# Somewhere Over the Rainbow: An Empirical Assessment of Quantitative Colormaps

Canonical URL: https://colorcurio.us/library/somewhere-over-the-rainbow
Source type: Library entry
Resource URL: https://idl.uw.edu/papers/quantitative-color
Added: 2026-09-27

## Summary

Nine colormaps tested on distance judgments: viridis holds up at every span; single-hue blues blur small gaps.

Diverging maps also stumbled when a comparison crossed the midpoint.

- Resource: [Somewhere Over the Rainbow: An Empirical Assessment of Quantitative Colormaps](https://idl.uw.edu/papers/quantitative-color)
- By: Yang Liu & Jeffrey Heer
- Published: 2018
- Kind: writing (article)
- Level: advanced
- Tags: color-scales, perception, data-viz, scientist, research

## In collections

- [Foundational Reading](https://colorcurio.us/library/collections/foundational-reading)
- [Perceptual Colormaps](https://colorcurio.us/library/collections/perceptual-colormaps)

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