Structural biologists, lets mind our colors

Abstract

In structural biology, most figures of macromolecules are aimed at those well-versed in structure, requiring prior familiarity with scales and commonly used color schemes. Yet, as structural biology becomes democratized with the increasing pace of structure determination, the accessibility of structural data is paramount. Here, we identify three keys, and have written accompanying software plugins, for structural biologists to create figures truer to the hard-won data and clearer across different modes of color vision and to non-expert readers. O_LIUse perceptually uniform colormaps C_LIO_LIConsider readers with different modes of color vision C_LIO_LIBe explicit about scales and color usage C_LI