Map Viewer has given you access to close to 400 color ramps, filtered based on the type of map you are building. That’s a lot… but we’re under no illusions that we are covering every potential use case, and it’s unlikely we ever will!
However, with the December 2021 release of Map Viewer we have looked to plug some gaps. We’ve added a bunch of new ramps, and there are some specific issues we’ve tried to address. As with all of the color ramps we build these days, these should be color-blind-safe (although some may be more effective than others):
Subdued
Since we started creating ramps for Smart Mapping we have tended to concentrate on bright high-impact colors (including those specifically designed for dark backgrounds), a weak area for ArcGIS historically. Well, we may have pushed that too far! We noticed that the ‘subdued’ category was looking a bit thin now, so we’ve added some more:
‘Above and Below’
No shortage of options for this theme, but most were built with a neutral color, or even white/dark gray, in the center. This is a valid use case, but there are occasions when you want the center to be more distinct. These ramps give you that. In each case a contrasting color is used for the middle value:
Unique symbols
We’ve added to your options here with a mixture of bright and subdued, including some that focus on variations around one color.
We will continue to add to our set of color ramps in Map Viewer (at least for as long as we can without choking it up!). If you see any areas that you think are under-represented please let us know.
As a color defective person I tried the ramps with the new Viewer. I had trouble with the last three ramps when there were 4 divisions.
Hi Gerald – thanks for the comment. I assume you mean the last three of the ‘Unique Symbol’ set. Like I said in the blog, from a color-blindness point of view some are more effective than others, and it doesn’t surprise me that these have issues. Trying to work around one color ‘theme’ is challenging. What I can try is reorganizing them so that the 4-color selection is more distinct.
Hi Andy – I’m currently looking for a green to yellow to red color ramp. I don’t see it currently offered. Thanks.
Hi Andrea – It depends what red/green combination you are looking for. We tend to stay away from a traditional red and green because of color vision issues (see the link to my blog on the subject below). You should find some in there that are close (I can see 2 on a quick scan), but I concede that they may not be exactly what you are expecting. Andy