index.md (2127B)
1 --- 2 title: "Weeknote for 2025-W33" 3 description: "Advice for data graphics and colors therein" 4 date: 2025-08-17T20:15:48-07:00 5 draft: false 6 categories: 7 - Weeknotes 8 - Data Science 9 tags: 10 - Dataviz 11 - R 12 --- 13 14 I’m not making as many data graphics at work as I had in previous positions, 15 and I sometimes miss it. I’m hoping to convert an infographic that my team 16 produces collaboratively with a designer (who uses InDesign) into an entirely 17 code-based process, but it’s a low-priority project and I need to make sure 18 nobody’s feelings would be hurt about the transition. 19 20 [Helena Jambor](https://mastodon.social/@helenajambor/) kindly put together [a 21 data visualization 22 checklist](https://helenajamborwrites.netlify.app/posts/25-6_ncb/) (also 23 published in Nature Cell Biology) which provides actionable guidelines for 24 anybody putting together an ambitious graphic. It goes into more detail, but it 25 recalls the surprisingly excellent [guidelines from 26 Nature](https://research-figure-guide.nature.com/figures/preparing-figures-our-specifications/)[^nature] 27 on making good graphics for submission. 28 29 Guidelines for incorporating color into plots are wise to advise caution, but 30 colorful data graphics are more fun. [This post from Nicola 31 Rennie](https://nrennie.rbind.io/blog/colours-in-r/) on using colors in R is a 32 great place for R users to start. It introduced me to the [eyedroppeR 33 package](https://github.com/doehm/eyedroppeR), which is a ton of fun to play 34 with. 35 36 I’ve been threatening to update my website’s color scheme from the one that 37 [Amin](https://benjaminhollon.com/) put together as a default for 38 [readable.css](https://readable-css.freedomtowrite.org/) (not that there’s 39 anything wrong with it---it’s just not _mine_). I’ll probably use these as a 40 jumping-off point. I’m also a fan of [Coolors](https://coolors.co/) and the 41 [Colour Lovers](https://www.colourlovers.com/palettes/) community for palette 42 creation and inspiration. 43 44 [^nature]: I recently came across these from [this post on adopting 45 Typst](https://labrigger.com/blog/2025/08/02/switching-to-typst/), which is 46 also worth checking out.