Colormap Editor

Open colormap editor

expand all in page

Description

The Colormap Editor allows you to customize the colormap of the selected figure or axes.

Using the Colormap Editor, you can:

  • Choose a predefined colormap.

  • Import a saved colormap from the workspace.

  • Adjust the position of colors in the colormap.

  • Change the color at a specific position.

MATLAB® applies your changes to the colormap of the selected figure or axes.

Open the Colormap Editor

MATLAB command prompt: Enter colormapeditor.

Examples

expand all

Load the mri dataset and display one of the image slices.

load mri
imagesc(D(:,:,1,11))

Cross-section of a brain displayed using blue, green, and yellow colors

Open the Colormap Editor. Change the colormap to Hot using the drop-down menu.

colormapeditor

Colormap Editor with the hot colormap selected

Cross-section of a brain displayed using black, red, and yellow colors

Adjust the colormap by clicking and dragging the red section to the right.

Colormap Editor with a cursor over the displayed colormap. An arrow points to the right.

The new colormap provides more detail near the center of the image.

Cross-section of brain displayed using darker red and yellow colors

Parameters

Customize Colormap

Color markers allow you to change the color and length of transitions in the colormap. View and adjust color markers by opening the Specify Color tab.

This table describes the adjustments you can make.

Adjustment

Adjustment Instructions

Add a color marker

Click the displayed colormap. You can also specify Current Index as an integer value between 1 and Size.

Select a marker

Click the marker.

Select multiple markers

Click the first marker. Then hold the Ctrl key as you click the other markers.

Move a marker

Click and drag the marker. Alternatively, select the marker and press the left and right arrow keys.

You can move only one marker at a time.

Delete a marker

Select the marker and then press the Delete key.

Delete multiple markers

Select the markers and then press the Delete key.

Change marker color

Double-click the marker and then choose a color from the dialog box.

Index of the color marker, specified as a positive integer between 1 and Size. View the index of a color marker by clicking on it. Add a new marker by specifying Current Index.

This property is read-only.

Color data value in the CData property of the graphics object using the colormap, specified as a number between CLim Minimum and CLim Maximum.

Edit Size and Colorspace

Number of colors, specified as an integer in the range [1, 1000].

Interpolating colorspace, specified as one of these values:

  • RGB — MATLAB calculates values in the new colormap by linearly interpolating the red, green, and blue components of color.

  • HSV — MATLAB calculates values in the new colormap by linearly interpolating the hue, saturation, and value coordinates. Hue corresponds to the values on a color wheel that transition from red to orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta, and finally back to red. Hue interpolation is calculated as the shortest distance between adjacent colors on the color wheel.

When you change the colorspace, the Colormap Editor preserves the number, color, and location of markers, which can cause the colormap to change.

Colormap reversal, specified as one of these values:

  • on – Reverse the order of colors in the displayed colormap.

  • off – Do not reverse the colormap.

These images show the parula colormap with Reverse specified as off and on.

offon

Colormap transitioning from blue on the left to yellow on the right

Colormap transitioning from yellow on the left to blue on the right

Set Colormap Limits

Colormap lower limit, specified as a number. All values in your plot data that are less than or equal to the value of CLim Minimum map to the first color in the colormap. All values between CLim Minimum and CLim Maximum map linearly to the intermediate colors of the colormap.

When you change CLim Minimum and CLim Maximum, those changes are reflected in the CLim property of the plotting axes.

Colormap upper limit, specified as a number. All values in your plot data that are greater than or equal to the value of CLim Maximum map to the last color in the colormap. All values between CLim Minimum and CLim Maximum map linearly to the intermediate colors of the colormap.

When you change CLim Minimum and CLim Maximum, those changes are reflected in the CLim property of the plotting axes.

Tips

  • To import a colormap from the workspace, select Import.

  • To save a colormap to the workspace after making changes, select File > Save as or press Ctrl+S. Use the save function to save the colormap as a MAT-file for use in future sessions.

See Also

Functions

Introduced before R2006a

MATLAB Documentation

Support