Custom colormap

Create custom colormaps from single or multiple RGB values.
2.8K Downloads
Updated 1 Jul 2013

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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))]);

Cite As

Erik Kvaleberg (2024). Custom colormap (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/42450-custom-colormap), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

MATLAB Release Compatibility
Created with R2012a
Compatible with any release
Platform Compatibility
Windows macOS Linux
Categories
Find more on Colormaps in Help Center and MATLAB Answers
Acknowledgements

Inspired by: RGB triple of color name, version 2

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Version Published Release Notes
1.0.0.0