(click to enlarge)

In this, and the some upcoming posts, I’ll be showing you various collections of elements on the horizontally-extended version of the periodic table — one that includes the f-block elements in their proper place, rather than relegating them to two separate rows below the other elements. (I’m also suggesting the purple letters A – N for the usually-unrecognized groups in the f-block, and keeping the group numbers 1-18, with which many are familiar, for other groups).

For this first post, I’ll start with some sets of elements which are familiar to most who have studied the subject, plus some others which are much less well-known.

• Light blue — the alkali metals.
• Black background with red symbol and atomic number — hydrogen, which is definitely not an alkali metal, despite it sharing group 1 with them.
• Dark blue — the alkaline-earth metals.
• Dark yellow — the lanthanides.
• Orange — these two elements are included with the lanthanides in some sources, and with the transition metals in others.
• Bright pink — the actinides.
• Light pink — these two elements are included with the actinides is some sources, and with the transition metals in others.
• Red — the transition metals, also known as the transition elements, and d-block elements.
• Light purple — group 13 is often called the “boron group,” but it also goes by other names, such as the “icosagens” and the “triels.”
• Dark purple — group 14 is often called the “carbon group,” but it also goes by other names, such as “tetragens” and “crystallogens.” In semiconductor physics, these elements are referred to as group IV elements. 
• Dark green — group 15 elements are referred to as the pnictogens, or nitrogen-group elements.
• Bright yellow — bright yellow is used here for the chalcogens, also known as the group 16 elements, or oxygen-group elements.
• Light green — the halogens.
• Gray — the noble gases.