Impending Conflict in Color Guidelines for Maps of Statistical Surfaces

Whereas psychological literature provides only indirect and sometimes contradictory guidelines for colors on quantitative maps, limited map testing t o date indicates that nonhypsometric quantitative maps should be regarded as a family with the guideline of darker and more saturated colors on areas of greater amounts. Because of the tendency of lighter colors to advance toward the viewer, it is probable that three-dimensional surfaces, such as topographic surfaces, are best portrayed by maps with lighter colors on the higher areas. The inconsistency of these two guidelines is tolerable because the two map families are distinct; however, it will not be tolerable if all quantitative maps are regarded as representing three-dimensional statistical surfaces

Cartography · Geography · Statistical analysis · Statistics · Color perception and design · Computer Science · Mathematics · Visual perception and processing mechanisms