# Selecting Semantically-Resonant Colors for Data Visualization

Canonical URL: https://colorcurio.us/library/semantically-resonant-colors
Source type: Library entry
Resource URL: http://vis.stanford.edu/papers/semantically-resonant-colors
Added: 2026-09-27

## Summary

Colors that match what a category means — blue for water, yellow for banana — make charts faster to read.

- Resource: [Selecting Semantically-Resonant Colors for Data Visualization](http://vis.stanford.edu/papers/semantically-resonant-colors)
- By: Sharon Lin, Julie Fortuna, Chinmay Kulkarni, Maureen Stone & Jeffrey Heer
- Published: 2013
- Kind: writing (article)
- Level: advanced
- Tags: perception, color-scales, data-viz, designer, scientist, research

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