Color Customization

Overview

While Color Palettes automatically apply brand colors to your visualizations, you maintain full control over the final appearance. You can override any automatically applied color and easily restore defaults when needed.

Customization gives you the flexibility to adapt visualizations for specific use cases while maintaining the ability to quickly return to community standards.

Overriding Colors

You can manually override any automatically applied color through Dune’s visualization editor.

Create your query

Write a query that returns data with protocol or chain names:

SELECT 
  blockchain,
  SUM(amount_usd) as volume
FROM dex.trades
WHERE block_time >= NOW() - INTERVAL '7' day
GROUP BY blockchain

Visualize the data

Create a chart (bar, pie, line, etc.) from your query results. Colors will be automatically applied based on the Color Palettes schema.

Override specific colors

In the visualization editor:

Click on the series/data point you want to customize
Select your preferred color from the color picker
The new color will override the automatic Color Palettes color

Save your changes

Your custom color choices are saved with the visualization and will persist across dashboard refreshes.

When to Override Colors

Highlighting Specific Data

Emphasize particular protocols or chains by using contrasting colors

Accessibility Needs

Adjust colors for better contrast or color-blind friendly palettes

Brand Guidelines

Match specific corporate or project branding requirements

Visual Hierarchy

Use custom colors to create visual groupings or hierarchies

Use Cases for Custom Colors

Highlighting Top Performers

SELECT 
  project as dex,
  SUM(amount_usd) as volume_usd
FROM dex.trades
WHERE blockchain = 'ethereum'
  AND block_time >= NOW() - INTERVAL '30' day
GROUP BY project
ORDER BY volume_usd DESC
LIMIT 10

You might:

Keep the top 3 protocols in their brand colors
Override lower-volume protocols to use muted gray tones
This creates visual focus on the market leaders

Creating Color Groupings

SELECT 
  blockchain,
  protocol_type,
  SUM(volume) as total_volume
FROM analytics.protocol_metrics
GROUP BY blockchain, protocol_type

You might:

Override colors to group by protocol type (all DEXes in blue shades, all lending in green shades)
Even though automatic colors apply by blockchain, custom grouping by type can be more useful

Accessibility Improvements

Some brand colors may not provide sufficient contrast or may be difficult for color-blind users to distinguish.

Consider overriding when:

Two protocols have very similar brand colors (e.g., multiple shades of blue)
Colors don’t meet WCAG contrast requirements
Creating dashboards for color-blind accessibility

Restoring Default Colors

The Restore colors button allows you to quickly revert all manual overrides and return to the community-maintained Color Palettes.

Locate the Restore button

In the visualization editor, find the “Restore colors” button (typically in the color settings panel)

Click to restore

Click the button to restore all series to their automatic Color Palettes colors

Verify changes

All manual color overrides are removed, and the visualization returns to using automatic matching based on protocol/chain names

Restoring colors will remove all custom color choices for that visualization. This action cannot be undone, so make sure you want to revert all changes.

When to Restore Colors

Schema Updates

The Color Palettes schema is community-maintained and updated regularly:

// Before: Old Ethereum color
{
  "Ethereum": {
    "hex": "#627EEA",
    "aliases": ["ethereum", "eth", "weth"]
  }
}

// After: Updated to current brand color
{
  "Ethereum": {
    "hex": "#88AAF1",
    "aliases": ["ethereum", "eth", "weth"]
  }
}

If you had manually overridden Ethereum’s color, clicking Restore colors will update your visualization to use the new community standard (#88AAF1).

Consistency Across Dashboards

If you’ve made multiple custom changes and want to return to consistent branding across all your dashboards, use the Restore colors button.

This is particularly useful when:

You’ve experimented with different color schemes
You want to align with updated brand guidelines
You’re sharing dashboards publicly and want to use recognized brand colors

New Protocol Additions

When new protocols are added to the Color Palettes schema:

{
  "Unichain": {
    "hex": "#FC0FA4",
    "aliases": ["unichain"]
  },
  "Berachain": {
    "hex": "#451D07",
    "aliases": ["berachain"]
  },
  "Sonic": {
    "hex": "#F27A2C",
    "aliases": ["sonic"]
  }
}

Restoring colors ensures these new protocols get their official brand colors if they appear in your existing visualizations.

Best Practices

Start with automatic colors

Always begin with the automatic Color Palettes colors. Only override when you have a specific reason:

Accessibility requirements
Special emphasis needed
Brand guideline compliance
Visual grouping requirements

Document your overrides

If you override colors for a specific reason, consider adding a note in your dashboard description explaining why. This helps future collaborators understand your choices.

Maintain consistency within dashboards

If you override a protocol’s color in one chart, use the same custom color for that protocol across all charts in the same dashboard.

Periodically check for updates

The Color Palettes schema is updated regularly. Periodically restore colors to benefit from:

New protocol additions
Updated brand colors
New alias additions
Community improvements

Consider accessibility

When overriding colors, ensure:

Sufficient contrast between colors
Distinguishable colors for color-blind users
Meaningful differences in shade/hue
Proper contrast with background colors

Color Override Examples

Example 1: Emphasis Colors

Query: Top 5 NFT marketplaces by volume Automatic Colors:

OpenSea: #2884E4 (blue)
Blur: #FF8404 (orange)
LooksRare: #10E464 (green)
X2Y2: #14DBFC (cyan)
MagicEden: #BF79F5 (purple)

Custom Override:

OpenSea: #FFD700 (gold) ← Override to emphasize market leader
Blur: #C0C0C0 (silver) ← Override to show second place
Others: Keep automatic colors

Example 2: Category Grouping

Query: Layer 2 scaling solutions comparison Automatic Colors:

Arbitrum: #12AAFF
Optimism: #FF0420
Base: #0052FF
ZKsync: #1E69FF
Polygon zkEVM: #A128C5

Custom Override (Group by technology):

Optimistic Rollups (blue shades):
- Arbitrum: #1E3A8A
- Optimism: #3B82F6
- Base: #60A5FA
ZK Rollups (purple shades):
- ZKsync: #6B21A8
- Polygon zkEVM: #A855F7

Workflow Recommendations

Build with defaults

Create your initial visualization using automatic Color Palettes

Review for clarity

Check if the automatic colors clearly communicate your data story

Override selectively

Only customize colors where automatic assignment doesn’t serve your purpose

Test accessibility

Verify your custom colors work for color-blind users and meet contrast requirements

Maintain consistency

Apply the same custom colors across all related visualizations in your dashboard

Periodic refresh

Every few months, consider restoring colors to benefit from schema updates

Next Steps

Query Examples

Explore real-world query patterns with Color Palettes

Automatic Application

Learn how colors are automatically matched

Getting Started

Using Color Palettes

Schema

Contributing

Reference

Overview

Overriding Colors

When to Override Colors

Highlighting Specific Data

Accessibility Needs

Brand Guidelines

Visual Hierarchy

Use Cases for Custom Colors

Highlighting Top Performers

Creating Color Groupings

Accessibility Improvements

Restoring Default Colors

When to Restore Colors

Schema Updates

Consistency Across Dashboards

New Protocol Additions

Best Practices

Color Override Examples

Example 1: Emphasis Colors

Example 2: Category Grouping

Workflow Recommendations

Next Steps

Query Examples

Automatic Application

​Overview

​Overriding Colors

​When to Override Colors

Highlighting Specific Data

Accessibility Needs

Brand Guidelines

Visual Hierarchy

​Use Cases for Custom Colors

​Highlighting Top Performers

​Creating Color Groupings

​Accessibility Improvements

​Restoring Default Colors

​When to Restore Colors

​Schema Updates

​Consistency Across Dashboards

​New Protocol Additions

​Best Practices

​Color Override Examples

​Example 1: Emphasis Colors

​Example 2: Category Grouping

​Workflow Recommendations

​Next Steps

Query Examples

Automatic Application

Overview

Overriding Colors

When to Override Colors

Use Cases for Custom Colors

Highlighting Top Performers

Creating Color Groupings

Accessibility Improvements

Restoring Default Colors

When to Restore Colors

Schema Updates

Consistency Across Dashboards

New Protocol Additions

Best Practices

Color Override Examples

Example 1: Emphasis Colors

Example 2: Category Grouping

Workflow Recommendations

Next Steps