Colormap

Colormap(*args, name=None, listmode='perceptual', fade=None, cycle=None, shift=None, cut=None, left=None, right=None, reverse=False, save=False, save_kw=None, **kwargs)

Generates or retrieves colormaps and optionally merges and manipulates them in a variety of ways; used to interpret the cmap and cmap_kw arguments when passed to any plotting method wrapped by cmap_wrapper.

Parameters

• *args (colormap-spec) – Positional arguments that individually generate colormaps. If more than one argument is passed, the resulting colormaps are merged. Arguments are interpreted as follows.

  • If Colormap or a registered colormap name, the colormap is simply returned.

  • If a filename string with valid extension, the colormap data will be loaded. See register_cmaps and register_cycles.

  • If RGB tuple or color string, a PerceptuallyUniformColormap is generated with from_color. If the string ends in '_r', the monochromatic map will be reversed, i.e. will go from dark to light instead of light to dark.

  • If list of RGB tuples or color strings, a PerceptuallyUniformColormap is generated with from_list.

  • If dictionary containing the keys 'hue', 'saturation', and 'luminance', a PerceptuallyUniformColormap is generated with from_hsl.

• name (str, optional) – Name under which the final colormap is registered. It can then be reused by passing cmap='name' to plotting functions like contourf.

• fade (float, optional) – The maximum luminosity used when generating colormaps with PerceptuallyUniformColormap.from_color. Default is 100 when calling Colormap directly, and 90 when Colormap is called by Cycle (this prevents having pure white in the color cycle).

  For example, plot.Colormap('blue', fade=80) generates a blue colormap that fades to a pale blue with 80% luminance.

• cycle (str or list of color-spec, optional) – The registered cycle name or a list of colors used to interpret cycle color strings like 'C0' and 'C2' when generating colormaps with PerceptuallyUniformColormap.from_color. Default is colors from the currently active property cycler.

  For example, plot.Colormap('C0', 'C1', 'C2', cycle='538') generates a colormap using colors from the '538' color cycle.

• listmode ({‘perceptual’, ‘linear’, ‘listed’}, optional) – Controls how colormaps are generated when you input list(s) of colors. If 'perceptual', a PerceptuallyUniformColormap is generated with PerceptuallyUniformColormap.from_list. If 'linear', a LinearSegmentedColormap is generated with from_list. If 'listed', the ListedColormap is generated.

  Default is 'perceptual' when calling Colormap directly, and 'listed' when Colormap is called by Cycle.

• cut (float, optional) – Passed to LinearSegmentedColormap.punched. This applies to the final merged colormap.

• left, right (float, optional) – Passed to LinearSegmentedColormap.truncated or ListedColormap.truncated. These apply to each colormap individually.

• reverse (bool, optional) – Passed to LinearSegmentedColormap.reversed or ListedColormap.reversed. This applies to each colormap individually.

• shift (float, optional) – Passed to LinearSegmentedColormap.shifted or ListedColormap.shifted. This applies to the final merged colormap.

• save (bool, optional) – Whether to call the colormap save method, i.e. LinearSegmentedColormap.save or ListedColormap.save.

• save_kw (dict-like, optional) – Ignored if save is False. Passed to the colormap save method, i.e. LinearSegmentedColormap.save or ListedColormap.save.

• **kwargs – Passed to LinearSegmentedColormap.concatenate or ListedColormap.concatenate. Each of these functions accepts arbitrary colormap settings.

Returns

Colormap – A LinearSegmentedColormap or ListedColormap instance.