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

dtable Sepal_Length Sepal_Width Petal_Length Petal_Width i.Species

                Summary   
--------------------------
N                      150
Sepal.Length 5.843 (0.828)
Sepal.Width  3.057 (0.436)
Petal.Length 3.758 (1.765)
Petal.Width  1.199 (0.762)
Species                   
  setosa        50 (33.3%)
  versicolor    50 (33.3%)
  virginica     50 (33.3%)
--------------------------

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
Rackham Green	#75988d	117 152 141
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