An Analyst’s Guide to Choosing the Perfect Colors in Seaborn

A Guide to Why Color Matters, Seaborn Color Options, and Using Palettes

Annette Dolph
Learning Data
Published in
10 min readNov 7, 2023

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a rainbow of colors forming the shape of a doorway or pathway
Photo by Robert Katzki on Unsplash

When you’re first getting started in Seaborn, you might not give much attention to color selection. However, once you have a solid grasp on the Seaborn basics, you can begin to level up your visualizations by putting some attention and care into the colors you choose.

Seaborn offers a wide range of color options to help you make your plots not only informative but aesthetically pleasing and clear.

In this article, we’ll explore the color choices available in Seaborn, ranging from simple color selection to more complex color palettes.

Part I: Why Color Selection Matters

Before we get into the “how,” it’s worth discussing why getting a good grasp on your color options in Seaborn is worth your time and effort as a data analyst.

Strong data visualizations convey information very quickly, and color is one way you can enhance efficient understanding. Here are just a few reasons why it’s worth your time to select colors thoughtfully.

Improve Clarity and Readability

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Annette Dolph
Learning Data

Data enthusiast & analytics team lead sharing content for aspiring analysts, leaders, and those who want to build data literacy.