One of the biggest strengths of Tableau is its color selection for various visualizations. This color selection is based on best practices and the concepts of information visualization. Sometimes, however, we may want to change the default color settings.
For this recipe, let's use the sample file Sample – Superstore Sales (Excel). Open a new worksheet and select Sample – Superstore Sales (Excel) as the data source.
Once the data is loaded, perform the following steps to select different types of color palettes:
- Click on the Show Me button to bring the Show Me toolbar on the screen.
- Select Discount and Profit from Measures by pressing the Ctrl key and clicking on both the fields.
- Click on the Scatter Plots button from the Show Me toolbar.
- Click on the Analysis menu option and uncheck the Aggregate Measures option.
- Drag-and-drop Category from Dimensions into the Color box under the Marks pane.
- Click on the small dropdown, which becomes visible after hovering on the Category legend pane, as shown in the following screenshot, or double-click on any legend key:
- Click on the Edit Colors option.
- In the Edit Colors [Category] properties box, under Select Color Palette, expand the dropdown and select the Tableau 10 Light color palette as shown in the following screenshot:
- Click on the Assign Palette button to assign the colors from this palette to various categories.
- Click on OK.
Tableau provides many color palettes to choose from, and these palettes are designed to maximize the effectiveness of colors in the visualizations. It is also possible to change the color of a single legend by selecting a value from the legends and then selecting a color from the palette and clicking on the Assign Palette button.
If you are interested in learning more about the theory behind using proper colors, you will find the slides on color from the Information Visualization Stat 120 class by Ross Ihaka at the University of Auckland very insightful; go to the following link:
https://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~ihaka/120/Lectures/lecture14.pdf