[thelist] How to Make a Set of Different Random Colors

[Fred Jones]

> I see two approaches.  Let's start with the 'easy' one.  Let's say you need to chart a maximum of 15 different pie slices. (I'm pretty sure Tufte would say that's too many - but eh, whatcha gonna do?)  Go into your favorite color picking application and select your favorite 40-ish eyebleeding shades and load those into a small table indexed on some numeric id field.  Now mod your app to randomly select numbers from 1 to 40 and pull the color values out of this small table.  You will always get colors you like (or colors you evilly pre-selected specifically to give your CEO a migraine) and they will appear 'random' enough to keep your audience smiling.  Done.

Ah, low-tech solution. But it's perfect! I will do this.

Thanks