Create a color generator from given colormap in matplotlib

Question

I have a series of lines that each need to be plotted with a separate colour. Each line is actually made up of several data sets (positive, negative regions etc.) and so I\'d li

Answer 1

To index colors from a specific colormap you can use:

import pylab
NUM_COLORS = 22

cm = pylab.get_cmap('gist_rainbow')
for i in range(NUM_COLORS):
    color = cm(1.*i/NUM_COLORS)  # color will now be an RGBA tuple

# or if you really want a generator:
cgen = (cm(1.*i/NUM_COLORS) for i in range(NUM_COLORS))