CMAP creates a custom colormap based on RGB values in the MATLAB format(values between 0-1). By specifying a base color, for example green: [0 1 0], CMAP creates a colormap with a specified number of colors around this value, and omits the darkest/lightest colors based on user input. Combine several CMAP calls to create multi-color maps as the example image shows.
Inputs:
- Base color
- Number of colors in the colormap (optional)
- Percentage cut of darkest colors (optional)
- Percentage cut of lightest colors (optional)
By downloading RGB triple of color name, version 2 (File ID: #24497), by Kristjan Jonasson, CMAP input may be specified as color names ('seagreen', 'darkred', etc.)
Example:
figure; pcolor([0:20;0:20]); cmap([0 1 0],10,20,5); colorbar
This gives a colormap in green tones, with 10 colors. 20% of the darkest colors and 5% of the lightest colors have been cut.
The attached sample figure (global mean sea surface temperature in July) was plotted using:
colormap([cmap('steelblue',50,10,0);flipud(cmap('orangered',50,10,0))]);
Erik Kvaleberg (2021). Custom colormap (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/42450-custom-colormap), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .
Inspired by: RGB triple of color name, version 2
Inspired: CubeHelix Colormap Generator: Beautiful and Versatile!, ColorBrewer: Attractive and Distinctive Colormaps
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This is awesome! I have a question though: Is there an upper limit to how many different colors you can specify? I seem to be hitting a ceiling of 12001.
Josh: Yes, if you set the "percentage cut of lightest colors" to zero, for example like this:
pcolor(rand(20,20))
colormap(flipud(cmap([0 0 1],10,5,0)))
colorbar
This will plot random values 0-1 with a colorbar from white to dark blue. Change the 10 and 5 numbers to set the number of discrete colors and the shade of blue (or any other color you choose).
I was wondering if it were possible to have the color scale begin to fade out from zero (i.e. the white would == 0 and then fade into color)?
~Josh