Rainbow text

The example shows how to string together several text objects.

HISTORY

On the matplotlib-users list back in February 2012, Gökhan Sever asked the following question:

Is there a way in matplotlib to partially specify the color of a string?

Example:

plt.ylabel(“Today is cloudy.”) How can I show “today” as red, “is” as green and “cloudy.” as blue?

Thanks.

Paul Ivanov responded with this answer:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import transforms


def rainbow_text(x, y, strings, colors, ax=None, **kw):
    """
    Take a list of ``strings`` and ``colors`` and place them next to each
    other, with text strings[i] being shown in colors[i].

    This example shows how to do both vertical and horizontal text, and will
    pass all keyword arguments to plt.text, so you can set the font size,
    family, etc.

    The text will get added to the ``ax`` axes, if provided, otherwise the
    currently active axes will be used.
    """
    if ax is None:
        ax = plt.gca()
    t = ax.transData
    canvas = ax.figure.canvas

    # horizontal version
    for s, c in zip(strings, colors):
        text = ax.text(x, y, s + " ", color=c, transform=t, **kw)
        text.draw(canvas.get_renderer())
        ex = text.get_window_extent()
        t = transforms.offset_copy(text._transform, x=ex.width, units='dots')

    # vertical version
    for s, c in zip(strings, colors):
        text = ax.text(x, y, s + " ", color=c, transform=t,
                       rotation=90, va='bottom', ha='center', **kw)
        text.draw(canvas.get_renderer())
        ex = text.get_window_extent()
        t = transforms.offset_copy(text._transform, y=ex.height, units='dots')


rainbow_text(0, 0, "all unicorns poop rainbows ! ! !".split(),
             ['red', 'cyan', 'brown', 'green', 'blue', 'purple', 'black'],
             size=16)

plt.show()