如何绘制渐变色线

Question

简单来说，我想找到一种方法，用渐变色的线把几个点连接起来，使用的是matplotlib，但我到处找都没找到这个方法。

更具体一点，我在绘制一个二维的随机漫步图，线的颜色是单一的。但是，由于这些点之间有重要的顺序，我希望在图上能看到数据是如何移动的。用渐变色的线就能解决这个问题。或者用透明度逐渐变化的线也可以。

我只是想让我的数据可视化效果更好。看看这个用R的ggplot2包制作的漂亮图片。我想在matplotlib中实现同样的效果。谢谢。

Answer 1

因为评论太长，所以我想确认一下，LineCollection比用循环处理线段要快很多。

在我这里，使用LineCollection的方法确实快得多。

# Setup
x = np.linspace(0,4*np.pi,1000)
y = np.sin(x)
MAP = 'cubehelix'
NPOINTS = len(x)

我们将测试迭代绘图和上面提到的LineCollection方法。

%%timeit -n1 -r1
# Using IPython notebook timing magics
fig = plt.figure()
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(111) # regular resolution color map
cm = plt.get_cmap(MAP)
for i in range(10):
    ax1.set_color_cycle([cm(1.*i/(NPOINTS-1)) for i in range(NPOINTS-1)])
    for i in range(NPOINTS-1):
        plt.plot(x[i:i+2],y[i:i+2])

1次循环，最快时间为1次循环：每次13.4秒

%%timeit -n1 -r1 
fig = plt.figure()
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(111) # regular resolution color map
for i in range(10):
    colorline(x,y,cmap='cubehelix', linewidth=1)

1次循环，最快时间为1次循环：每次532毫秒

如果你想要一个平滑的颜色渐变，像当前选中的答案所提供的那样，增加线条的采样点仍然是个好主意，尤其是当你只有几个点的时候。

Answer 2

注意，如果你有很多个点，每次都用 plt.plot 来画每一段线会非常慢。用一个叫做 LineCollection 的对象会更高效。

使用这个 colorline 的方法，你可以这样做：

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.collections as mcoll
import matplotlib.path as mpath

def colorline(
    x, y, z=None, cmap=plt.get_cmap('copper'), norm=plt.Normalize(0.0, 1.0),
        linewidth=3, alpha=1.0):
    """
    http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/dpsanders/matplotlib-examples/blob/master/colorline.ipynb
    http://matplotlib.org/examples/pylab_examples/multicolored_line.html
    Plot a colored line with coordinates x and y
    Optionally specify colors in the array z
    Optionally specify a colormap, a norm function and a line width
    """

    # Default colors equally spaced on [0,1]:
    if z is None:
        z = np.linspace(0.0, 1.0, len(x))

    # Special case if a single number:
    if not hasattr(z, "__iter__"):  # to check for numerical input -- this is a hack
        z = np.array([z])

    z = np.asarray(z)

    segments = make_segments(x, y)
    lc = mcoll.LineCollection(segments, array=z, cmap=cmap, norm=norm,
                              linewidth=linewidth, alpha=alpha)

    ax = plt.gca()
    ax.add_collection(lc)

    return lc


def make_segments(x, y):
    """
    Create list of line segments from x and y coordinates, in the correct format
    for LineCollection: an array of the form numlines x (points per line) x 2 (x
    and y) array
    """

    points = np.array([x, y]).T.reshape(-1, 1, 2)
    segments = np.concatenate([points[:-1], points[1:]], axis=1)
    return segments

N = 10
np.random.seed(101)
x = np.random.rand(N)
y = np.random.rand(N)
fig, ax = plt.subplots()

path = mpath.Path(np.column_stack([x, y]))
verts = path.interpolated(steps=3).vertices
x, y = verts[:, 0], verts[:, 1]
z = np.linspace(0, 1, len(x))
colorline(x, y, z, cmap=plt.get_cmap('jet'), linewidth=2)

plt.show()

Answer 3

我最近回答了一个类似的问题（ 使用matplotlib创建超过20种独特的图例颜色 ）。在那个回答中，我展示了如何将你需要绘制的线条颜色循环映射到一个颜色图上。你可以用同样的方法为每一对点获取特定的颜色。

选择颜色图的时候要小心，因为如果颜色图颜色太丰富，线条上的颜色变化可能会显得很突兀。

另外，你还可以调整每段线的透明度，透明度的范围是从0到1。

下面的代码示例中包含了一个例程（highResPoints），用来增加你随机游走的点的数量，因为如果点太少，颜色变化可能会显得很剧烈。这个代码灵感来自我最近的另一个回答： https://stackoverflow.com/a/8253729/717357

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def highResPoints(x,y,factor=10):
    '''
    Take points listed in two vectors and return them at a higher
    resultion. Create at least factor*len(x) new points that include the
    original points and those spaced in between.

    Returns new x and y arrays as a tuple (x,y).
    '''

    # r is the distance spanned between pairs of points
    r = [0]
    for i in range(1,len(x)):
        dx = x[i]-x[i-1]
        dy = y[i]-y[i-1]
        r.append(np.sqrt(dx*dx+dy*dy))
    r = np.array(r)

    # rtot is a cumulative sum of r, it's used to save time
    rtot = []
    for i in range(len(r)):
        rtot.append(r[0:i].sum())
    rtot.append(r.sum())

    dr = rtot[-1]/(NPOINTS*RESFACT-1)
    xmod=[x[0]]
    ymod=[y[0]]
    rPos = 0 # current point on walk along data
    rcount = 1 
    while rPos < r.sum():
        x1,x2 = x[rcount-1],x[rcount]
        y1,y2 = y[rcount-1],y[rcount]
        dpos = rPos-rtot[rcount] 
        theta = np.arctan2((x2-x1),(y2-y1))
        rx = np.sin(theta)*dpos+x1
        ry = np.cos(theta)*dpos+y1
        xmod.append(rx)
        ymod.append(ry)
        rPos+=dr
        while rPos > rtot[rcount+1]:
            rPos = rtot[rcount+1]
            rcount+=1
            if rcount>rtot[-1]:
                break

    return xmod,ymod


#CONSTANTS
NPOINTS = 10
COLOR='blue'
RESFACT=10
MAP='winter' # choose carefully, or color transitions will not appear smoooth

# create random data
np.random.seed(101)
x = np.random.rand(NPOINTS)
y = np.random.rand(NPOINTS)

fig = plt.figure()
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(221) # regular resolution color map
ax2 = fig.add_subplot(222) # regular resolution alpha
ax3 = fig.add_subplot(223) # high resolution color map
ax4 = fig.add_subplot(224) # high resolution alpha

# Choose a color map, loop through the colors, and assign them to the color 
# cycle. You need NPOINTS-1 colors, because you'll plot that many lines 
# between pairs. In other words, your line is not cyclic, so there's 
# no line from end to beginning
cm = plt.get_cmap(MAP)
ax1.set_color_cycle([cm(1.*i/(NPOINTS-1)) for i in range(NPOINTS-1)])
for i in range(NPOINTS-1):
    ax1.plot(x[i:i+2],y[i:i+2])


ax1.text(.05,1.05,'Reg. Res - Color Map')
ax1.set_ylim(0,1.2)

# same approach, but fixed color and 
# alpha is scale from 0 to 1 in NPOINTS steps
for i in range(NPOINTS-1):
    ax2.plot(x[i:i+2],y[i:i+2],alpha=float(i)/(NPOINTS-1),color=COLOR)

ax2.text(.05,1.05,'Reg. Res - alpha')
ax2.set_ylim(0,1.2)

# get higher resolution data
xHiRes,yHiRes = highResPoints(x,y,RESFACT)
npointsHiRes = len(xHiRes)

cm = plt.get_cmap(MAP)

ax3.set_color_cycle([cm(1.*i/(npointsHiRes-1)) 
                     for i in range(npointsHiRes-1)])


for i in range(npointsHiRes-1):
    ax3.plot(xHiRes[i:i+2],yHiRes[i:i+2])

ax3.text(.05,1.05,'Hi Res - Color Map')
ax3.set_ylim(0,1.2)

for i in range(npointsHiRes-1):
    ax4.plot(xHiRes[i:i+2],yHiRes[i:i+2],
             alpha=float(i)/(npointsHiRes-1),
             color=COLOR)
ax4.text(.05,1.05,'High Res - alpha')
ax4.set_ylim(0,1.2)



fig.savefig('gradColorLine.png')
plt.show()

这个图展示了四种情况：