An archive of colour gradients
![detail of map of Kimberley](usgs/teaser/kimberley.jpeg)
A map of Kimberley, North West Australia, using a USGS scheme
![Nord logo](nord/teaser/logo.png)
Nord: arctic, north-bluish colour palettes
![topography of mare tranquillitatas](pn/teaser/os-moon.jpeg)
The Moon's Mare Tranquillitatas, landing site for Apollo 11, by Paul Naylor
![Colombia](wkp/teaser/colombia-shadowxfox-small.png)
A map of Colombia using the Shadowxfox scheme
![map of mars (detail)](wesson/teaser/os-mars.png)
The MER Opportunity landing point on Western Arabia Terra, Mars, colour-ramp by Christopher Wesson
![Chandra example image](imagej/teaser/cequal.png)
Example Chandra image painted with the ImageJ cequal LUT
For cartography, technical illustration and design. The archive supports several formats and is organised by author.
- Schemes from the GRID-Arendal map & graphics library
- Art gradients by Blackheartedwolf
- Colour schemes by Cynthia Brewer
- The cividis map by Nuñez, Anderton and Renslow
- Obesity scales from CalorieLab
- The cmocean palettes by Kristen M. Thyng
- Selected five-colour palettes from COLOURlovers
- Subtle gradients from Crumblingwalls
- Palettes for positive functions by Duncan Agnew
- Dave Green's cubehelix for astronomical intensity images
- Gradients by Diane Simoni
- DS9 colour scales for astronomical visualisation
- A DEM palette by Erika Mackay
- Toning samples by Eric R. Jeschke
- Themed art gradients by ElvenSword
- Selected legends from the European Soil Database
- ESRI colour ramp collection
- Colour maps from Fractint
- Vista login button gradients by Fused Graphics
- The DEM palettes from drawmap, by Fred M. Erickson
- Felix von Luschan skin-colour scales
- Art gradients by Gacruxa
- A seismic amplitude scheme by Gery
- GIMP gradients
- Palettes from the graphics packages GIST and Yorick
- Generic Mapping Tools palettes
- Two-colour glossy gradients from GoSquared
- Gradients from GIMP Paint Studio
- GRASS colour ramps
- Colour tables from the h5utils package
- Colour palettes for geological time by Christian Heine
- Spectral gradients by Hult
- The IBCAO scheme for Arctic bathymetry
- The IBCSO scheme for the Southern Ocean
- A selection of scales from Unidata IDV
- ImageJ lookup tables for astronomy
- Gradients by Ingerlise
- Technical gradients by J.J. Green
- The ShadeMax palettes by Jim Mossman
- James McNames' monotonic luminance ColorSpiral
- Diverging colour-maps by Kenneth Moreland
- KST colour tables
- Loadboy's gradients for graphic design
- Gradients by Michele Arnold
- A topo-bathymetric scheme by M. Burak Yikilmaz
- Precipitation palettes by Mark J. Fenbers
- Perceptually uniform colour-maps for matplotlib
- Colour maps from NCL (NCAR command language)
- The NCDC's scheme for probability of a white Christmas
- Nevit Dilmen's extra gradients for the GIMP
- Pixel-art gradients by Neota
- The NGDC's global relief palette for ETOPO1
- Legends for geospatial data by the NJGS
- Nord: arctic, north-bluish colour palettes
- The NSA boundless informant heatmap
- Colour scales from NASA's OceanColor site
- Gradients from the Open Clip Art Library
- Digital art gradients by Onecoldcanadian
- Ordnance Survey 1:250,000 elevation scale
- Piecrust Design's natural gradients
- Gradients by Peggy Jentoft
- Gnuplot pm3d example scales by Petr Mikulík
- Paul Naylor's lunar topography ramp
- Rafi's sky gradients
- Gradients from Restless Concepts
- Rich Franzen's pseudogrey
- SAGA preset colour tables
- Web 2⋅0 gradients from Sarah Davison
- Statistik Stadt Zürich scales
- DEM palettes by Thomas Dewez
- Nonlinear greyscales by Thomas Lotze
- Tom Patterson's topographic scales
- Meteorological schemes from the UK Met Office
- Elevation schemes by the USGS and R. L. Langford
- Victor Huérfano's Caribbean DEM palette
- An OS martian topgraphy ramp by Christopher Wesson
- Wikipedia schemes
- Bathymetry from XKCD 1040
Complete sets of gradient files are also available for download.
Selections from the archive
- The most popular palettes: cpt, c3g, ggr, gpf, inc, map, pg, psp, qgs, sao, svg
- Palettes for bathymetry and a selection of blues
- Palettes for topography
- Mixed palettes for topography & bathymetry
- Schemes for temperature
- Schemes for precipitation
- Various reds, greys, greens
- Schemes for diverging data
- Palettes with transparency
- Gradients of discordance
Notes
- The faq, answers to frequently asked questions
- The news on recent changes to the archive
- The formats supported
- Selected general and software links
- Copyright information
- Notes for contributors
- A big thank you to everyone who has contributed to this site
- Site statistics