Create Custom Color Palettes in Tableau

I am often asked the following question, "Hey, can we change the colors on Tableau charts to match our corporate branding?". Tableau does have a wide range of color palettes, but sometimes these just are not broad enough to make dashboards stand out even better. (Apologies to my UK audience for mis-spelling Colour in this post.)

We can of course create custom color palettes to give our dashboards that extra WOW! factor and looking in-line with the clients branding. Here is how we do that!

Step 1. You need to find the folder called "My Tableau Repository". This is usually located in the Documents folder in your C: Drive.

Step 2. Look for the file called "Preferences". Right click and open in a text editor such as Notepad or Notepad++. Use this file with caution.

Step 3. On opening the file you will see some HTML code starting like the one below:

<?xml version='1.0'?>

<workbook>

<preferences>

</preferences>

</workbook>

It is in here that you will copy and write the color hex codes for your custom color palette.

Step 4. Enter the following in between <preferences> and </preferences> and change the #code to your chosen colors.

<color-palette name="NameOfColorPalette" type="regular">

<color>#00446A</color>

<color>#FDB813</color>

<color>#E4701E</color>

</color-palette>

There is no limit on the number of hex codes that you can use. Once you have done this, it will look similar to this:

Step 5. Be sure to save the file with the same file name

Step 6. Once you reopen Tableau and navigate to the Color Mark card, select Edit Colors,

Select Color Palette, and your newly created Color Palette will appear in the list.

Its that simple. Now, you can create some custom colors to match your branding.