Re: [matplotlib-devel] RFC: candidates for a new default colormap

[Eric F. <ef...@ha...>]

On 2015/06/02 7:58 PM, Nathaniel Smith wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 2, 2015 at 10:03 PM, Paul Ivanov <pi...@be...> wrote:

> That said, if you want to play around with the editor tool, it's
> linked on the webpage :-).

This is a really nice tool!

Attached is an example of a map that circles the other direction, and 
that sacrifices some visual delta for less extreme ends.  Although I 
think the "sunrise" type of map that you offered in versions A, B, and C 
is a good one to have in the arsenal, I am not convinced that it should 
be the only category to be considered as a default.  Do we really want 
to reject the somewhat Parula-like category just because Matlab uses the 
real Parula?

I'm not saying the attached example is particularly good; it is intended 
to re-introduce the category.  (It is somewhat similar to a reversal of 
our ColorBrewer YlGnBu, so I tried to name it following that scheme.)

It seems that the fundamental constraints in this map generator tend to 
yield a somewhat muddy dark end and a muted middle.  That's one 
compromise among many that are possible.

Eric