NEWS

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biopalette 0.2.2 (2026-09-02)

Current release: August 2026

Maintenance

• Replaced relative README links with stable GitHub URLs for CRAN checks.

biopalette 0.2.1

Current release: August 2026

Maintenance

• Fixed CRAN DESCRIPTION wording by quoting the software name 'ggplot2'.
• Compressed the package logo without changing its dimensions.

biopalette 0.2.0

Current release: August 2026

New features

• Redesigned palette storage and validation around the JSON palette contract.
• Added palette_info() for inspecting one palette's metadata and colors.
• Added scale_color_biopalette() and scale_fill_biopalette() for discrete ggplot2 scales.
• Added scale_color_biopalette_gradient() and scale_fill_biopalette_gradient() for sequential and diverging gradients.
• Expanded the test suite across palette storage, color conversion, plotting, scales, and startup behavior.

Palettes

• Added mitonuclear_blue and mitonuclear_orange — sequential palettes inspired by mito-nuclear communication research (TIBS, 2022).
• Added heat_light — qualitative, 2 colors, from a bond ampholysis illustration (Nature, 2024).
• Added tam_pastel — qualitative, 6 colors, from the pan-cancer myeloid atlas (Cell, 2021).
• Added cancer_mosaic — qualitative, 15 colors, from the pan-cancer myeloid atlas (Cell, 2021).
• Added lactate_steps — qualitative, 5 colors, from lactate metabolism and immunotherapy research (JECCR, 2024).
• Added bcell_atlas — qualitative, 7 colors, from a pan-cancer B-cell atlas graphical abstract (Cell, 2024).
• Added bcell_atlas2 — diverging, 5 colors, encoding the IgA-to-IgG shift in the same source article.
• Added bcell_clusters — qualitative, 20 colors, reconstructed from Figure 1B of the same pan-cancer B-cell atlas; the published order puts broadly useful major-group colors first.
• Added source images, curation records, previews, and showcase figures for the new palettes.

Documentation and integrations

• Reworked the English and Chinese guides around qualitative, sequential, and diverging use cases.
• Added a Tessera workflow vignette and linked biopalette to Tessera and Palette Lab.
• Expanded README and pkgdown palette tables with recommended use cases and figure showcases.
• Updated palette curation templates and source records for the image-inspired collection.

Maintenance

• Aligned package, coverage, and build configuration with the redesigned palette storage model.

biopalette 0.1.0

Initial release: April 2026

The initial release established the package API for retrieving, previewing, organizing, and applying image-inspired color palettes in biomedical visualization.

Core functionality

• get_palette() — retrieve colors by name, type, and size.
• list_palettes() — inspect the bundled palette collection.
• palette_gallery() — render a paged visual gallery.
• preview_palette() — draw palette swatches in several styles.
• create_palette() and remove_palette() — manage palette JSON files.
• hex2rgb() and rgb2hex() — convert HEX and RGB color values.

Initial palette collection

• gene_red — qualitative, 2 colors, inspired by Better Call Saul.
• walter_white, walter_white2, and walter_white3 — qualitative and diverging palettes inspired by Breaking Bad.
• babel — qualitative, 21 colors, from a pan-cancer myeloid atlas (Cell, 2021).
• three_body — qualitative, 3 colors, from the same myeloid atlas.