How to set the default color cycle for all subplots with matplotlib?

Question

How can I set a default set of colors for plots made with matplotlib? I can set a particular color map like this

import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt  fig=plt.figure(i) ax=plt.gca() colormap = plt.get_cmap('jet') ax.set_color_cycle([colormap(k) for k in np.linspace(0, 1, 10)]) 

but is there some way to set the same set of colors for all plots, including subplots?

Answer 1

Sure! Either specify axes.color_cycle in your .matplotlibrc file or set it at runtime using matplotlib.rcParams or matplotlib.rc.

As an example of the latter:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import matplotlib as mpl import numpy as np  # Set the default color cycle mpl.rcParams['axes.prop_cycle'] = mpl.cycler(color=["r", "k", "c"])   x = np.linspace(0, 20, 100)  fig, axes = plt.subplots(nrows=2)  for i in range(10):     axes[0].plot(x, i * (x - 10)**2)  for i in range(10):     axes[1].plot(x, i * np.cos(x))  plt.show() 

Answer 2

Starting from matplotlib 1.5, mpl.rcParams['axes.color_cycle'] is deprecated. You should use axes.prop_cycle:

import matplotlib as mpl mpl.rcParams['axes.prop_cycle'] = mpl.cycler(color=["r", "#e94cdc", "0.7"])