Comparison of d3 colour interpolators with colorbrewer sequential single hue scales

ColorBrewer is a fantastic resource for great colour schemes. However, its schemes contain up to a maximum of 9 colours. Sometimes, one would like to have a similar looking scheme available for continuous data.

I wanted to see which of d3's interpolators yielded linear scales that were visually closest to the ColorBrewer ones. For all of the single hue sequential scales, the HSL interpolator seems to be visually closest. The perceptually more responsible interpolators, namely HCL and L*a*b*, yield results that are visually less similar.

(Yes, of course you could just use d3.scale.quantize if you wanted your linear domain to map to the colorbrewer colours, but I wanted to see a linear range as well.)

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Blues

brewer#f7fbff#deebf7#c6dbef#9ecae1#6baed6#4292c6#2171b5#08519c#08306bL*a*b*#f7fbff#dadfec#bec3d9#a2a8c6#878eb3#6b75a1#505d8f#32467d#08306bHCL#f7fbff#d5e0ec#b6c5d9#97abc7#7b91b5#5f78a2#455f90#2a477e#08306bRGB#f7fbff#d9e2ed#bbc8da#9dafc8#8096b5#627ca3#446390#26497e#08306bHSL#f7fbff#c7e2ff#98c8fd#6aadfb#3d91f8#1074f4#0b5cc9#0a4699#08306b

Greens

brewer#f7fcf5#e5f5e0#c7e9c0#a1d99b#74c476#41ab5d#238b45#006d2c#00441bL*a*b*#f7fcf5#d7e3d7#b9cbb9#9ab39c#7d9c80#608565#446f4b#265933#00441bHCL#f7fcf5#d9e3d6#bbcbb7#9db39a#809c7e#638563#466f4a#285932#00441bRGB#f7fcf5#d8e5da#b9cebf#9ab7a3#7ca088#5d896d#3e7252#1f5b36#00441bHSL#f7fcf5#d2f2ca#a5ea9c#6ee66a#36e53f#14d12e#0aa52d#047627#00441b

Oranges

brewer#fff5eb#fee6ce#fdd0a2#fdae6b#fd8d3c#f16913#d94801#a63603#7f2704L*a*b*#fff5eb#f2dacb#e4bfac#d6a58e#c68b71#b67255#a4593a#924120#7f2704HCL#fff5eb#efdbc9#e0c1a8#d0a889#c18e6b#b1754f#a15c35#90421d#7f2704RGB#fff5eb#efdbce#dfc2b1#cfa894#bf8e78#af745b#9f5b3e#8f4121#7f2704HSL#fff5eb#ffddbe#fec292#fda566#fc863b#fa650f#d84c05#ab3905#7f2704

Purples

brewer#fcfbfd#efedf5#dadaeb#bcbddc#9e9ac8#807dba#6a51a3#54278f#3f007dL*a*b*#fcfbfd#e5dbed#cfbcdd#b89dcd#a17fbd#8a62ad#72459d#5a278d#3f007dHCL#fcfbfd#e4dbed#cdbcde#b69dce#9f80be#8862ae#71459e#59278d#3f007dRGB#fcfbfd#e4dced#cdbcdd#b59dcd#9e7ebd#865ead#6e3f9d#571f8d#3f007dHSL#fcfbfd#e4d9ef#cdb3e6#b58ae0#9e5cde#862ae1#6e12c9#5707a5#3f007d

Reds

brewer#fff5f0#fee0d2#fcbba1#fc9272#fb6a4a#ef3b2c#cb181d#a50f15#67000dL*a*b*#fff5f0#efd6d0#ddb8b0#cc9a92#b97e75#a66159#92453e#7d2825#67000dHCL#fff5f0#edd7cd#dbb9ab#c99c8c#b77f6e#a46353#904739#7c2922#67000dRGB#fff5f0#ecd6d4#d9b8b7#c6999b#b37b7f#a05c62#8d3d46#7a1f29#67000dHSL#fff5f0#ffd1bf#ffa78e#ff775d#ff422c#fa0c00#c90002#98000a#67000d