Install package

Install the package using the following commands

# for now, you can install the developmental version of ltc
# first you need to install the devtools package 
# in case you have not already installed
install.packages("devtools") 
# and load it
library(devtools)

# Then you can install the dev version of the ltc
install_github("loukesio/ltc-color-palettes")
# and load it
library(ltc)

How can I use the ltc package?

Show all palettes

library(ltc)
names(palettes)
#>  [1] "paloma"     "maya"       "dora"       "ploen"      "olga"      
#>  [6] "mterese"    "gaby"       "franscoise" "fernande"   "sylvie"    
#> [11] "expevo"     "minou"      "kiss"       "hat"        "reading"   
#> [16] "ten_colors" "alger"      "trio1"      "trio2"      "trio3"     
#> [21] "trio4"      "heatmap"    "pantone23"  "remains"    "midnight"  
#> [26] "lincoln"    "luminaries" "seafarer"   "shuggie"    "heatmap1"  
#> [31] "heatmap2"   "heatmap3"

^{Created on 2026-01-11 with reprex v2.1.1}

Choose the palette you like and print it

• choose it using the ltc command.

alger <- ltc("alger") #in this case you select alger

• after choosing the palette print it using the pltc command!

plot(alger)

• you can also print the palette you have chosen in a bird-shape, in here we are using dora

library(ltc)
pantone23 <- ltc("pantone23")
bird(pantone23)

^{Created on 2023-09-03 with reprex v2.0.2}

Test how the palette looks like in plots...

• Example 1 - Hexagon diagram

library(ggplot2)
library(ltc)
pal=ltc("heatmap0",10,"continuous")

ggplot(data.frame(x = rnorm(1e4), y = rnorm(1e4)), aes(x = x, y = y)) +
  geom_hex() +
  coord_fixed() +
  scale_fill_gradientn(colours = pal) +
  theme_void()

^{Created on 2023-09-03 with reprex v2.0.2}

• Example 2 - Histogram

library(ltc)
library(ggplot2)
pal=ltc("alger",5,"continuous")

ggplot(diamonds, aes(price, fill = cut)) +
  geom_histogram(binwidth = 500, position = "fill") +
  scale_fill_manual(values = pal) +
  theme_bw() +
  theme(panel.grid.major = element_blank(), panel.grid.minor = element_blank())

^{Created on 2023-09-03 with reprex v2.0.2}

Contributions

Loukas Theodosiou (theoodosiou@evolbio.mpg.de) and Kristian Ullrich (ullrich@evolbio.mpg.de) have contributed to the development of this package. Kristian Ullirch has developed the plts function that creates different levels of transparency for a palette. These functions remain to the developmental version of the package and have not been submitted in CRAN. For the palettes I did draw inspiration from the drawings and life of Pablo Picasso as well as from the following books