| Re: Constructing Color Tables in IDL [message #8218 is a reply to message #8215] |
Tue, 18 February 1997 00:00   |
davidf
Messages: 2866
Registered: September 1996
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Senior Member |
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Jack Saba writes:
> Thanks for the review. However, those of us who are not used to building
> color tables should know that generating one that gives the best
> representation of the data for a particular purpose is trickier than
> might be expected. See, for example,
>
> Rogowitz, Bernice E., and Lloyd A. Treinish
> "How Not to Lie with Visualization",
> Computers In Physics 10(3):268, 1996
Jack is absolutely right. People often talk about "seeing their data"
when they look at an image. I have been making a bigger and bigger
point in the IDL classes that I teach that you are seldom, if ever,
really "seeing" your data. You are seeing an *abstraction* of your
data, forced--for the most part--into viewing it with something
less than 256 colors or shades of gray. And, of course, the
colors you select effects what you "see".
I would recommend two additional books by Edward Tufte if
people are interested in this topic: _The Visual Display of
Quantitative Information_ and _Envisoning Information_.
These books have really changed the way I write IDL programs.
Cheers,
David
-----------------------------------------------------------
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
2642 Bradbury Court, Fort Collins, CO 80521
Phone: 970-221-0438 Fax: 970-221-4762
E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
Coyote's Guide to IDL Programming: http://www.dfanning.com
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