Template talk:Element color

Color changes

discovery era

I have changed the palette (seven colors) for the PT discovery years templates {{Periodic table (discovery periods)}} and {{Periodic table (discovery periods, compact)}}. Some of the old colors were a bit too dark to contrast with text, and the dark blue even made the frame illegible (synthetic?). new colors are in template:element color#Years and eras.

I choose seven colors by hue. That is: what we call "color" in real life: from the rainbow. (RGB color numbers like #ffdead are not suitable for this; they look like an outcome of a calculation but not a 'color'). These seven hues are from the rainbow. The I applied the same "saturation" and "luminance" to each of them (a color has three independent settings, at least). Together they define a color by HSL.

By keeping the other two settings, Saturation and Luminance the same, over seven hues, the sphere is the same for all of them and I could set a lighter shade simply. That lightness is needed, because it is just a background color, that should contrast with the text.

These are the settings. Hues from red to pink: 0, 25, 37, 74, 111, 185, 222 (255 would be full circle to red). S and L are S=255 (max), L=220 (quite light, or say transparent).

Frame (border) for theoretical elements

Undiscovered occurrence (that is: mostly for theoretical period 8 & 9 elements) had a white border that did not show well in a PT with a light/whitish background. Now see {{Periodic table (extended, large)}}. I set it to "no border" (in {{element frame/Undiscovered}} and in {{element color}}). IO think it looks nice now in {{Periodic table (extended, large)}} and others.

Minor changes

Note that we can use {{element color}} now to get the color: this way we are more flexible. -DePiep (talk) 17:28, 14 April 2013 (UTC)

FYI: testing colors

When testing colors or set names, please add them to {{Element color/secondary}}. (add like | test99 = #80cdef)

In the testing location (say Template:Periodic table/test), use standard {{Element color|4=test99}}.

When a set name is not in main template, the template will automatically look up in the /secondary list. Once fit for mainspace, just move the name-color line to the main colortemplate (effect in your template will be unchanged). Double sharp -DePiep (talk) 18:26, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

h-block and i-block colours

A few decades ago, a few basic predictions were made for the h-block, for example doi:10.1070/RC1990v059n01ABEH003508. (Just as there are "triads" and "tetrads" in the d and f blocks, so she expected "pentads" and "hexads" in the g and h blocks.) Of course, the system gets wonky starting from the g elements, so it's not entirely clear if this will hold up.

There could be some valid uses (even if outside a PT) when listing subshells and colour-coding them, e.g.:

	s	p	d	f	g	h	i
1	1s
2	2s	2p
3	3s	3p	3d
4	4s	4p	4d	4f
5	5s	5p	5d	5f	5g
6	6s	6p	6d	6f	6g	6h
7	7s	7p	7d	7f	7g	7h	7i

The colours were inspired by Prof. Mark Winter's website The Orbitron: violet had already been chosen for g (which matched), so I chose teal for h and orange for i. Double sharp (talk) 03:58, 17 March 2021 (UTC)