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How To Make Figures and Presentations That Are Friendly To People

1) Color blindness is common, affecting around 8% of males and 0.5% of females, with types including problems distinguishing red and green or blue colors. 2) Color blind people can see colors but have trouble distinguishing certain color ranges, like light yellow from green. 3) When making figures, use redundant coding with both color and shapes, thicker lines, avoid separate color keys, and design first in grayscale to ensure understandability for color blind audiences. 4) Resources like color blindness simulators and green laser pointers can help create inclusive visuals.

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Daniel D. Houser
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491 views

How To Make Figures and Presentations That Are Friendly To People

1) Color blindness is common, affecting around 8% of males and 0.5% of females, with types including problems distinguishing red and green or blue colors. 2) Color blind people can see colors but have trouble distinguishing certain color ranges, like light yellow from green. 3) When making figures, use redundant coding with both color and shapes, thicker lines, avoid separate color keys, and design first in grayscale to ensure understandability for color blind audiences. 4) Resources like color blindness simulators and green laser pointers can help create inclusive visuals.

Uploaded by

Daniel D. Houser
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to make figures and

presentations that are


friendly to color blind people
Masataka Okabe and Kei Ito
with special thanks to
Cahir O’Kane
How common is color blindness?
One in twelve males (8%) and one in 200 females
(0.5%) are red-green color blind.
(Asian: 5%, French and Scandinavian : >10%)

Type 1 (protanopes) and


Type 2 (deuteranopes):
functional defects in red and
green cone cells, respectively.

People with defects in blue cone cells (type 3: tritanopes) are


relatively rare (one in tens of thousands.)

Red-green color blindness is commoner than AB


blood group. There should be around 10 color
blind people in the room with 250 people !
Can color blind people see colors?
Do they see everything black and white?
non color blind

protanope
(red cone cells defective)

deuteranope
(green cone cells defective)

tritanope
(blue cone cells defective)
Color blindness is not a total loss of color vision.
But certain ranges of colors are hard to distinguish.
Color blind simulator: VisCheck (http://vischeck.
How can you see this color ? (common questio
A typical confocal picture
Double-staining with
red and green signals.
Not understandable for color
blind people !
Let’s simulate how color blind people see this.

protanope (red) deuteranope (green) tritanope (blue)


Another problem: recognition of double positive
cannot distinguish light yellow from green
This appears like…

protanope deuteranope tritanope


How about characters and drawings?
Four problems that color blind people suffer:
1. Cannot distinguish certain colors.
Symbols and lines in: Non color blinds
blue and violet; Color blinds

red, orange, yellow, yellow green and green


2. Fail to see some objects.
Dark red or magenta symbols and thin lines
over black or dark blue background.
3. Difficult to see emphasized parts.
Dark red characters in black text.
(For protanopes, dark red appears similar to black…)

4. Very difficult to tell the name of colors.


“Recognition of color difference” and “identification
of color names” are totally different task.
Colors difficult to distinguish and identify
The border of color-name categories is not the same among people.
Example of colors that are easier to identify

1. Red: Avoid pure red (RGB=100,0,0%). Use vermilion (RGB=80,


40,0%) or change to orange (RGB=90,60,0%).
2. Green: Avoid pure green (RGB=0,50,0%), which is confusing
with red or brown. Use bluish green (RGB=0,60,40%)
3. Light green ■(RGB=0,100,0%) and yellow ■(RGB=100,100,0%) wi
ll appear the same to color blinds.
Avoid using colors between yellow and green.
Line Drawings
1. Make lines thicker, symbols larger.
2. Use various types of lines and symbols.
3. Avoid separate keys. Add labels within
the drawings.
Bad! Good!
Graphs
Bad! Good!

1. Use vivid colors with


different brightness.
Or, add hatching.
2. Avoid separate keys.
Add labels within the
drawings.
Don’t make a diagram like this…

London subway
Deuteranope simulation...

London subway
This one is much better.

1. Lines are thiker.


2. Line names are shown
within the map rather th
Paris subway an in separate keys.
How to make slides and figures?
Do not convey information with color only. Show difference
s BOTH in color and in shape.
“redundant coding”
In addition to color, use the combinations of :
- solid and various dotted lines - various hatching
- circles, triangles and rectangles - alphabets and numbers - etc.

Keep the number of colors to a minimum.


Use combinations of different symbols with a few, vivid colors rather t
han a single symbol with various colors.
 v.s.
 
Keep contrast not only in hue but also in brightness.
Make it possible to communicate without using color name.

First, design figures in gray scale.


Then, add colors as “ornament.”
Anything else?
1: “Cannot see red laser pointer well…”

Green laser pointer is good for color blind


people. The same also for non-color blinds.

2: “Which is that ‘red cell’ you are talking about?”


Avoid indicating objects only by color name.
Describe shapes and positions. Use pointer.
Useful URLs
1: Color Blind Simulator
Vischeck
http://vischeck.com/
Freeware (Plug-in for NIH Image J: Win, Mac, Unix)
Windows (Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop)
Online conversion service
Colorfield Insight
http://www.colorfield.com/
Macintosh (Plug-in for Adobe Photoshop)
2: Green Laser Pointer
DeHarpporte Trading Company
http://store.yahoo.com/deharpport/
3: Download the PDF and PowerPoint files of this pr
esentation
http://jfly.nibb.ac.jp/html/color_blind
Conclusion

There are always color blind people among the


audience, readers and referees. Please take this
into account when preparing your presentations
(papers, slides, web pages etc.)

Thank you for your cooperation!


Acknowledgements:
Michina Shiraki, Tomoko Hashimoto, Kazuo Ikeo, Olympus Co. Ltd. (p
hotographs and figures)
Kenji Kitahara and Makiko Ohkido (ophthalmology issue)
Kohei Musha (barrier free trademark)

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