The new default colormap for matplotlib is called “viridis” and it’s great!

As is known by anyone in the field of data visualization, the “jet” colormap has some flaws:

• Doesn’t work when printed black & white
• Doesn’t work well for colourblind people
• Not linear in colour space, so it’s hard to estimate numerical values from the resulting image

The Matlab team recently developed a new colormap called “parula” but since Matlab is commercially-licensed software, it’s use is restricted.

The Matplotlib team have therefore developed their own version, based on the principles of colour theory (covered in my own BSc lecture courses on Visualization). The new Matplotlib default colormap is named “viridis” and it will become the new default colour map starting with Matplotlib v2.0. Users of older versions v1.5.1 can still choose viridis manually using cmap=plt.cm.viridis.

I don’t know about you, but I like it a lot and will start using it immediately!