Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ pgfplots | Changing the Color Maps

[niles]

Hi

I am using pgfplots to make a plot, here is a MWE from the manual:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[ansinew]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsthm,amssymb}

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{colormaps,external}
\tikzexternalize[shell escape=-enable-write18] %needed for the MiKTeX compiler

\begin{document}
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
      grid=major,
      colormap/blackwhite
    ]
      \addplot3[surf,samples=30,domain=0:1]{5*x*sin(2*deg(x))*y};
    \end{axis}
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

I am using the "blackwhite" color map. However as the output shows, the lowest values are black while the largest values are white. To me this is very "offensive" to the eye, but I still like the "neutral" look of black/white/grey. Is there a way to change the color map such that lowest values become grey instead of black?


Best,
Niles.

[josephwright]

Taking a look in the documentation, the blackwhite map has a handy pair of start and end densities we can alter.

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[ansinew]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsthm,amssymb}

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{colormaps,external}
%\tikzexternalize[shell escape=-enable-write18] %needed for the MiKTeX compiler

\begin{document}
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
      grid=major,
      colormap={blackwhite}{gray(0cm)=(1); gray(1cm)=(0)} % Change here
    ]
      \addplot3[surf,samples=30,domain=0:1]{5*x*sin(2*deg(x))*y};
    \end{axis}
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

(BTW, MiKTeX should recognise --shell-escape as well as --enable-write18.)

[niles]

Thanks, that is kind of you.

Best,
Niles.