Lee wrote:
In most cases, a bar chart should not need more than three colours, in which
case, you can use white, gray, and black as your "colours". If you are
showing more than three variables over multiple categories of another
stratifying variable, then the presentation becomes hard to follow and you
probably want to use a different type of graph.
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This is exactly what I am doing. What type of graph would you suggest? I
have been using Nick's -catplot- to render graphs similar to:
http://staff.washington.edu/sabathd/stata/bargraph.png
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However, if you do find yourself in need of more than the three bar colours,
you may have categories that can be rationally ordered, in which case you
may find that using a gradient of a single colour from light to dark is
helpful. That way, the reader can more easily derive information from the
order of the bars, and a precise colour or tonal match becomes less
critical.
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Yes. This works when there is data in all of the categories. When one or
more category drops out, it becomes confusing.
Thanks again,
Dan
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