[python] Using Colormaps to set color of line in matplotlib

How does one set the color of a line in matplotlib with scalar values provided at run time using a colormap (say jet)? I tried a couple of different approaches here and I think I'm stumped. values[] is a storted array of scalars. curves are a set of 1-d arrays, and labels are an array of text strings. Each of the arrays have the same length.

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
jet = colors.Colormap('jet')
cNorm  = colors.Normalize(vmin=0, vmax=values[-1])
scalarMap = cmx.ScalarMappable(norm=cNorm, cmap=jet)
lines = []
for idx in range(len(curves)):
    line = curves[idx]
    colorVal = scalarMap.to_rgba(values[idx])
    retLine, = ax.plot(line, color=colorVal)
    #retLine.set_color()
    lines.append(retLine)
ax.legend(lines, labels, loc='upper right')
ax.grid()
plt.show()

U may do as I have written from my deleted account (ban for new posts :( there was). Its rather simple and nice looking.

Im using 3-rd one of these 3 ones usually, also I wasny checking 1 and 2 version.

from matplotlib.pyplot import cm
import numpy as np

#variable n should be number of curves to plot (I skipped this earlier thinking that it is obvious when looking at picture - sorry my bad mistake xD): n=len(array_of_curves_to_plot)
#version 1:

color=cm.rainbow(np.linspace(0,1,n))
for i,c in zip(range(n),color):
   ax1.plot(x, y,c=c)

#or version 2: - faster and better:

color=iter(cm.rainbow(np.linspace(0,1,n)))
c=next(color)
plt.plot(x,y,c=c)

#or version 3:

color=iter(cm.rainbow(np.linspace(0,1,n)))
for i in range(n):
   c=next(color)
   ax1.plot(x, y,c=c)

example of 3:

Ship RAO of Roll vs Ikeda damping in function of Roll amplitude A44

A combination of line styles, markers, and qualitative colors from matplotlib:

import itertools
import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
N = 8*4+10
l_styles = ['-','--','-.',':']
m_styles = ['','.','o','^','*']
colormap = mpl.cm.Dark2.colors   # Qualitative colormap
for i,(marker,linestyle,color) in zip(range(N),itertools.product(m_styles,l_styles, colormap)):
    plt.plot([0,1,2],[0,2*i,2*i], color=color, linestyle=linestyle,marker=marker,label=i)
plt.legend(bbox_to_anchor=(1.05, 1), loc=2, borderaxespad=0.,ncol=4);

UPDATE: Supporting not only ListedColormap, but also LinearSegmentedColormap

import itertools
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
Ncolors = 8
#colormap = plt.cm.Dark2# ListedColormap
colormap = plt.cm.viridis# LinearSegmentedColormap
Ncolors = min(colormap.N,Ncolors)
mapcolors = [colormap(int(x*colormap.N/Ncolors)) for x in range(Ncolors)]
N = Ncolors*4+10
l_styles = ['-','--','-.',':']
m_styles = ['','.','o','^','*']
fig,ax = plt.subplots(gridspec_kw=dict(right=0.6))
for i,(marker,linestyle,color) in zip(range(N),itertools.product(m_styles,l_styles, mapcolors)):
    ax.plot([0,1,2],[0,2*i,2*i], color=color, linestyle=linestyle,marker=marker,label=i)
ax.legend(bbox_to_anchor=(1.05, 1), loc=2, borderaxespad=0.,ncol=3,prop={'size': 8})

I thought it would be beneficial to include what I consider to be a more simple method using numpy's linspace coupled with matplotlib's cm-type object. It's possible that the above solution is for an older version. I am using the python 3.4.3, matplotlib 1.4.3, and numpy 1.9.3., and my solution is as follows.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

from matplotlib import cm
from numpy import linspace

start = 0.0
stop = 1.0
number_of_lines= 1000
cm_subsection = linspace(start, stop, number_of_lines) 

colors = [ cm.jet(x) for x in cm_subsection ]

for i, color in enumerate(colors):
    plt.axhline(i, color=color)

plt.ylabel('Line Number')
plt.show()

This results in 1000 uniquely-colored lines that span the entire cm.jet colormap as pictured below. If you run this script you'll find that you can zoom in on the individual lines.

Now say I want my 1000 line colors to just span the greenish portion between lines 400 to 600. I simply change my start and stop values to 0.4 and 0.6 and this results in using only 20% of the cm.jet color map between 0.4 and 0.6.

So in a one line summary you can create a list of rgba colors from a matplotlib.cm colormap accordingly:

colors = [ cm.jet(x) for x in linspace(start, stop, number_of_lines) ]

In this case I use the commonly invoked map named jet but you can find the complete list of colormaps available in your matplotlib version by invoking:

>>> from matplotlib import cm
>>> dir(cm)