Curve Colors

[rborn]

Let me say that I was trying to make some graphs fast, downloaded the program, and with a few posts here was able to do what I needed without reading any of the directions. This says a lot about how easy the program is to use.

I would suggest though that the default colors for the curves be organized so that each succesive color is different, not just a different shade or hue. For example, the default, on mine is for curve 1 to be dark red and curve 2 is a lighter red and curve 3 is magenta or pink. The first XY plot I made you could hardly tell the difference between the two curves I was using.

My suggestion is to make them something like:
1 - Red
2 - Blue
3 - Green
4 - Yellow (although you can't see this very well on a white background)
5- Light Red
6 - Light Blue
7 - Light Green
etc.

It may be best to stick with shades of red, blue, and green since you can see these in almost any shade. It may also help to go Dark, Lightest, Lighter than dark, Darker than lightest, etc. This would ensure that the less colors you use, the more they stand apart, the more colors you have, the better the chance, regardless of how you pick the colors, that they can't be picked apart from each other.

Of course the first 3-4 colors would seem most important for simple graphs and someone looking to get some output with minimal alterations. I'm only speaking from my point of view and simple XY graphs, I'm sure there is a lot more the program can do and this may not work for everyone.

With all that said, it's certainly not hard to change the colors to what you want.

[DPlotAdmin]

Russell,
I don't disagree, but... years ago I jumped through a lot of hoops fiddling with default colors, and no matter what I did several users would have very strong, not necessarily pleasant , reactions to the changes. So w/o a really good reason to change, these will likely stay as they are.

With all that said, it's certainly not hard to change the colors to what you want.

Right, but in case you missed it, check the "Make defaults" box next time you edit colors. Those 16 colors will now be the defaults for new plots.

[rborn]

Agreed, I do not have strong feelings on it so I would leave them alone

I missed a lot of stuff. As I said, I only installed the program, ran it, and made some graphs. Luckily I stumbled on the XYYY and XYXY macros in Excel, good thing you made note of them when it installs I can't wait for some free time to read the manual and figure out what else the program can do.