Calling for contributions: Your color palettes

[hneth]

The 202 color palettes included in the original unicol package come from two sources:

1. The R package unikn contained 52 color palettes from a variety of international institutions (beyond the University of Konstanz).

2. An additional 150 color palettes (from a wider range of institutions) were added by students of a course on Open Source Software Development in R (PSY-18040), at the University of Konstanz in Summer 2023.

The current set of color palettes stems mostly from universities in the U.S., U.K., and Germany. We would love to include additional color palettes from a more diverse range of countries and regions. But as our resources are limited, this requires your help:

If you would like to use the colors of your institutions in R, the color functions of the unikn package make it easy and straightforward to create a new color palette. (See the newpal() function or the vignette on Institutional colors for instructions.)

Once you have created your own color palette, you can use it just as any of the palettes provided by the unicol package. However, please do not forget to let us know! We collect color palettes from other institutions to make them available in future versions of unicol (with credits to your contributions, of course).

To enable us to verify and provide appropriate credit to your contributions, please provide us with the following information:

• your code (e.g., the newpal() command creating your color palette),
• your color information source (e.g., some URL with color definitions),
• your name and some contact information (e.g., an Email address).

We're looking forward to your contributions!

[Neves-P]

Hi @hneth ,

I discovered this R package by chance, what a cool idea!

I'd like to contribute a couple of palettes from two universities. One of them is just plain black and white, so maybe it doesn't merit a inclusion palette, but here it goes any way and I leave it up to you
.
I've pasted the code below as per the instructions on the issue, but I'm also happy to open up a PR if you'd prefer. My email is p.m.santos.neves@rug.nl

## University of Groningen (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) primary palette 
### Colours source: https://www.rug.nl/about-ug/practical-matters/huisstijl/huisstijl-basiselementen/kleuren#kleur
rug_red <- grDevices::rgb(220, 0,  45, maxColorValue = 255)
rug_white <- grDevices::rgb(255, 255,  255, maxColorValue = 255)
rug_black <- grDevices::rgb(0, 0, 0, maxColorValue = 255)

uni_groningen_1 <- unikn::newpal(
  col = c(rug_red, rug_white, rug_black),
  names = c("RUG red", "RUG white", "RUG black")
)

## University of Groningen (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) secondary palette 
rug_cyan <- grDevices::rgb(0, 156, 239, maxColorValue = 255)
rug_purple <- grDevices::rgb(119, 45, 107, maxColorValue = 255)
rug_green <- grDevices::rgb(96, 182, 105, maxColorValue = 255)
rug_pink <- grDevices::rgb(236, 101, 129, maxColorValue = 255)
rug_aqua <- grDevices::rgb(53, 182, 180, maxColorValue = 255)
rug_yellow <- grDevices::rgb(255, 220, 100, maxColorValue = 255)

uni_groningen_2 <-  unikn::newpal(
  col = c(rug_cyan, rug_purple, rug_green, rug_pink, rug_aqua, rug_yellow),
  names = c("RUG cyan", "RUG purple", "RUG green", "RUG pink", "RUG aqua", "RUG yellow")
)

## University of Lisbon (Universidade de Lisboa) palette
### Colours source: https://www.ulisboa.pt/sites/ulisboa.pt/files/basicpage/docs/ulisboa_manual_normas_graficas_versao1.pdf
uni_lisbon_white <- grDevices::rgb(255, 255,  255, maxColorValue = 255)
uni_lisbon_black <- grDevices::rgb(0, 0, 0, maxColorValue = 255)

uni_lisbon <- unikn::newpal(
  col = c(uni_lisbon_white, uni_lisbon_black),
  names = c("ULisboa white", "ULisboa black")
)

[hneth]

Dear @Neves-P,

thanks a lot for your kind message and for your quick contributions!

We are happy to include additional palettes, of course. And as we're initially very thin on many countries and regions (including the Netherlands and Portugal), we're especially grateful for inputs on those realms.

We'll first include suggested palettes in the development version of unicol and then get in touch with their authors to verify them prior to their release. So please expect to get notified soon.

Allow me a question on the University of Lisbon colors: While a monochromatic palette seems a cool idea, the PDF link you included (thanks!) also mentions additional "cromaticos" in "Compartamento sobre fundos". Would it be a good idea to include those colors as well?

Best,
Hans

[hneth]

Dear @Neves-P,

the new file https://github.com/hneth/unicol/blob/main/R/Groningen.R (in the GitHub development version 0.1.0.9002 of unicol) uses your code to define 2 new color palettes (groningen_1 and groningen_2).

Perhaps you could check them out and test them on your side? (Please especially make sure that your authorship is credited appropriately in the documentation.)

And if this works out for you, perhaps you could create an analog file for the University of Lisbon? (You could either post the new R file here or provide a pull request on https://github.com/hneth/unicol/).

Best,
Hans

[endahargaden]

Hi @hneth

I now work for University College Dublin. The official brand guidelines are password protected but an old version can be found on p.9 of https://silo.tips/download/brand-identity-guidelines and I attach the relevant page from the new version.

The conversion from CYMK to HEX I did using GIMP, i.e. I just used the color picker. I wasn't happy with the conversions done by online calculators.

## University College Dublin (UCD) primary palette
## EPH September 2023

library(unicol)
library(unikn)

UCDBlue <- "#00a5e2"
UCDNavy <- "#004277"
UCDGold <- "#ffd136"
UCDBrightGreen <- "#6dc248"
UCDRichGreen <- "#009c48"

ucd_1 <- newpal(col=c(UCDNavy, UCDBlue, UCDGold, UCDBrightGreen, UCDRichGreen),
		names=c("UCDNavy", "UCDBlue", "UCDGold", "UCDBrightGreen", "UCDRichGreen"),as_df=FALSE)

seecol(ucd_1, main="University College Dublin Colour Palette")

All the best,
Enda Hargaden
firstname.lastname1@ucd.ie (note the 1)

UCD_Colours.pdf

[hneth]

Hi Enda / @endahargaden,

thanks a lot for your message and code! We'd be delighted to include the colours of UCD, of course. And it's exactly contributions like yours that motivated the creation of unicol in the first place.

I've pasted your code into our standard R script to create a new file UCDublin.R and define a new colour palette UCD (in the development version of unicol).

Incidentally, when using an RGB colour picker I came up with slightly different RGB values (see the R file), but then thought that your HEX values are just as plausible (and look nice). But could you double check whether you're happy with the current palette and their documentation?

Best wishes,
Hans

[endahargaden]

Hi Hans,

Thanks for such a prompt response. Greatly appreciate your contribution of the package too; a great idea, thanks!

In terms of colours, I have found an official source that can be directly transcribed into R: the UCD Library has a design page and the very last line of the CSS file (https://www.ucd.ie/websmart/designlibrary-guide/t4media/main.min-1.css?v=0.0.1) defines the colours into hex. These colours are:

UCD Blue: #007db8;
UCD Navy: #004377;
UCD Navy (Dark): #002542;
UCD Gold: #fad239;
UCD Gold (Light): #ffdd54;
UCD Rich Green: #3884a;
UCD Bright Green: #6bbe51;

I agree with you that the differences are very minor and nobody will notice. I am happy to defer to your expertise on which is best.

One quibble with your code is Line 13, # country: Ireland, UK, which accidentally hits a geopolitical nerve. Dublin has not been in the UK for over a hundred years :-)

Other than that, everything looks great, and thanks for the very quick turnaround on this.

Kind regards,
Enda

[hneth]

Hi Enda,

thanks for your quick response and for checking the drafted UCD palette. Digging out the CSS specs is a really good idea. As a web design team is usually a technically savvy and authoritative source for screen colours, I'd think we should just adopt their HEX values. And adding the darker navy and lighter gold tints adds further variety to the palette.

Thanks a lot for pointing out the difference between IE and UK. I corrected this and checked that the other Irish palettes are not making this mistake as well. Even beyond spelling, it turns out that issues of colour can get quite political...

Let me know if you're (un-)happy with the corrected version — and also if you'd prefer to be acknowledged more explicitly as the author of the palette.

Best,
Hans

[endahargaden]

Hi Hans,

Looks all good to me, thanks. Yes, please attribute it to Enda Patrick Hargaden rather than EPH. Thanks a lot.

Keep up the good work!
Enda

[hneth]

Hi Enda,

great & thanks. I now have adjusted your contribution details accordingly and hope to publish version 0.2.0 of unicol on CRAN soon (ideally this week).

Thanks again & best wishes,
Hans