# Anatomy of a colormap

Canonical URL: https://colorcurio.us/notes/anatomy-of-a-colormap
Source type: Note
Publisher: colorcurio.us
Published: 2026-05-30
Language: en

## Summary

A scroll-driven teardown of every component that makes a colormap useful — anchor stops, oklch interpolation, the load-bearing lightness axis, diverging midpoints, and the grayscale test.

A colormap is the small, opinionated function that turns a number into a color. Get it right and the data *speaks*; get it wrong and the picture lies. What follows pulls every component apart and puts it back together — for both sequential and diverging maps. Scroll the disassembly, then keep the two labeled plates at the end as a checklist next time you reach for a default.

## Related resources

- [OKLCH in CSS: Why We Moved from RGB and HSL](https://evilmartians.com/chronicles/oklch-in-css-why-quit-rgb-hsl) — https://colorcurio.us/library/oklch-in-css
- [/tools/gradient](https://colorcurio.us/tools/gradient)
- [/tools/picker](https://colorcurio.us/tools/picker)

## Citation

colorcurio.us. “Anatomy of a colormap.” Published 2026-05-30. https://colorcurio.us/notes/anatomy-of-a-colormap