How to get different colored lines for different plots in a single figure?

Solution 1:

Matplotlib does this by default.

E.g.:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.arange(10)

plt.plot(x, x)
plt.plot(x, 2 * x)
plt.plot(x, 3 * x)
plt.plot(x, 4 * x)
plt.show()

And, as you may already know, you can easily add a legend:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.arange(10)

plt.plot(x, x)
plt.plot(x, 2 * x)
plt.plot(x, 3 * x)
plt.plot(x, 4 * x)

plt.legend(['y = x', 'y = 2x', 'y = 3x', 'y = 4x'], loc='upper left')

plt.show()

If you want to control the colors that will be cycled through:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

x = np.arange(10)

plt.gca().set_color_cycle(['red', 'green', 'blue', 'yellow'])

plt.plot(x, x)
plt.plot(x, 2 * x)
plt.plot(x, 3 * x)
plt.plot(x, 4 * x)

plt.legend(['y = x', 'y = 2x', 'y = 3x', 'y = 4x'], loc='upper left')

plt.show()

If you're unfamiliar with matplotlib, the tutorial is a good place to start.

Edit:

First off, if you have a lot (>5) of things you want to plot on one figure, either:

1. Put them on different plots (consider using a few subplots on one figure), or
2. Use something other than color (i.e. marker styles or line thickness) to distinguish between them.

Otherwise, you're going to wind up with a very messy plot! Be nice to who ever is going to read whatever you're doing and don't try to cram 15 different things onto one figure!!

Beyond that, many people are colorblind to varying degrees, and distinguishing between numerous subtly different colors is difficult for more people than you may realize.

That having been said, if you really want to put 20 lines on one axis with 20 relatively distinct colors, here's one way to do it:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

num_plots = 20

# Have a look at the colormaps here and decide which one you'd like:
# http://matplotlib.org/1.2.1/examples/pylab_examples/show_colormaps.html
colormap = plt.cm.gist_ncar
plt.gca().set_prop_cycle(plt.cycler('color', plt.cm.jet(np.linspace(0, 1, num_plots))))

# Plot several different functions...
x = np.arange(10)
labels = []
for i in range(1, num_plots + 1):
    plt.plot(x, i * x + 5 * i)
    labels.append(r'$y = %ix + %i$' % (i, 5*i))

# I'm basically just demonstrating several different legend options here...
plt.legend(labels, ncol=4, loc='upper center', 
           bbox_to_anchor=[0.5, 1.1], 
           columnspacing=1.0, labelspacing=0.0,
           handletextpad=0.0, handlelength=1.5,
           fancybox=True, shadow=True)

plt.show()

Solution 2:

Setting them later

If you don't know the number of the plots you are going to plot you can change the colours once you have plotted them retrieving the number directly from the plot using .lines, I use this solution:

Some random data

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

fig1 = plt.figure()
ax1 = fig1.add_subplot(111)


for i in range(1,15):
    ax1.plot(np.array([1,5])*i,label=i)

The piece of code that you need:

colormap = plt.cm.gist_ncar #nipy_spectral, Set1,Paired   
colors = [colormap(i) for i in np.linspace(0, 1,len(ax1.lines))]
for i,j in enumerate(ax1.lines):
    j.set_color(colors[i])
  

ax1.legend(loc=2)

The result is the following: