More Matlab-like way to manipulate colormaps?

Hi. Making progress. Caveat for what follows: the last version of Matlab I used was like 6 or 7, I think - it's been a little while - so for all I know, the colormap manipulation API I've been able to discover in the current MPL does correspond closely to the same thing in the current Matlab. That said, said MPL colormap API is much more "powerful" (and consequently complicated) than I need, at least for right now. :slight_smile: Is there a set of tools I'm not finding, or perhaps a third-party add-on, that enables more Matlab-like colormap manipulation? For example, I'm use to a (Matlab) colormap simply being an Nx3 array of N RGB triples (or at least that's the API), which one can then process using standard array operators (+, *, etc.), methods (transpose, flipud, fliplr, etc), etc. and create and apply new colormaps by simply saying "colormap = <new N x 3 array>" - are there tools which enable this manner of manipulating MPL's colormap class instances? Or
a "built-in" API to these that I'm not finding? Thanks!

DG

PS: In case this is relevant, I'm using the OO API, not pylab. Thanks again.

David,

There is no such API--maybe we should add some methods to the base Colormap so there would be--but you can do it yourself in either of two ways.

First, you can generate a colormap from a list of colors, and the colors can be rgb triplets, so you could make your Nx3 array, do whatever you want with it, and then turn it into a colormap by using it to initialize a ListedColormap. (The ListedColormap accepts an Nx3 array, or a list of any valid mpl colorspecs.)

Second, if you have any existing mpl Colormap instance, you can directly manipulate the _lut attribute; it is an ndarray and its dimensions are (N+3)x4. You might want to manipulate only the [:N,:3] subarray of it. The leading underscore means this attribute is not intended for user manipulation--but there is nothing to stop you from doing it in a pinch if necessary.

Eric

David Goldsmith wrote:

路路路

Hi. Making progress. Caveat for what follows: the last version of Matlab I used was like 6 or 7, I think - it's been a little while - so for all I know, the colormap manipulation API I've been able to discover in the current MPL does correspond closely to the same thing in the current Matlab. That said, said MPL colormap API is much more "powerful" (and consequently complicated) than I need, at least for right now. :slight_smile: Is there a set of tools I'm not finding, or perhaps a third-party add-on, that enables more Matlab-like colormap manipulation? For example, I'm use to a (Matlab) colormap simply being an Nx3 array of N RGB triples (or at least that's the API), which one can then process using standard array operators (+, *, etc.), methods (transpose, flipud, fliplr, etc), etc. and create and apply new colormaps by simply saying "colormap = <new N x 3 array>" - are there tools which enable this manner of manipulating MPL's colormap class instances? Or
a "built-in" API to these that I'm not finding? Thanks!

DG

PS: In case this is relevant, I'm using the OO API, not pylab. Thanks again.

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Thanks Eric. Yeah, I noticed the _lut attribute and conjectured that it was the most analogous structure. Can you please tell me more about it, e.g., why N+3? Is the fourth column an alpha spec? If so, would this be a way to give different colors different alpha values (which is something I want to be able to do; actually, what I want to do is to be able to specify a non-constant array of alpha values, i.e., I want direct pixel-to-pixel control over alpha values...) Anyway, I'll build some tools around it and submit as a "patch" for possible inclusion in future releases...

DG

路路路

--- On Sun, 6/22/08, Eric Firing <efiring@...202...> wrote:

From: Eric Firing <efiring@...202...>
Subject: Re: [Matplotlib-users] More Matlab-like way to manipulate colormaps?
To: d_l_goldsmith@...9...
Cc: matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Date: Sunday, June 22, 2008, 1:14 AM
David,

There is no such API--maybe we should add some methods to
the base
Colormap so there would be--but you can do it yourself in
either of two
ways.

First, you can generate a colormap from a list of colors,
and the colors
can be rgb triplets, so you could make your Nx3 array, do
whatever you
want with it, and then turn it into a colormap by using it
to initialize
a ListedColormap. (The ListedColormap accepts an Nx3
array, or a list
of any valid mpl colorspecs.)

Second, if you have any existing mpl Colormap instance, you
can directly
manipulate the _lut attribute; it is an ndarray and its
dimensions are
(N+3)x4. You might want to manipulate only the [:N,:3]
subarray of it.
  The leading underscore means this attribute is not
intended for user
manipulation--but there is nothing to stop you from doing
it in a pinch
if necessary.

Eric

David Goldsmith wrote:
> Hi. Making progress. Caveat for what follows: the
last version of Matlab I used was like 6 or 7, I think -
it's been a little while - so for all I know, the
colormap manipulation API I've been able to discover in
the current MPL does correspond closely to the same thing in
the current Matlab. That said, said MPL colormap API is
much more "powerful" (and consequently
complicated) than I need, at least for right now. :slight_smile: Is
there a set of tools I'm not finding, or perhaps a
third-party add-on, that enables more Matlab-like colormap
manipulation? For example, I'm use to a (Matlab)
colormap simply being an Nx3 array of N RGB triples (or at
least that's the API), which one can then process using
standard array operators (+, *, etc.), methods (transpose,
flipud, fliplr, etc), etc. and create and apply new
colormaps by simply saying "colormap = <new N x 3
>" - are there tools which enable this manner
of manipulating MPL's colormap class instances? Or
> a "built-in" API to these that I'm not
finding? Thanks!
>
> DG
>
> PS: In case this is relevant, I'm using the OO
API, not pylab. Thanks again.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> Check out the new SourceForge.net Marketplace.
> It's the best place to buy or sell services for
> just about anything Open Source.
> http://sourceforge.net/services/buy/index.php
> _______________________________________________
> Matplotlib-users mailing list
> Matplotlib-users@lists.sourceforge.net
>
matplotlib-users List Signup and Options