I wrote the two methods below to automatically select N distinct colors. It works by defining a piecewise linear function on the RGB cube. The benefit of this is you can also get a progressive scale if that's what you want, but when N gets large the colors can start to look similar. I can also imagine evenly subdividing the RGB cube into a lattice and then drawing points. Does anyone know any other methods? I'm ruling out defining a list and then just cycling through it. I should also say I don't generally care if they clash or don't look nice, they just have to be visually distinct.

public static List<Color> pick(int num) {
    List<Color> colors = new ArrayList<Color>();
    if (num < 2)
        return colors;
    float dx = 1.0f / (float) (num - 1);
    for (int i = 0; i < num; i++) {
        colors.add(get(i * dx));
    }
    return colors;
}

public static Color get(float x) {
    float r = 0.0f;
    float g = 0.0f;
    float b = 1.0f;
    if (x >= 0.0f && x < 0.2f) {
        x = x / 0.2f;
        r = 0.0f;
        g = x;
        b = 1.0f;
    } else if (x >= 0.2f && x < 0.4f) {
        x = (x - 0.2f) / 0.2f;
        r = 0.0f;
        g = 1.0f;
        b = 1.0f - x;
    } else if (x >= 0.4f && x < 0.6f) {
        x = (x - 0.4f) / 0.2f;
        r = x;
        g = 1.0f;
        b = 0.0f;
    } else if (x >= 0.6f && x < 0.8f) {
        x = (x - 0.6f) / 0.2f;
        r = 1.0f;
        g = 1.0f - x;
        b = 0.0f;
    } else if (x >= 0.8f && x <= 1.0f) {
        x = (x - 0.8f) / 0.2f;
        r = 1.0f;
        g = 0.0f;
        b = x;
    }
    return new Color(r, g, b);
}

当前回答

如果N足够大,你会得到一些相似的颜色。世界上只有这么多。

为什么不把它们均匀地分布在光谱中,像这样:

IEnumerable<Color> CreateUniqueColors(int nColors)
{
    int subdivision = (int)Math.Floor(Math.Pow(nColors, 1/3d));
    for(int r = 0; r < 255; r += subdivision)
        for(int g = 0; g < 255; g += subdivision)
            for(int b = 0; b < 255; b += subdivision)
                yield return Color.FromArgb(r, g, b);
}

如果您想混合序列,以便相似的颜色不在彼此旁边,您可能会打乱结果列表。

是我想得不够周全吗?

其他回答

如果N足够大,你会得到一些相似的颜色。世界上只有这么多。

为什么不把它们均匀地分布在光谱中,像这样:

IEnumerable<Color> CreateUniqueColors(int nColors)
{
    int subdivision = (int)Math.Floor(Math.Pow(nColors, 1/3d));
    for(int r = 0; r < 255; r += subdivision)
        for(int g = 0; g < 255; g += subdivision)
            for(int b = 0; b < 255; b += subdivision)
                yield return Color.FromArgb(r, g, b);
}

如果您想混合序列,以便相似的颜色不在彼此旁边,您可能会打乱结果列表。

是我想得不够周全吗?

您可以使用HSL颜色模型来创建颜色。

如果你想要的只是不同的色调(可能),以及亮度或饱和度的轻微变化,你可以像这样分配色调:

// assumes hue [0, 360), saturation [0, 100), lightness [0, 100)

for(i = 0; i < 360; i += 360 / num_colors) {
    HSLColor c;
    c.hue = i;
    c.saturation = 90 + randf() * 10;
    c.lightness = 50 + randf() * 10;

    addColor(c);
}

我有个主意。想象一个HSV气缸

定义亮度和饱和度的上限和下限。这在空间内定义了一个正方形的横截面环。

现在,在这个空间中随机散布N个点。

然后对它们应用迭代排斥算法,要么迭代次数固定,要么直到这些点稳定下来。

现在你应该有N个点,代表N种颜色,它们在你感兴趣的颜色空间中尽可能不同。

Hugo

这在MATLAB中是微不足道的(有一个hsv命令):

cmap = hsv(number_of_colors)

我为R写了一个名为qualpalr的包,它是专门为此目的设计的。我建议你看看小插图,看看它是如何工作的,但我会尽量总结要点。

qualpalr在HSL颜色空间(前面在这个线程中描述过)中获取一个颜色规范,将其投射到DIN99d颜色空间(感知上是均匀的),并找到使它们之间的最小距离最大化的n。

# Create a palette of 4 colors of hues from 0 to 360, saturations between
# 0.1 and 0.5, and lightness from 0.6 to 0.85
pal <- qualpal(n = 4, list(h = c(0, 360), s = c(0.1, 0.5), l = c(0.6, 0.85)))

# Look at the colors in hex format
pal$hex
#> [1] "#6F75CE" "#CC6B76" "#CAC16A" "#76D0D0"

# Create a palette using one of the predefined color subspaces
pal2 <- qualpal(n = 4, colorspace = "pretty")

# Distance matrix of the DIN99d color differences
pal2$de_DIN99d
#>        #69A3CC #6ECC6E #CA6BC4
#> 6ECC6E      22                
#> CA6BC4      21      30        
#> CD976B      24      21      21

plot(pal2)