Reduce color saturation/intensity on pie chart?

[Diffus]

I have a 20-slice pie chart. How can reduce the saturation/intensity of the colors on the chart so that 1) they don't use as much toner, and 2) the black data labels inside the significant items are more legible.

 

[thisoldman]

Without seeing the data or the chart you have, it's difficult to suggest anything. I do have problems imagining a twenty-segment bar chart effectively portraying data—unless you're creating an artist's color wheel.

Consider a bar chart instead. A bar chart has legible labels and values that the viewer can usually easily determine. A bar chart can be effective in gray-scale.

Consider a pie chart with three to six major segments. Two to five segments are the largest component values and the last segment is used for the sum of the remaining components.

 

[Diffus]

The owner wants a pie chart. It's the way he wants to see the expense breakdown. I've got 20 slices now; based on the accounts involved, I could probably take it to 15 slices, but, after that, the "All other" slice starts getting in the neighborhood of 20%.

I'm just a tad frustrated because it's so easy to pick colors that aren't as toner-intensive when shading shells on a worksheet, but most of the default multi-color shades for a chart aren't that light.

I did figure out how to move all the data labels to outside the pie, so that's no longer an issue. But this is one of those things that will have several preliminary prints and a final one over the course of a month-end close, and I'd sure like to not have to buy new color cartridges as often as the print that I'm getting is going to require.

I could, I think, manually adjust each element in the data series. But that's more labor intensive than I'd like.

 

[thisoldman]

Are you using the default color Office theme? How much does the rest of the spreadsheet depend on color?

Excel uses the six Accent colors for the default colors of the first six series. Then it uses darker shades of the accent colors for the next six series. Then lighter tints for series 13–18, then darker. This procedure should get you to light usable tints for the accent colors without throwing the rest of the spreadsheet into a psychedelic nightmare.

On the ribbon, go to Page Layout >> Colors (in themes). In the pop-up menu, with your current theme selected, go to the bottom of the pop-up and select "Customize Colors..."

In the "Edit Theme Colors' dialog box that now pops up, select the down arrow next to the Accent 1 color chip. Select "More Colors..."

On the Custom tab, change the Color model from RGB to HSL. In the Lum box enter the value 203 and hit OK. Repeat for the remaining five accent colors.

On the main Edit Theme Colors dialog, give the theme a name and click Save. Your chart should change to the lighter colors.

Luminance, in Excel, runs from 0 for pure black to 255 for pure white. Think of it as the total amount of light emitted by the red, green and blue LEDs. Or the total amount of light reflected from a surface. The value of 203 (80% of max) is important to us because if you go over that value, the scheme of Accent colors changes. At Lum=204 and above, all accent color variations (for your cell fills and border line colors) go to the dark side—you can only get darker shades. With Lum=203, the Accent color variations give you three lighter tints and two darker shades.

Using Lum=203 for the accent colors shouldn't create too jarring a change in the rest of the spreadsheet. Just use this custom theme before printing, if you want.

 

[Diffus]

That's an area of Excel's menus that I can say I've never been to. Thank you. I'll play around over there and see what I can come up with.