MatPlotLib "Perceptually Uniform" Colormaps

MatPlotLib's default linear lightness colormap VIRIDIS and distinctive line colororder TAB10

From MatPlotLib 2 and 3:

• the default sequential colormap VIRIDIS (as well as INFERNO, MAGMA, and PLASMA),
• the default line colororder TAB10 (as well as TAB20, TAB20B, and TAB20C),
• the cyclic colormaps TWILIGHT and TWILIGHT_SHIFTED,
• the colorblind-friendly sequential colormap CIVIDIS.

For MatPlotLib 2.0 new colormaps were generated in the CAM02-UCS colorspace to have a constant change in lightness over the entire colormap. The process is described here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAoljeRJ3lU

The default colormap was changed to the newly created VIRIDIS (replacing the anti-pattern JET/RAINBOW) and the default line colororder changed to VEGA10 (note that the VEGA# colormaps were renamed TAB# in MatPlotLib 3), as described here:

https://matplotlib.org/stable/users/prev_whats_new/dflt_style_changes.html

The RGB data were obtained from:

• colormaps: https://bids.github.io/colormap/
• line colororder: https://github.com/vega/vega/wiki/Scales#scale-range-literals.

COLORMAP Examples

%% Plot the scheme's RGB values:
rgbplot(viridis(256))

%% New colors for the COLORMAP example:
load spine
imagesc(X)
colormap(viridis)

%% New colors for the SURF example:
[X,Y,Z] = peaks(30);
surfc(X,Y,Z)
colormap(viridis)
axis([-3,3,-3,3,-10,5])

COLORORDER Examples

%% PLOT using matrices:
N = 10;
X = linspace(0,pi*3,1000);
Y = bsxfun(@(x,n)sqrt(n)*sin(x+2*n*pi/N), X(:), 1:N);
plot(X,Y, 'linewidth',4)
colororder(tab10(N))

%% PLOT in a loop:
N = 10;
colororder(tab10(N))
X = linspace(0,pi*3,1000);
Y = bsxfun(@(x,n)sqrt(n)*sin(x+2*n*pi/N), X(:), 1:N);
for n = 1:N
    plot(X(:),Y(:,n), 'linewidth',4);
    hold on
end

%% LINE using matrices:
N = 10;
X = linspace(0,pi*3,1000);
Y = bsxfun(@(x,n)sqrt(n)*cos(x+2*n*pi/N), X(:), 1:N);
line(X(:),Y)
colororder(tab10(N))