matplotlib-devel Mailing List for matplotlib

On Sep 21, 2011 5:29 PM, "Christoph Gohlke" <cg...@uc...> wrote:
> On 9/13/2011 12:24 AM, Eric Firing wrote:
> > On 07/18/2011 07:07 AM, Sameer Grover wrote:
> >> I came across this website where different colormaps have been compared
> >> and the author has come up with an optimal colormap for data
> >> visualization called the "cool-warm colormap".
> >>
> >> http://www.cs.unm.edu/~kmorel/documents/ColorMaps/index.html
> >>
> >> It is somewhat similar to the cool colormap already included in
> >> matplotlib, but I've added the new colormap to matplotlib in the patch
> >> attached in case it is deemed fit to be included in the matplotlib
source.
> > We should include this, but I think the 257-entry version is overkill;
> > it adds a big chunk to the _cm.py file, and I doubt it is visually
> > distinguishable from the 33-entry version. Would you mind providing a
> > patch for the latter? (Or better yet, the functions that generate the
> > r,g,b values.)
> Here's a pull request for the 33 entry map:
> <https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/486>
Let me open a can of worms here...
I looked at the paper, and the goal was specifically to produce a good
"default" colormap - not necessarily the best for any situation, but good
overall and certainly better than the rainbow ('jet') colormap in most
cases. (I agree with the author that jet is pretty terrible and tends to
distort data.)
Should we switch to this as the default matplotlib colormap? I think it
would be a clear improvement.
- Nathaniel

On 9/13/2011 12:24 AM, Eric Firing wrote:
> On 07/18/2011 07:07 AM, Sameer Grover wrote:
>> I came across this website where different colormaps have been compared
>> and the author has come up with an optimal colormap for data
>> visualization called the "cool-warm colormap".
>>
>> http://www.cs.unm.edu/~kmorel/documents/ColorMaps/index.html
>>
>> It is somewhat similar to the cool colormap already included in
>> matplotlib, but I've added the new colormap to matplotlib in the patch
>> attached in case it is deemed fit to be included in the matplotlib source.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Sameer
>
> Sameer,
>
> We should include this, but I think the 257-entry version is overkill;
> it adds a big chunk to the _cm.py file, and I doubt it is visually
> distinguishable from the 33-entry version. Would you mind providing a
> patch for the latter? (Or better yet, the functions that generate the
> r,g,b values.)
>
> Thank you.
>
> Eric
Here's a pull request for the 33 entry map:
<https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/pull/486>
Christoph