Resources

“The basic economic resource - the means of production -is no longer capital, nor natural resources, nor labor. It is and will be knowledge.”
— Peter Drucker

The data visualization community runs on shared knowledge — and this page is my contribution to that. Here you'll find the color tools, free datasets, R and Python references, Tableau resources, and community challenges I return to again and again. It's built for anyone working at the intersection of data and design: whether you're building dashboards, exploring public health data, or just trying to find the right font for your next viz. Curated by Yvonne, and suggestions are always welcome.

Expand your knowledge in various areas of coding, data design, and visualization by clicking on a topic below. Contact me if you like to share a link or suggest a topic.

TOPICS
Color Blindness Testing Color Palette Community Challenges
Data Sets Fonts Galleries
Icons Public Health & Policy Python
R Science & Health Software - Data Visualization
Statistics Stock Photos Sustainability
Tableau Volunteering
 
Color Blindness Testing Tools | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Color Blindness Testing Tools

Color Blindness or color deficiency impacts 1/12 men and 1/200 woman.  Red-Green blindness is the most common variant but other types exist.  When design data visualizations, websites, and presentations it is useful to test how the selected color combinations will look to others.  How do I test if my data visualization is accessible to colorblind users? The tools below are useful for this testing.

  • Coblis — Color Blindness Simulator

    • Upload any image to preview how it appears across 8 types of color vision deficiency.

    • Very useful to test your data visualizations, presentations, and infographics.

  • Color Oracle

    • Free desktop app that simulates color blindness on your entire screen in real time.

  • Colorgorical

    • Generates perceptually distinct color palettes with controls for aesthetic preference and discriminability.

  • Flatui Color Picker

    • Browsable collection of flat design colors with hex codes ready to copy.

  • Tips for Designing for Colorblind Users

    • Tips for Designing for Colorblind Users — Practical design guidelines from Datawrapper for making charts accessible to colorblind readers.

Color Palette Selection Tools Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Color Palette Selection Tools

Graphics, Graphs, and Text all work to convey a message.  The selected color palette enhances that message.  How do I choose a color palette for data visualization? These tools work with color theory and other concepts to help you select the best color palette for your message.

  • Chroma.js Color Palette Helper

    • Builds perceptually uniform multi-hue scales ideal for choropleth maps and sequential data.

  • Color Brewer 2

    • The tool for cartography-safe sequential, diverging, and qualitative palettes.

    • Useful to see how a palette looks in various data display types.

  • Color Drop Io

    • Browsable library of curated four-color palettes with hex codes.

  • Color Hunt

    • Community-submitted color palettes updated daily, filterable by mood and style.

  • Color in Motion

    • Explores the meaning and symbolism of color through animated visual stories.

  • Color Palette Generator

    • Extracts a dominant color palette from any image you upload.

  • ColorZilla

    • A browser extension for picking colors directly from any webpage.

  • Color Picker with Data

    • Builds palettes in HCL color space, which maps more closely to human perception.

  • Coolors Co

    • Fast palette generator with lock, adjust, and export features for any format.

    • This is the one I go to first and used to make my palette images.

  • Comic Book Color Swatches for Photoshop

    • Photoshop swatches based on classic comic book printing colors.

  • Datafam Colors

    • Community-sourced Tableau color palette built by and for the data visualization community.

    • All DataFam resources are great, especially this one.

  • Design Inspiration

    • Visual design gallery useful for spotting real-world color combinations in use.

  • Dribble

    • Designer portfolio platform; filterable by color to find palettes used in professional work.

  • Google Arts and Culture

    • Extracts color palettes from famous artworks in museum collections worldwide.

    • When looking for color design inspiration, this is a place to start.

  • Grab Website Colors – Color Scheme Extraction Tool

    • Pulls the full color scheme from any URL you enter.

  • LOL Colors

    • Curated two-color duotone palettes with one-click copy.

  • Movies in Color

    • Color palettes extracted from film stills, searchable by movie title.

  • My Color Space

    • Generates harmonious palettes from a single seed color using color theory rules.

  • Name That Color

    • Identifies the closest named color for any hex value you enter. Useful and fun.

  • Paletton The Color Scheme

    • Interactive color wheel tool for building complementary, triadic, and analogous schemes.

  • Pantone Color Trends

  • R ColorBrewer Cheatsheet

    • Quick-reference PDF of all ColorBrewer palettes with R code for immediate use.

  • Tools for Picking Color

    • Google's color system tool for building accessible UI palettes with contrast checking.

  • Viz Palette

    • Tests how a set of colors performs for colorblind users and in print.

  • Wes Anderson Palettes

    • Tumblr cataloging color palettes pulled from Wes Anderson film frames.

See also — Custom palettes by me:

Community Challenges Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Community Challenges

Where can I find data visualization challenges to practice my skills? Community Viz Challenges gives you a chance to practice and try new viz approaches. Also, review "Tips to Prevent Holes During Self-Study" for advice on how to actually learn from these dataset challenges effectively.

See my submissions for Makeover Monday, ProjectHealthViz, and others.

Weekly

  • Makeover Monday

    • Weekly challenge to redesign a published chart using a provided dataset.

    • If you are starting out with Tableau, this is the place to start.

  • Sports Viz Sunday

    • Weekly challenge using sports data, open to any tool or software.

  • Tidy Tuesday

    • Weekly R-focused data project sharing a new dataset every Tuesday for community analysis.

    • Great place for those working with R to enhance their skills.

  • Work Out Wednesday

    • Weekly Tableau challenge focused on replicating specific chart techniques and interactions.

Monthly

Annually / Semi-Annually / Bimonthly

  • Build a Better World Data Science Competitions

    • Data science competitions with real-world, nonprofit, and social-good challenges.

  • Iron Quest

    • Monthly personal challenge encouraging self-directed visualization exploration without a fixed brief.

  • Iron Viz

    • Tableau's annual flagship visualization competition is open to Tableau Public users worldwide.

    • You would be surprised how quickly this will improve your skills.

  • Viz Risk

    • The competition focused on visualizing risk, uncertainty, and complex systems data.

 

Data Sets Resource | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Data Sets

Where can I find free datasets for data analysis and visualization projects? A small listing of open-source data sets to use. Also, review "Tips to Prevent Holes During Self-Study" for advice on how to actually learn from these datasets effectively.

 

Fonts Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Fonts

What fonts work best for data visualization and dashboard design? Customize the look and create a specific vibe with font selection

  • Awesome Font GibHub 

    • Curated list of icon font libraries and free icon resources on GitHub.

  • DaFont

    • Large free font library organized by style, from handwritten to pixel to serif. The fonts presented on this website are their authors' property, and are either freeware, shareware, demo versions or public domain.

  • Font Awesome

    • Icon font and SVG library with thousands of scalable icons for web and print.

  • Font Joy (Font Pair Tool)

    • Suggests aesthetically compatible font pairings using a neural network.

  • Font Squirrel

    • Curated collection of free, commercially licensed fonts with webfont generation tools.

  • Google Font

    • Free, open-source web fonts that load fast and integrate easily into any project.

    • I will start here if the item is going to be a webpage, since most browers will have access.

  • What The Font (Identify Fonts)

    • Identifies fonts from an uploaded image using visual recognition.

 
Galleries Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Galleries

Looking for inspiration?  How do I choose the right chart type for my data? Galleries listed below can help.

Chart Selection, Dashboards, Graph Tools

Health

KPI


Icons Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Icons

Enhance your designs and visual touches. Where can I find free icons for data visualization and dashboard design?

  • 35 Beautiful Free Flat Icons Sets that You can Use

    • Roundup of high-quality flat-style icon packs available for free download.

  • Don’t Forget Wingdings

  • Flaticon

    • Large searchable library of free and premium icons in SVG, PNG, and webfont formats.

  • Icojam

    • Free icon sets in multiple styles and formats for personal and commercial use.

  • Ikonate (Free)

    • Fully customizable open-source icon set, adjustable by weight, size, and color.

  • Noun Project

    • Searchable library of icons and stock photos created by a global designer community.

  • Nucleo

    • Organized icon library with a desktop app for managing and exporting icon sets.

  • Website Icons Creative Commons

    • Icons released under Creative Commons licenses are safe for reuse with proper attribution.

Public Policy and Public Health Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Public Health & Policy

This section collects resources for anyone working at the intersection of public health, social impact, and data: from government open data portals and health indicators to gender equity indexes and sustainability frameworks. Where can I find public health data and policy resources for research?

Awesome Lists

  • Awesome List of Healthcare

    • Curated list of awesome open source healthcare software, libraries, tools, and resources

  • Awesome Healthcare Datasets

    • A curated list of awesome healthcare datasets for machine learning, research, and exploration.

  • Awesome List of Mental Health

    • A curated list of anything remotely related to mental health, sorted by alphabetical order.

  • Awesome List of Public Policy

    • A curated list of institutions, datasets, tools, frameworks, and learning resources for public policy, covering policy design, analysis, implementation, evaluation, and governance across local, national, and global contexts

  • Awesome Parasite

    • A curated list of amazingly awesome information and open-access databases related to parasites and host-pathogen interactions.

  • API Public Link Collection

    • Listing of Public API covering many topics

Data & Indicators

  • WHO Global Health Observatory

    • Global health statistics and indicators from the World Health Organization are updated regularly.

  • CDC Data & Statistics

    • U.S. public health data across diseases, demographics, and health behaviors from the Centers for Disease Control.

  • UNICEF Data

    • Child health, education, and welfare indicators from UNICEF covering countries worldwide.

  • World Bank Open Data

    • Development indicators covering health, economy, gender, and environment for every country.

  • Kaiser Family Foundation

    • U.S. health policy data and state-level comparisons on insurance, Medicaid, and public health spending.

  • County Health Rankings

    • Ranks the health of nearly every county in the U.S. using dozens of social and clinical factors.

Gender & Equity

Policy & Sustainability

  • UN Sustainable Development Goals

    • The 17 global goals framework with data tracking progress toward 2030 targets.

  • SDG Tracker

    • Our World in Data's open tool for tracking global progress on every SDG indicator.

  • OECD Data

    • Economic and social policy data from 38 member countries covering health, education, and inequality.

  • PolicyMap

    • U.S. mapping tool for neighborhood-level data on health, housing, education, and demographics.

Frameworks & Guides

Python Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Python

.What are the best Python resources for data visualization and analysis?

Science

  • Biopython

    • Python toolkit for biological computation, including sequence analysis and structural bioinformatics.

  • Python For Science

    • GitHub collection of Python resources and tutorials aimed at researchers and scientists.

Style Guide

Tools

R Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

R

What are the best resources for learning R for data science?

Cheatsheets

Science

  • rOpenScience

    • Updates and tutorials from the rOpenSci project on reproducible research tools in R.

Style Guides

  • Advanced R

    • Hadley Wickham's style guide for writing clean, consistent R code.

  • Google’s R Style Guide

    • Google's internal R coding standards, covering naming, spacing, and structure.

Tools

Training and Learning Resources

Science and Health Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Science and Health

Where can I find open-source data and tools for health and science research?

  • Awesome AI Cancer

    • Curated list of machine learning tools, datasets, and papers for cancer research.

  • Awesome Biology

    • GitHub list of bioinformatics tools, databases, and learning resources for life scientists.

  • Awesome Cancer Variant-Databases

    • Curated list of databases cataloging cancer-related genetic variants and mutations.

  • Awesome Clonality

    • Resources and tools for studying clonal evolution in cancer genomics.

  • Awesome Genomics (The Broad Institute)

    • Broad Institute's curated list of genomics tools, pipelines, and resources.

  • Awesome Healthcare

    • GitHub list of open-source software, APIs, and standards for healthcare data.

  • Arxiv Org (Public Journals)

    • Free preprint server for research papers in science, math, and quantitative fields.

  • Big Book of R Life Science

    • Section of the Big Book of R curating resources for biological and health data analysis.

  • Bioconductor

    • Open-source R packages for analyzing genomic and high-throughput biological data.

  • Biopython

    • Python toolkit for biological sequence analysis, structural data, and bioinformatics workflows.

  • BioRXiv

    • Preprint server for biology where researchers share findings before peer review.

  • BioStars

    • Q&A community for bioinformatics questions covering tools, methods, and data analysis.

  • Healthcare Dashboards: Examples of Visualizing Key Metrics & KPIs

    • Tutorials for using the OHI framework to assess ocean ecosystem health with data.

  • Ocean Parcels

    • Python framework for simulating ocean particle and plastic trajectory tracking.

  • Ocean Health Index Toolbox Training

    • Tutorials for using the OHI framework to assess ocean ecosystem health with data.

  • Ocean Health Index Open Data Science

    • Free training in open data science workflows using R, GitHub, and the Ocean Health Index framework.

  • Open Bio

    • Community of open-source bioinformatics projects developing shared tools for life science research.

  • ProjectHealthViz

    • The monthly public health data visualization challenge is open to all skill levels.

  • Python For Science

    • Curated Python resources and tutorials specifically for researchers and scientific computing.

  • rOpen Health

    • R packages for accessing and working with public health and clinical open datasets.

  • rOpen Science

    • Community developing R tools and practices for open, reproducible scientific research.

  • Research Rabbit

    • Free citation mapping tool for discovering related papers and tracking new research.

  • Visualizing Health

    • Gallery of tested chart designs for communicating health statistics to general audiences.

Data Visualization Software Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Software For Data Visualization

This section covers the full spectrum - from no-code web tools for quick interactive charts to professional Tableau for complex dashboards, and the programming libraries that power custom and production-grade visualization work. What are the best tools/software for data visualization in R, Python, and the web?

No-Code & Web Tools

  • Tableau Public

    • Free version of Tableau for building and sharing interactive dashboards publicly; the industry standard for drag-and-drop data viz.

  • Power BI Desktop

    • Microsoft's free desktop BI tool for building interactive reports and dashboards is widely used in business and government settings.

  • Google Looker Studio

    • Free web-based dashboard tool with seamless integration across Google Sheets, Analytics, and Ads data.

  • Datawrapper

    • Browser-based tool for creating clean, mobile-responsive charts, maps, and tables in minutes — the go-to for journalists and communications teams.

  • Flourish

    • Template-driven tool for building animated, interactive, and scrollytelling visualizations without code; strong free tier.

  • RAWGraphs

    • Open-source browser tool for unconventional chart types like alluvial diagrams, streamgraphs, and Sankey diagrams; data never leaves your browser.

  • Observable

    • Collaborative notebook environment for building interactive data visualizations with JavaScript and D3.js.

  • Gephi

    • Open-source desktop tool for visualizing and analyzing network and graph data.

  • QGIS

    • Free, open-source GIS tool for creating and analyzing geographic and spatial data visualizations.

Spreadsheet Tools

  • Microsoft Excel

    • The most widely used data tool in the world is underrated for quick charts and exploratory data visualization.

  • Google Sheets

    • Free browser-based spreadsheet with built-in charting and real-time collaboration; connects directly to Looker Studio and Datawrapper.

JavaScript Libraries

  • D3.js

    • The foundational JavaScript library for custom, data-driven web visualizations; most interactive charts you see online are built on D3 or tools derived from it.

  • Plotly.js

    • Open-source JavaScript library for building interactive, publication-quality charts that embed easily into web pages.

  • Vega & Vega-Lite

    • Declarative visualization grammar built on D3; Vega-Lite is the simpler entry point for common chart types.

  • Observable Plot

    • Lightweight JavaScript library from the makers of D3 for quickly creating exploratory charts with minimal code.

  • Highcharts

    • Robust JavaScript charting library free for non-profits and personal use; known for excellent documentation.

  • Leaflet

    • Lightweight open-source JavaScript library for building interactive, mobile-friendly maps.

  • Chart.js

    • Simple, flexible JavaScript library for adding common chart types to any web project with minimal setup.

R Packages

  • BBC Visual and Data Journalism Cookbook For R Graphics

    • Reusable R code for producing BBC-style publication-ready charts with ggplot2.

  • ggplot2

    • The definitive R package for data visualization based on the Grammar of Graphics; the foundation of most R-based charts.

  • plotly (R)

    • Converts ggplot2 charts to interactive web visualizations with a single line of code.

  • ggplotly

    • Wrapper that makes ggplot2 charts interactive using Plotly.

  • Shiny

    • R framework for building interactive web applications and dashboards directly from R code without web development knowledge.

  • leaflet (R)

    • R interface to the Leaflet JavaScript library for creating interactive maps.

  • highcharter

    • R wrapper for Highcharts, enabling rich interactive charts directly from R.

  • gganimate

    • Extends ggplot2 to create animated charts and transitions for storytelling with data over time.

  • gt

    • R package for creating beautiful, publication-ready tables with extensive formatting control.

  • ggtext

    • Adds rich text and HTML formatting to ggplot2 chart labels, titles, and annotations.

Python Packages

  • Matplotlib

    • The foundational Python visualization library; gives full control over every element of a chart.

  • Seaborn

    • Statistical data visualization library built on Matplotlib with a cleaner default aesthetic and built-in support for data analysis patterns.

  • Plotly (Python)

    • Open-source library for building interactive, web-ready charts and dashboards in Python.

  • Bokeh

    • Python library for creating interactive visualizations for the web with elegant, minimal code.

  • Altair

    • Declarative statistical visualization library for Python based on Vega-Lite; great for quick exploratory charts.

  • Dash

    • Python framework for building interactive analytical web applications and dashboards without JavaScript.

  • Folium

    • Python library for building interactive Leaflet maps from data processed in Python or pandas.

  • Streamlit

    • Turns Python scripts into shareable interactive data apps in minutes with no front-end knowledge needed.

  • Pandas

    • The essential Python library for data manipulation and analysis; includes basic built-in plotting via Matplotlib.

      See the Galleries section for chart type references and inspiration, and Community Challenges to put these tools into practice.

Statistics Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Statistics

What are the best free resources for learning statistics for data analysis?

Stock Photos Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Stock Photos

Some of the links are to free sites, some are to paid sites,  and some are a bit of both. Also, make sure to know how credit should be given when using any image.

Where can I find free stock photos for data visualization projects and presentations?

Free

Paid

  • Adobe

    • Premium stock photos, vectors, and templates integrated directly with Adobe Creative Cloud.

  • Big Stock

    • Affordable subscription-based stock photo library with a broad range of subjects.

  • Deposit Photos

    • Budget-friendly stock library with photos, vectors, and video footage on flexible plans.

  • Envato

    • Marketplace for stock assets including photos, templates, audio, and video files.

  • Flicker

    • Photo-sharing platform with both free Creative Commons and licensed commercial imagery.

  • Getty Images

    • Industry-standard premium stock photography used in editorial and commercial publishing.

  • iStock

    • Getty's mid-tier stock library offers exclusive and non-exclusive images on credit plans.

  • MMT Stock

    • Small curated free and paid photo collection focused on clean lifestyle imagery.

  • Photos @ Icons8

    • Stock photos featuring diverse subjects designed to pair with Icons8's illustration style.

  • Pic Jumbo

    • Free and premium stock photos from a single photographer, updated regularly.

  • Shutterstock

    • One of the largest stock libraries with photos, vectors, music, and video on subscription.

  • Stock Photo Secrets

    • German-based stock photo site.

  • Tonl (Diversity)

    • Stock photo library focused specifically on diverse and multicultural representation

Sustainability Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Sustainablilty

This section collects resources for anyone tracking progress on climate commitments, corporate ESG reporting, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, or environmental and social policy.

Where can I find sustainability data and ESG resources for research and visualization?

Awesome List

Frameworks & Goals

Climate & Environment

  • Global Carbon Project

    • Annual data on global CO₂ emissions, carbon budgets, and land and ocean carbon sinks.

  • Climate Watch

    • Tracks countries' climate pledges, emissions trajectories, and progress on Paris Agreement commitments.

  • Our World in Data — Environment

    • Long-run data on CO₂, energy, deforestation, biodiversity, and plastic across every country.

  • EPA Environmental Data

    • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency datasets covering air, water, land, and climate topics.

  • NOAA Climate Data Online

    • Historical U.S. and global weather and climate data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

ESG & Corporate Reporting

  • GRI Standards

    • The most widely used global framework for sustainability and ESG reporting by organizations of all sizes.

  • SASB Standards

    • Industry-specific sustainability accounting standards used in investor-grade ESG reporting.

  • CDP Open Data Portal

    • Corporate and city environmental disclosure data covering climate, water, and forests.

  • ESG Book

    • Global ESG data platform aggregating corporate sustainability disclosures and ratings.

Policy & International

Tableau Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Tableau

Where can I find resources and inspiration for Tableau dashboards?

  • DataFam Blog

    • Tableau's roundup blog featuring community news, viz highlights, and contributor spotlights.

  • Extension Gallery (Beta)

    • A library of third-party extensions that add custom functionality to Tableau dashboards.

  • Viz of the Day

    • Daily-featured community visualization selected from Tableau Public by the Tableau team.

Volunteering Resources | Fish Image to flow with site design | theYvonne

Volunteering

Put your skills to good! How can I use my data skills to volunteer for social good?

  • Data For Good

    • Community connecting data professionals with nonprofits and civic organizations needing analytical help.

  • Data Kind

    • Nonprofit pairing data scientists with mission-driven organizations on high-impact volunteer projects.

  • Data Science For Social Good

    • Fellowship and project program applying data science to public policy and social challenges.

  • Delta Analytics

    • Volunteer group providing data science capacity-building to nonprofits around the world.

  • Harvard Strategic Data Project

    • Fellowship placing data professionals in education agencies to improve data use and policy.

  • Statisticians for Society

    • Royal Statistical Society initiative connecting statisticians with charities and public sector projects.

  • Statistics Without Borders

    • ASA volunteer group providing pro bono statistical consulting to humanitarian organizations.

  • Viz For Social Good

    • Volunteer community creating data visualizations for nonprofits and social impact organizations.

Last updated: April 2026