How to Create Custom Color Palettes in Tableau

Tableau offers several ways to create custom color palettes, making it a powerful tool for data visualization. This guide will walk you through the process of creating custom color palettes, including categorical, sequential, and diverging palettes. By the end, you will be able to enhance your visualizations with personalized color schemes.

Introduction to Custom Color Palettes in Tableau

Tableau provides a wide variety of pre-built color palettes, but sometimes, you may need to create custom palettes that better suit your specific data and visualization needs. This article will explain how to do it step-by-step, ensuring your custom palettes are seamlessly integrated into Tableau.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Custom Color Palettes

Step 1: Locate the Preferences File

The first step in creating custom color palettes is to locate the preferences file in your My Tableau Repository folder. On Windows and Mac machines, this folder is typically found within the Documents folder.

Step 2: Open the Preferences File

Once you have located the file, open it in a text editor like Notepad. The file is named .tps.

Key Steps:

Open the .tps file in Notepad. Between the workbook tags, add preference tags to define your custom colors.

Step 3: Define Your Custom Color Palettes

There are three main types of palettes to create: categorical, sequential, and diverging.

Categorical Palette

A categorical palette is used when you have distinct categories. The structure of the palette is as follows:

preference key"regular" type"array" xsi:type"array" xmlns:xsi"">...

For example, you might define a categorical palette with:

preference key"regular" type"array" xsi:type"array">1 #ffffff, 2 #0000FF, 3 #FF0000, etc.

Sequential Palette

A sequential palette is used for ordered data, where you want shades of a single color. The structure is similar:

preference key"ordered-sequential" type"array" xsi:type"array">...

For instance, a sequential palette might look like:

preference key"ordered-sequential" type"array" xsi:type"array">1 #00FF00, 2 #00CC00, 3 #009900, etc.

Diverging Palette

A diverging palette is used when you have data that needs to be shown as both positive and negative, such as temperature ranges. Only two colors are needed, and Tableau will handle the gradient.

preference key"ordered-diverging" type"array" xsi:type"array">1 #FFFF00, 2 #FF0000, etc.

Step 4: Save and Restart Tableau

After defining your custom palettes, save the .tps file with the same name and restart Tableau.

Step 5: Apply Custom Palettes in Tableau

Once Tableau is restarted, you can apply your custom palettes to your visualizations.

Using Custom Palettes in Tableau

To use your custom palettes:

Make your visualization in Tableau. Click on the Edit Colors option. Select the palette you created.

Additional Tips and Tricks

Tableau occasionally discontinues certain palettes. However, you can restore these by redownloading the Tableau software or accessing the discontinued palette files.

Conclusion

Customizing your color palettes in Tableau allows you to create data visualizations that are more meaningful and engaging. By following the steps outlined above, you can create custom palettes tailored to your specific needs.