ABSTRACT
In 2003, Mark Harrower and Cindy Brewer contributed what has now become the de facto colour scheme selection tool for contemporary cartographers and information designers of all sorts. The initial motivation behind the development of ColorBrewer was that federal thematic mapping in the United States of America (USA) was generally conducted by Geographical Information Systems (GIS) analysts who not only do not have formal training in colour design for map-making, but are also using digital mapping tools that rarely have useful built-in colour schemes. Therefore, ColorBrewer filled a gap where advice for choosing thematic map colours was needed. Harrower and Brewer designed colour schemes for use in ColorBrewer by hand-selecting and evaluating colour variations across value and saturation for a given hue for sequential and diverging schemes, and by differences in hue and value for qualitative schemes. Their work was substantially influenced by the Munsell colour system which they referenced while creating each colour scheme.
