How to Pick the Best Colors For Graphs and Charts?

Data visualization has become an essential part of businesses today. These days, more is needed to visualize with charts and graphs. Customers expect more from such visualizations.

Here’s the secret.

You can impress your customers and target audience by using the best colors for graphs. Using the most suitable colors for your charts and graphs can help you easily communicate your ideas and insights.

In this blog, you will learn the best colors for charts and graphs depending on your audience’s wants. This way, you can persuade potential customers and build a brand for your products and services.

Table of Content:

1. What are Good Colors For Charts?
2. Types of Color Palettes in Data Visualization
3. The Importance of Choosing the Best Colors For Graphs
4. The Meaning of Color in Our Lives
5. How to Define Thoughtful, Useful Palettes?
6. Things to Keep in Mind When Choosing the Best Colors for Graphs
7. The Do’s for Data Visualization Colors
8. The Don’ts for Data Visualization Colors
9. Common Data Visualization Color Palettes
10. Examples of Using Best Chart Color Schemes
11. How to Use the Best Colors For Data Visualization?
12. Top 5 Tips For Using Colors in Graphs
13. Best Colors For Graphs – FAQs
14. Wrap Up

Are you ready to learn more about colors? Let’s go.

What are Good Colors For Charts?

Definition: Good colors for charts are those that enhance readability, support data interpretation, and maintain visual harmony. They should provide enough contrast to distinguish between data points while avoiding overly bright or distracting shades. Typically, good chart colors include:

• Blues and greens for calm, professional visuals
• Oranges and reds to highlight or emphasize key data
• Neutral grays for background or less critical elements

Detailed Breakdown for Color Palette For Graphs:

• Primary Colors: Use bold colors (e.g., blue, red, green) for key data points.
• Secondary Colors: Softer tones (e.g., light gray, pastel) for background or less important data.
• Contrast: Ensure enough contrast between elements for readability.
• Consistency: Use the same color for the same category across charts.
• Accessibility: Choose colorblind-friendly palettes (e.g., ColorBrewer).
• Limit Colors: Stick to 4–6 colors to avoid visual clutter.
• Brand Alignment: Align with your company or project’s brand colors when possible.

What Color Should Graphs Be Displayed in?

Graphs should use colors that are clear, consistent, and easy to distinguish. Ideally, use your brand’s color palette or a well-designed color palette for graphs with good contrast. Avoid overly bright or clashing colors, and limit the number of colors to keep the graph clean and readable. Accessibility for color-blind viewers is also important; using color combinations that everyone can differentiate improves understanding.

Types of Color Palettes in Data Visualization

• Sequential Palette

A sequential palette is best used when visualizing data that progresses from low to high. It typically involves different shades or intensities of a single hue, moving from light to dark or vice versa. This gradual change in color helps to highlight variations in magnitude or intensity, making it ideal for heatmaps, population density maps, and other data types that follow a natural order.

• Diverging Palette

Diverging palettes are designed to highlight the difference from a central reference point, such as zero or an average value. They use two contrasting colors that blend into a neutral tone at the midpoint. This type of palette is useful for showing deviations, such as profit vs. loss, temperature anomalies, or performance comparisons above and below a target.

• Categorical (Qualitative) Palette

Categorical or qualitative palettes are used for visualizing discrete categories with no inherent order. Each category is represented by a distinct color, making them easily distinguishable. These palettes are the best color combinations for bar charts, pie charts, and any visualization where different groups or labels must be clearly separated.

• Qualitative Palette

Qualitative palettes focus specifically on representing distinct categories without any implied ranking or order. They rely on a variety of unique, easily distinguishable colors to help users differentiate between multiple groups or classifications clearly. These palettes are widely used in charts that require color differentiation for categorical data, ensuring clarity and ease of interpretation.

The Importance of Choosing the Best Colors For Graphs

Every color you have known since childhood has its unique features and abilities. Most people bypass the importance of colors because they are unaware of the science of colors in our brains.

Imagine what it would be like if the world didn’t have different colors. Would everything appear dull, right? When it comes to data visualization, colors play a critical role in persuasion and attraction.

One interesting fact about your brain is that it chemically reacts to every color to trigger an emotional response.

Colors create associations and thoughts about a brand or event. If your goal is to persuade your audience to subscribe to a product or service, use the best chart color schemes and chord diagrams.

Each color has its unique abilities and how your audience reacts to every one of them. Colors directly affect your target audience’s perception of your graphs and charts.

Various business owners apply this knowledge of colors to create their unique brands. For instance, restaurants and cafes use Orange or Brown colors to make customers feel at home. Orange and brown are also effective choices for visual presentations, such as in a Side-By-Side Bar Chart, where they can help differentiate data clearly and make the information more engaging

However, some brands and professionals need to improve in properly using colors. They need to use the best color for the Sunburst Chart and other visualizations on their websites to make their brand more appealing.

For instance, in a dot plot, the right choice of colors can significantly enhance the readability and impact of the data presented. Analysts and data scientists still need to recognize the proper use of colors and graph types, like Box and Whisker graphs, to communicate their insights effectively. Don’t make the same mistake, too.

That is why choosing colors for your data visualizations with human psychology in mind is vital. Whether you are creating a Radar Chart or any other type of visualization, it’s essential to understand the different meanings of colors in their various contexts.

The Meaning of Color in Our Lives

Each color has a meaning in your life. Each human experiences colors in significantly different ways. Each individual has unique emotions and cultural and societal affiliations with varying perceptions of colors.

However, some colors are universally accepted by almost every individual. When we understand such colors, we can appreciate the best colors for graphs, especially for Funnel charts.

Let’s use the example of green and red because they are the most common. We know these colors to have opposite meanings, especially if you obey traffic lights daily. In traffic rules, the red light tells you to stop, the orange light tells you to prepare, and the green light tells you to go.

In essence, red is a universal color that signifies danger or caution. However, sports analytics reveals that some sports brands use red in their logos and sports jerseys to convey confidence and power.

How to Define Thoughtful, Useful Palettes?

Let’s assume you’re creating a Google Ads performance dashboard.

You will have to work with two or three striking colors in this case. Still, your chart needs to display performances for your agency’s 18 campaigns.

It would not be effective if you recycled a three-shade palette. Still, using one color for the four ad categories won’t be appropriate.

Each time a team member views the dashboard, they will strain their eyes to see tiny labels and legends to obtain insights. Therefore, action must be taken so that the dashboard benefits those who walk past it and take a glance.

What options will you have?

When you decide on the best color for graphs, a standard option is to use your brand colors and break them down into many small colors. These small color segments progressively reduce their saturation, and their hues become darker, as shown below. Choosing the right color palette for graphs here is essential because an inconsistent or overly muted palette can make your visuals confusing.

The resulting chart will be muddy and unappealing to your audience.

Another option you can use is the application of random, non-deliberate colors. In this case, you might use colors outside your brand and rarely use them. However, without a thoughtfully selected color palette for graphs, these colors can clash or distract, making the chart harder to interpret.

The palettes will appear as shown below.

Although you will succeed in finding different shades, it doesn’t show a contrast between them, and thus, it will not appear cohesive.

The two options we have mentioned cannot create a high-impact data visualization.

To ensure that you succeed in on-brand visualization with several categories, you must take your time to color each category. For instance, in a 20-color brand palette, please keep it simple and appealing for more straightforward visualizations.

The best way to generate an extensive palette is to utilize light shades of your original brand colors in between them. This strategy is essential since it will stretch the palette.

Things to Keep in Mind When Choosing the Best Colors for Graphs

Appropriateness

Some colors are specific to some industries. For instance, many financial institutions will use blue as their brand to signify authority, stability, and customer value.

When choosing the best colors for graphs, you can choose depending on what mood you want to set for your audience. Data storytelling techniques can help you decide on colors that enhance your narrative. Blue can be appropriate if you want to set a soothing mood.

Your Target Audience

It is essential to consider your target audience’s background and culture when choosing the colors for data visualization, including when creating a Mekko Chart. Various cultures perceive colors differently, so selecting the right color scheme can enhance the chart’s effectiveness and clarity.

For instance, in some Asian cultures, red and gold signify wealth and fortune. You can easily impress Asian investors with such colors in your data visualization.

The Do’s for Data Visualization Colors

1. Do use colors to create associations. This helps you trigger understanding in your audience. For example, you can use green to illustrate business profits and orange to illustrate performance.
2. Do use a single color to illustrate continuous data. Using one color in continuous data will help your audience identify a metric’s performance.
3. Do Use Contrasting Colors to show comparisons. This will help your audience note the difference between the two crucial KPIs. Ensure that you use the best contrasting colors for graphs, as selecting the best color for bar charts can significantly enhance clarity and readability.
4. Do Use Color to Make Important Information Stand Out. You can use gray for less important variables and a highly saturated color for the information you wish to emphasize.

The Don’ts for Data Visualization Colors

1. Don’t Use Colors that Are Not Easily Distinguishable. The goal is to help your audience interpret your graph without much strain.
2. Don’t overload your chart with too many colors. This helps your audience identify insights easily. For example, a Circular Chart can be particularly effective when the color scheme is well-chosen. Too many colors can be confusing to them, so ensure that you use the best color combinations for graphs, including selecting the appropriate slope chart color.
3. Don’t Forget Accessibility. Always remember that people have different visual abilities. Others suffer from color blindness and cannot distinguish various colors. Accessibility includes using keys or stripes to represent multiple colors.

Common Data Visualization Color Palettes

1. Qualitative. These color palettes are crucial because they make each color distinct and unique. This becomes efficient when there are no subcategories and when there are unrelated variables.
2. Sequential. These color palettes use a single color with varying saturation levels. They are ideal for representing a single KPI that changes over time, especially in visualizations like a Pyramid diagram.
3. Diverging. Diverging palettes use different colors on each. The neutral point is a mix of the end colors. These palettes are ideal for survey data such as customers’ opinions.

Examples of Using Best Chart Color Schemes

• Sankey Diagram

Let’s use the example of the table below to explore the best chart colors for clear and effective data visualization.

Earnings Source	Revenue	Proceeds	Expenses	Departments	Outflows	Amount
Providing services	Revenue	Proceeds	Expenses	Managerial	Personnel training	10000
Providing services	Revenue	Proceeds	Expenses	Managerial	Office rental	16000
Providing services	Revenue	Proceeds	Expenses	Managerial	Wages	9400
Renting out premises	Revenue	Proceeds	Expenses	Commercial	Wages	11300
Renting out premises	Revenue	Proceeds	Expenses	Commercial	Travel allowance	10000
Renting out premises	Revenue	Proceeds	Expenses	Commercial	Advertising	12000
Sales of products	Revenue	Proceeds	Expenses	Production	Material Payment	25000
Sales of products	Revenue	Proceeds	Expenses	Production	Loan Payment	8500
Sales of products	Revenue	Proceeds	Expenses	Production	Wages	19500
Loans		Proceeds				18000

To get started with the best colors for graphs, install the ChartExpo add-in for Google Sheets from this link.

• Click to open your Google Sheets workbook.
• In your worksheet, click on the Extensions button.
• It will drop down the Charts, Graphs & Visualizations by the ChartExpo menu.
• Click the Open option.

• Then click on the Add New Chart. It will display a list of charts and graphs.

• Click on the Sankey Chart option to access the chart.

• Complete the simple process by clicking the Create Chart button.

• Your final chart should look like this.

Changing the Color of Nodes

• To change the color of your Sankey’s nodes, click the Edit Chart button.

• Click the pencil-like markers on the individual nodes you intend to change color.
• Click the Node properties section to select the Node Color box.
• Hover your mouse over the color you want and click the Choose button.

• By clicking on Symbols, you can add prefixes and postfixes.
• We add a $ in the prefix.
• Click the Apply button.
• To add a heading, click on the pencil icon next to the Chart Header.
• To save changes, click on Save Changes.

• Your final chart will appear as shown in the screenshot below.

Insights

Some insights from the Sankey Diagram include the following:

• Sales of products are a significant contributor to revenue, 39%.
• Loans have the lowest contribution to revenue, with 14%.
• In the total expenses, Production was a higher expense than any other expense.
• The Wages also had significantly the highest expense among others, the cost of materials, loan payments, rent, &, are the final outflow of expenses.

• Clustered Column Chart

Let’s use the table below to visualize your data in Excel.

Cities	Quarter-1	Quarter-2	Quarter-3	Quarter-4
New York	500	300	600	650
Chicago	400	550	300	400
Austin	350	400	450	500
Boston	450	500	550	300
Seattle	600	400	300	250

To get started with the best colors for graphs, install the ChartExpo add-in for Excel from this link.

• Open your Excel application.
• Open the worksheet and click the Insert button to access the My Apps option.

• Click the Insert button to initiate the ChartExpo engine.

To get started with ChartExpo in Excel, follow the steps below:

• Open your Excel application.
• Open the worksheet and click the Insert button to access the My Apps option.

• Click the Insert button to initiate the ChartExpo engine.

• Open the ChartExpo add-in. You will see a list of charts.

• Scroll through, and click Sequence Chart on the list of visualizations as shown.

• Select your data and click on Create Chart from Selection.

Your Clustered Column Chart will appear as shown below.

Changing colors

• To change the color of your Clustered Column Chart, click the Edit Chart.

• Click on the Legend Properties pencil icon to edit.
• Click on the color of the box to change the color of your legends.
• Click Apply to change the color of your chart.

 

Your chart will appear as shown below.

Insights

• New York has the best-performing 4th quarter among other cities.
• Seattle has the lowest-performing quarter among the 5 cities.

How to Use the Best Colors For Data Visualization?

Choose the right palette for your data type

• Use sequential palettes for data with a clear order or range.
• Use diverging palettes to highlight differences around a midpoint.
• Use categorical palettes to distinguish separate groups or categories.

Limit the number of colors

• Stick to 4 to 6 colors to keep your visualization clean and easy to read.

Ensure good contrast

• Pick colors that stand out from each other for better readability.
• Consider colorblind-friendly palettes to make your visuals accessible.

Be consistent

• Use the same color for the same category or data type across all charts.

Align with branding

• If applicable, use your organization’s brand colors to keep a professional, cohesive look.

Test your colors

• Check your visuals on different screens and devices.
• Get feedback from others to ensure the colors communicate the data clearly.

Top 5 Tips For Using Colors in Graphs

1. Limit the Number of Colors: Use a small, distinct palette to avoid overwhelming viewers.
2. Ensure Sufficient Contrast: Choose easily distinguishable colors, even for those with color vision deficiencies.
3. Use Meaningful Colors: Select colors that logically or culturally represent the data, like red for negative and green for positive values, especially when creating a scatter plot.
4. Highlight Key Data: Use a standout color to emphasize important data points or trends.
5. Consider Accessibility: Incorporate patterns or textures along with colors to make graphs accessible to color-blind viewers.

Best Colors For Graphs – FAQs

What are the best colors for graphs?

The best graph colors for graphs, including Waterfall charts, are blue, green, and orange. You can use these colors to associate specific variables. For instance, you can use green to show profits over time and blue in your charts to create a soothing effect for your audience.

What colors should not be in charts?

You should only use colors that are easily distinguishable in charts. This will leave your audience frustrated as they need help distinguishing various variables.

It is essential to use different colors that will help your audience interpret your graph at a glance.

Why is color important in a graph?

Color is essential in a graph because it triggers an emotional response in your audience. The human brain is easily impressed by colors.

Your aim in coloring your graphs is to easily communicate your insights and persuade your audience to take action.

Wrap Up

In a nutshell, we have learned that data visualization is not enough without using colors.

Colors are essential in creating a visual sense. You can persuade your target audience emotionally by using colors wisely.

As a data visualization designer, it is important to consider human psychology and how individuals react to different colors. You should know how to use the best colors for graphs appropriately.

To successfully communicate your insights, you need to consider your target audience’s cultural perception of colors. This helps you build a brand based on your audience’s favorite color.

The ChartExpo third-party application can help you with the appropriate colors for coloring your charts and graphs.

Now it’s your turn. Start a 7-day free trial today with ChartExpo to create charts with appealing colors.