
>>> >>>> yt-dev mailing list
>>> >>>> yt-dev at lists.spacepope.org
>>> >>>> http://lists.spacepope.org/listinfo.cgi/yt-dev-spacepope.org
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
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