External links

This page contains links to related external projects.

Python packages

The following packages inspired UltraPlot, are required or optional dependencies of UltraPlot, or are distributed with UltraPlot:

• matplotlib - The powerful data visualization package we all know and love.

• xarray - A package for working with annotated ND numpy arrays. If you haven’t heard of it and you work with NetCDF files, it will change your life.

• pandas - A package that turns spreadsheets and tables into annotated 2D numpy arrays. Invaluable for many types of datasets.

• pint - A package for tracking and converting between physical units during mathematical operations and when plotting in matplotlib axes.

• cartopy - A package for plotting geographic and geophysical data in matplotlib. Includes a suite of different map projections.

• basemap - The original cartographic plotting package. Basemap is less closely integrated with matplotlib than cartopy but still quite popular. As of 2020 it is no longer actively maintained.

• seaborn - A statistical data visualization package. Seaborn is based on matplotlib but its interface is mostly separate from matplotlib. It is not generally suitable for geophysical data.

• hsluv-python - A python implementation of HSLuv used for the hue, saturation, luminance math required by PerceptualColormap.

• TeX Gyre - An open source re-implementation of popular fonts like Helvetica and Century. These are distributed with UltraPlot and used for its default font families.

• Fira Math - An open source sans-serif font with a zillion glyphs for mathematical symbols. This is distributed with UltraPlot as a viable alternative to DejaVu Sans.

Downloadable colormaps

The following colormap repositories are imported and registered by UltraPlot.

• Color Brewer - The O.G. perceptually uniform colormap distribution. These are included with matplotlib by default.

• cmOcean - Perceptually uniform colormaps designed for oceanography, but suitable for plenty of other applications.

• SciVisColor - Science-focused colormaps created by the viz team at UT Austin. Provides tools for concatenating colormaps, suitable for complex datasets with funky distributions.

• Fabio Crameri - Perceptually uniform colormaps for geoscientists. These maps have unusual and interesting color transitions.

Tools for making new colormaps

Use these resources to make colormaps from scratch. Then import them into UltraPlot by adding files to the .UltraPlot/cmaps folder (see this section for details).

• The UltraPlot API - Namely, the ContinuousColormap class and Colormap constructor function.

• HCL Wizard - An advanced interface for designing perceptually uniform colormaps, with example plots, channel plots, and lots of sliders.

• SciVisColor - An advanced interface for concatenating segments from a suite of colormap presets. Useful for datasets with complex statistical distributions.

• CCC-tool - An advanced interface for designing, analyzing, and concatenating colormaps, leaning on the SciViscolor presets.

• HCL Picker - A simple interface for taking cross-sections of the HCL colorspace. Resembles the examples shown here.

• Chroma.js - A simple interface for Bezier interpolating between lists of colors, with adjustable hue, chroma, and luminance channels.

Tools for making new color cycles

Use these resources to make color cycles from scratch. Then import them into UltraPlot by adding files to the .UltraPlot/cycles folder (see this section for details).

• The UltraPlot API - Namely, the DiscreteColormap class and Cycle constructor function.

• i want hue - An advanced interface for generating perceptually distinct color sets with options for restricting the hue, chroma, and luminance ranges.

• Color Cycle Picker - An advanced interface for generating perceptually distinct color sets based on seed colors, with colorblind-friendliness measures included.

• Colorgorical - An advanced interface for making perceptually distinct colors sets with both seed color and channel restriction options.

• Adobe Color - A simple interface for selecting color sets derived from sample images, including an option to upload images and a searchable image database.

• Color Hunt - A simple interface for selecting preset color sets voted on by users and grouped into stylistic categories like “summer” and “winter”.

• Coolors - A simple interface for building randomly-generated aesthetically-pleasing color sets that are not necessarily uniformly perceptually distinct.

• Color Drop - A simple interface for selecting preset color sets voted on by users.