User:John Kent/sandbox

The differences between the "presidential" and "downballot" color schemes have been frequently remarked upon. What should a new standard look like? Proposed solutions usually begin with some simple mathematics in HSV space. This makes sense, because an effective color ramp needs to have a smooth and linear change in lightness. However, simple approximations in HSV space often yield strange results, with saturation peaking in the rarely-used 0-20% or 80%-100% portions of the ramp. This does not facilitate human readability.

The following color ramps have been transformed into CIELAB color space, giving them a consistent and mathematically ideal lightness. However, they maintain a "conventional" saturation and value - i.e. they don't look too far off from traditional election color schemes used around the internet. In particular, their saturation peaks in the 50%-70% range, where a strong colour contrast is most needed on typical election maps.