[Matplotlib-users] automatically plotting points in different colors

[per f. <per...@gm...>]

hi all,

i have a set of about 100-500 points that i'd like to color in different
colors. i tried the following, using the c= argument to the scatter command:

x = rand(200)
scatter(x, x, c=xrange(1,201))

however, only a handful of colors seem to be used and the points look very
similar. what i am looking for is a different color for every point -- it
can even be different shades, as in this example:

http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/pylab_examples/ellipse_collection.html

does anyone know how to create this?

also, more complex, is there a way to do this where every point gets not
only a different color but a different symbol? e.g. '^', 's', 'x', etc. ? i
know there aren't 200 different symbols but it'd be nice if it cycled
through the different symbols as much as possible (e.g. one point might be
blue '^' and another might be red '^') to distinguish the points

thanks.