1 Introduction

Stata provides the use of graph schemes that improve the overall look of graphs.

See help scheme.

The Michigan graph scheme makes use of official University of Michigan colors.

2 Installation

Type net from https://agrogan1.github.io/Stata and click the links to install.

3 Example Data

We are going to use the famous “iris” data collected by Edgar Anderson.

clear all
    
use "iris.dta", clear

summarize

Running /Users/agrogan/Desktop/GitHub/Stata/michigan-graph-scheme/profile.do 

> ...

    Variable |        Obs        Mean    Std. dev.       Min        Max
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------
Sepal_Length |        150    5.843333    .8280661        4.3        7.9
 Sepal_Width |        150    3.057333    .4358663          2        4.4
Petal_Length |        150       3.758    1.765298          1        6.9
 Petal_Width |        150    1.199333    .7622377         .1        2.5
     Species |        150           2    .8192319          1          3

4 Histogram

histogram Petal_Length, scheme(michigan)

5 Histogram With Transparency

histogram Petal_Length, fcolor(%50) scheme(michigan)

Histogram Using Michigan Scheme And Slightly Transparent Bars

6 Bar Graph

graph bar Petal_Length, over(Species) scheme(michigan) asyvars

7 Bar Graph With Transparency

graph bar Petal_Length, over(Species) intensity(70) scheme(michigan) asyvars

Bar Graph Using Michigan Scheme and Slightly Transparent Bars

8 Scatterplot

twoway (scatter Petal_Length Petal_Width) ///
(lfit Petal_Length Petal_Width), ///
scheme(michigan)

9 Scatterplot With Transparency

twoway (scatter Petal_Length Petal_Width, mcolor(%30)) /// markers have 30% transparency
(lfit Petal_Length Petal_Width), ///
scheme(michigan)

Scatterplot Using Michigan Scheme And Slightly Transparent Markers

10 Legend Placement

Sometimes you may wish to have the legend of the graph placed at the bottom of the graph. The pos(6) suboption inside the legend option will place the legend at the bottom, while you can manually control the number of legend rows with the rows suboption.

graph bar Petal_Length, over(Species) scheme(michigan) asyvars legend(pos(6) rows(1))

Bar Graph Using Michigan Scheme and Modified Legend

11 Individual Michigan Colors

Individual University of Michigan colors are listed below.

Color	Hex	RGB
Blue	#00274C	0 39 76
Maize	#FFCB05	255 203 5
Tappan Red	#9A3324	154 51 36
Ross School Orange	#D86018	216 96 24
Wave Field Green	#A5A508	165 165 8
Taubman Teal	#00B2A9	0 178 169
Arboretum Blue	#2F65A7	47 101 167
Ann Arbor Amethyst	#702082	112 32 130
Matthaei Violet	#575294	87 82 148
UMMA Tan	#CFC096	207 192 150
Burton Tower Beige	#9B9A6D	155 154 109
Angell Hall Ash	#989C97	152 156 151
Law Quad Stone	#655A52	101 90 82

Stata can use RGB codes for colors. As an example.

twoway (scatter Petal_Length Petal_Width, mcolor("112 32 130 %30")) /// markers are Amethyst with 30% transparency
(lfit Petal_Length Petal_Width, lcolor("87 82 148")), /// Violet line
scheme(michigan)

Scatterplot Using Michigan Scheme, Selected Colors, And Slightly Transparent Markers

12 Michigan2 Graph Scheme

I have also developed a michigan2 graph scheme: , scheme(michigan2).

This graph scheme can be installed using the same instructions as above. The michigan2 scheme slightly reorders the color palette of the original scheme. The scheme begins with blue and maize, but then moves to the cooler colors before moving to Tappan Red and Ross Orange. Taubman Teal–a very fluorescent color–is moved to the end of the palette.