Package: distinctipy
distinctipyis a lightweight python package providing functions to generate
colours that are visually distinct from one another.Commonly available qualitative colormaps provided by the likes of matplotlib
generally have no more than 20 colours, but for some applications it is useful
to have many more colours that are clearly different from one another.distinctipycan generate lists of colours of any length, with each new colour
added to the list being as visually distinct from the pre-existing colours in
the list as possible.Installationdistinctipyis designed for Python 3 and can be installed with pip by running:python-mpipinstalldistinctipyAlternatively clone the repo and install it locally:gitclonehttps://github.com/alan-turing-institute/distinctipy.gitcddistinctipy
python-mpipinstall.Optional DependenciesStarting in version 1.2.1distinctipyno longer bundlesmatplotlib,pandasor dev dependencies in the default installation. If you wish to view
colours (e.g. withdistinctipy.color_swatch) or examples you will needmatplotlibandpandasinstalled. To do this, either installdistinctipywith the optional flag:python-mpipinstalldistinctipy[extras]⚠️ Warning ⚠️ Previous versions of distinctipy (before 1.3) used[optional]instead of[extras].Or install them separately:python-mpipinstallmatplotlibpandasFor developers, to install the stack needed to run tests, generate docs etc. use:python-mpipinstalldistinctipy[extras,tests,docs]Usage and Examplesdistinctipycan:Generate N visually distinct colours:distinctipy.get_colors(N)Generate colours that are distinct from an existing list of colours:distinctipy.get_colors(N, existing_colors)Generate pastel colours:distinctipy.get_colors(N, pastel_factor=0.7)Select black or white as the best font colour for any background colour:distinctipy.get_text_color(background_color)Convert lists of colours into matplotlib colormaps:distinctipy.get_colormap(colors)Invert colours:distinctipy.invert_colors(colors)Nicely display generated colours:distinctipy.color_swatch(colors)Compare distinctipy colours to other common colormaps:examples.compare_clusters()andexamples.compare_colors()Simulate how colours look for someone with colourblindness:colorblind.simulate_colors(colors, colorblind_type='Deuteranomaly')Attempt to generate colours as distinct as possible for someone with colourblindnessdistinctipy.get_colors(N, existing_colors, colorblind_type="Deuteranomaly")For example, to create and then display N = 36 visually distinct colours:importdistinctipy# number of colours to generateN=36# generate N visually distinct colourscolors=distinctipy.get_colors(N)# display the coloursdistinctipy.color_swatch(colors)More detailed usage and example output can be found in the notebookexamples.ipynbandexamples gallery.Referencesdistinctipywas heavily influenced and inspired by several web sources and
stack overflow answers. In particular:Random generation of distinct colours:Andrew Dewes on GitHubColour distance metric:Thiadmer Riemersma at CompuPhaseBest text colour for background:Mark Ransom on Stack OverflowColourblindness Filters:Matthew Wickline and the Human-Computer Interaction Resource Network(web archive)Citing distinctipyIf you would like to cite distinctipy, please refer to the upload of the package on Zenodo:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3985191