[python] Create own colormap using matplotlib and plot color scale

I have the following problem, I want to create my own colormap (red-mix-violet-mix-blue) that maps to values between -2 and +2 and want to use it to color points in my plot. The plot should then have the colorscale to the right.

That is how I create the map so far. But I am not really sure if it mixes the colors.

cmap = matplotlib.colors.ListedColormap(["red","violet","blue"], name='from_list', N=None)
m = cm.ScalarMappable(norm=norm, cmap=cmap)


That way I map the colors to the values.

colors = itertools.cycle([m.to_rgba(1.22), ..])


Then I plot it:

for i in range(0, len(array_dg)):
  plt.plot(array_dg[i], markers.next(),alpha=alpha[i], c=colors.next())


My problems are:
1. I can't plot the color scale.
2. I am not completely sure if my scale is creating a continues (smooth) colorscale.

This question is related to python matplotlib plot

The answer is


Since the methods used in other answers seems quite complicated for such easy task, here is a new answer:

Instead of a ListedColormap, which produces a discrete colormap, you may use a LinearSegmentedColormap. This can easily be created from a list using the from_list method.

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.colors

x,y,c = zip(*np.random.rand(30,3)*4-2)

norm=plt.Normalize(-2,2)
cmap = matplotlib.colors.LinearSegmentedColormap.from_list("", ["red","violet","blue"])

plt.scatter(x,y,c=c, cmap=cmap, norm=norm)
plt.colorbar()
plt.show()

enter image description here


More generally, if you have a list of values (e.g. [-2., -1, 2]) and corresponding colors, (e.g. ["red","violet","blue"]), such that the nth value should correspond to the nth color, you can normalize the values and supply them as tuples to the from_list method.

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.colors

x,y,c = zip(*np.random.rand(30,3)*4-2)

cvals  = [-2., -1, 2]
colors = ["red","violet","blue"]

norm=plt.Normalize(min(cvals),max(cvals))
tuples = list(zip(map(norm,cvals), colors))
cmap = matplotlib.colors.LinearSegmentedColormap.from_list("", tuples)

plt.scatter(x,y,c=c, cmap=cmap, norm=norm)
plt.colorbar()
plt.show()

enter image description here


If you want to automate the creating of a custom divergent colormap commonly used for surface plots, this module combined with @unutbu method worked well for me.

def diverge_map(high=(0.565, 0.392, 0.173), low=(0.094, 0.310, 0.635)):
    '''
    low and high are colors that will be used for the two
    ends of the spectrum. they can be either color strings
    or rgb color tuples
    '''
    c = mcolors.ColorConverter().to_rgb
    if isinstance(low, basestring): low = c(low)
    if isinstance(high, basestring): high = c(high)
    return make_colormap([low, c('white'), 0.5, c('white'), high])

The high and low values can be either string color names or rgb tuples. This is the result using the surface plot demo: enter image description here


This seems to work for me.

def make_Ramp( ramp_colors ): 
    from colour import Color
    from matplotlib.colors import LinearSegmentedColormap

    color_ramp = LinearSegmentedColormap.from_list( 'my_list', [ Color( c1 ).rgb for c1 in ramp_colors ] )
    plt.figure( figsize = (15,3))
    plt.imshow( [list(np.arange(0, len( ramp_colors ) , 0.1)) ] , interpolation='nearest', origin='lower', cmap= color_ramp )
    plt.xticks([])
    plt.yticks([])
    return color_ramp

custom_ramp = make_Ramp( ['#754a28','#893584','#68ad45','#0080a5' ] ) 

custom color ramp


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