Charts communicate ideas with simplicity, clarity, and detail.

Once you're comfortable with D3 you can quickly:

* understand key metrics at a glance
* catch anomalies (before they turn into problems)
* give key insights to your customers
* and impress your boss and co-workers

Today, I will show you the exact methods I use to create beautiful, understandable data visualizations using D3.

The Fullstack D3 masterclass is the complete guide to D3. With dozens of code examples showing each step, you will gain new insights into your data by creating visualizations in this self-paced online course.

Fullstack D3 Masterclass

---
title: "Color tips"
description: "We talk about a few tips & tricks for choosing effective, accessible colors for our data visualizations."
useMdx: true
privateVideoUrl: https://fullstack.wistia.com/medias/l562g3koa2
---

### Color tips

Here are a few tips to keep in mind when choosing individual colors or a color scale.

#### Contrast

![contrast example](https://d2uusema5elisf.cloudfront.net/courses/fullstack-d3-masterclass/module_05/lesson_05.08/public/images/7-data-visualization-design/tip-contrast.png)

Make sure that your colors have enough contrast with their surroundings in all cases. If you're using Chrome, there is a great tool to check that your colors have enough contrast right in your dev tools. Learn how to use it in the Appendix.

#### Color blindness

![color blindness example](https://d2uusema5elisf.cloudfront.net/courses/fullstack-d3-masterclass/module_05/lesson_05.08/public/images/7-data-visualization-design/tip-color-blindness.png)

 Don't assume that your users can see your charts as clearly as you can. Almost 8 percent of males of North American descent have red-green color blindness. To make sure most people can encode the information from your color scale, stay away from scales where users have to distinguish between red and green.

 Here's a simulation of what the above picture looks for people with red-green color blindness.

![color blindness simulation example](https://d2uusema5elisf.cloudfront.net/courses/fullstack-d3-masterclass/module_05/lesson_05.08/public/images/7-data-visualization-design/tip-contrast-simulated.png)

We talk about a few tips & tricks for choosing effective, accessible colors for our data visualizations.