4 replies to this topic

[cmdrico7812]

(The questions never cease to stop from me)

I need to create a zoning map that shows all the individual parcels within a township. However, the zoning administrator for the township is color blind so I need to make it black and white. I have 8 different zoning districts I need to show on the map. I can do probably 4 solid shades of gray before you can't distringuish them and, the way the map is currently set up, the other 4 districts are various patterns. The problem with doing patterns, however, is that they clash with the parcel lines I need to show. I've attached a PDF of the map in its current state so you can see what I mean. Does anyone have any suggestions for a map of this type or any good multi-level black and white shading schemes that work well? Thanks in advance.

Eric

Attached Files

•  ZoningMap_bw.pdf   460.19K   110 downloads

[Maisie]

Have you looked at ColorBrewer?
http://www.personal....olorBrewer.html

You can specify the number of classes, and although it's mostly for colors, there is also a greyscale option. Moreover, you can choose full-color palettes that are distinguishable by colorblind users.

[cmdrico7812]

Thank you so much! I've never seen that before and now I'm hooked. I am a bit color blind myself and this helps immensely. Thank you!

[Mike H]

Check this out as well:

http://colororacle.cartography.ch/

[Dennis McClendon]

I would suggest reordering your black & white options more logically:

R-1 through R-4 should use something like 0, 15, 33, and 60 black, to show the increasing intensity of use. I understand the inclination to avoid a progressive sequence in order to make R-2 easy to distinguish from R-3, but that torpedoes the overally understanding of the map.

The conservation and PUD zones should be "overlays," even if not actually used that way, of horizontal crosshatching at two spacings: coarse for conservation (which will be large parcels) and closely spaced lines for the (typically smaller) PUDs.

That leaves us with the two commercial districts. Since you have blue available, make those a combination of black + blue: something like 30C-20K for the lowest and 50C-20K for the other. I don't believe that will be a problem for most color-blind folks to distinguish.

It might also be worth experimenting with making your parcel lines white, pushing the four residential districts to 10-30-55-70. The need for black labels might pose a problem in that case.