Built-in Continuous Color Scales in MATLAB^®

Change Colormap for Figure

Create a surface plot and set the colormap to winter.

surf(peaks)
colormap winter

fig2plotly(gcf);

Set Colormap Back to Default

First, change the colormap for the current figure to summer.

surf(peaks)
colormap summer

fig2plotly(gcf);

Now set the colormap back to your system's default value. If you have not specified a different default value, then the default colormap is parula.

surf(peaks)
colormap default

fig2plotly(gcf);

Use Different Colormaps for Each Axes in Figure

Starting in R2019b, you can display a tiling of plots using the tiledlayout and nexttile functions. Call the tiledlayout function to create a 2-by-1 tiled chart layout. Call the nexttile function to create the axes objects ax1 and ax2. Specify a different colormap for each axes by passing the axes object to the colormap function. In the upper axes, create a surface plot using the spring colormap. In the lower axes, create a surface plot using the winter colormap.

tiledlayout(2,1)
ax1 = nexttile;
surf(peaks)
colormap(ax1,spring)

ax2 = nexttile; 
surf(peaks)
colormap(ax2,winter)

fig2plotly(gcf);

Specify Number of Colors for Colormap

Specify the number of colors used in a colormap by passing an integer as an input argument to the built-in colormap. Use five colors from the parula colormap.

mesh(peaks)
colormap(parula(5))

fig2plotly(gcf);

Create Custom Colormap

Create a custom colormap by defining a three-column matrix of values between 0.0 and 1.0. Each row defines a three-element RGB triplet. The first column specifies the red intensities. The second column specifies the green intensities. The third column specifies the blue intensities.

Use a colormap of blue values by setting the first two columns to zeros.

map = [0 0 0.3
    0 0 0.4
    0 0 0.5
    0 0 0.6
    0 0 0.8
    0 0 1.0];

surf(peaks)
colormap(map)

fig2plotly(gcf);

Return Colormap Values Used in Plot

Create a surface plot of the peaks function and specify a colormap.

mesh(peaks)
colormap(autumn(5))

fig2plotly(gcf);

Return the three-column matrix of values that define the colors used in the plot. Each row is an RGB triplet color value that specifies one color of the colormap.

mesh(peaks)
colormap(autumn(5))

cmap = colormap

cmap =

    1.0000         0         0
    1.0000    0.2500         0
    1.0000    0.5000         0
    1.0000    0.7500         0
    1.0000    1.0000         0

Return Colormap Values for Specific Axes

Return the colormap values for a specific axes by passing the axes object to the colormap function.

Create a tiling of two plots using the tiledlayout and nexttile functions, which are new functions starting in R2019b. Call the tiledlayout function to create a 2-by-1 tiled chart layout. Call the nexttile function to create the axes objects ax1 and ax2. Then display two filled contour plots with different colormaps.

tiledlayout(2,1)
ax1 = nexttile;
contourf(peaks)
colormap(ax1,hot(8))

ax2 = nexttile;
contourf(peaks)
colormap(ax2,pink)

fig2plotly(gcf);

Return the colormap values used in the upper plot by passing ax1 to the colormap function. Each row is an RGB triplet color value that specifies one color of the colormap.

tiledlayout(2,1)
ax1 = nexttile;
contourf(peaks)
colormap(ax1,hot(8))

ax2 = nexttile;
contourf(peaks)
colormap(ax2,pink)

cmap = colormap(ax1)

cmap =

    0.3333         0         0
    0.6667         0         0
    1.0000         0         0
    1.0000    0.3333         0
    1.0000    0.6667         0
    1.0000    1.0000         0
    1.0000    1.0000    0.5000
    1.0000    1.0000    1.0000

Change Colormap for Figure with Image

Load the spine data set that returns the image X and its associated colormap map. Display X using the image function and set the colormap to map.

load spine
image(X)
colormap(map)

fig2plotly(gcf);