A small Python script to generate random color sequences, e.g. for use in plotting. Just call the "generate_new_color(existing_colors,pastel_factor)" function to generate a random color that is (statistically) maximally different from all colors in "existing_colors". The "pastel_factor" parameter can be used to specify the "pasteliness"(?) of th…

generate_random_color.py

import random

def get_random_color(pastel_factor = 0.5):
    return [(x+pastel_factor)/(1.0+pastel_factor) for x in [random.uniform(0,1.0) for i in [1,2,3]]]

def color_distance(c1,c2):
    return sum([abs(x[0]-x[1]) for x in zip(c1,c2)])

def generate_new_color(existing_colors,pastel_factor = 0.5):
    max_distance = None
    best_color = None
    for i in range(0,100):
        color = get_random_color(pastel_factor = pastel_factor)
        if not existing_colors:
            return color
        best_distance = min([color_distance(color,c) for c in existing_colors])
        if not max_distance or best_distance > max_distance:
            max_distance = best_distance
            best_color = color
    return best_color

#Example:

if __name__ == '__main__':

  #To make your color choice reproducible, uncomment the following line:
  #random.seed(10)

  colors = []

  for i in range(0,10):
      colors.append(generate_new_color(colors),pastel_factor = 0.9)
    
  print "Your colors:",colors