[matplotlib-devel] Matlab parula colormap

2014-10-21 Thread Pierre Haessig
Hi,

Matlab is now shipping with a new default colormap, named "parula" 
[1,2]. It is meant to overcome the many issues of the current default 
"jet". It seems that the RGB values of this new colormap are already 
onnline [3].

So my question is:
* is it worth adding this parula in the Matplotlib colormap collection ? 
(I think it is)
* is there any copyright issue with that ? (I have no idea how 
copyrightable a list of numbers is !)

(I'm not speeking of changing the *default* colormap since this is 
already discussed here https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/875)

best,
Pierre

1 
http://blogs.mathworks.com/steve/2014/10/13/a-new-colormap-for-matlab-part-1-introduction/
2 
http://blogs.mathworks.com/steve/2014/10/20/a-new-colormap-for-matlab-part-2-troubles-with-rainbows/
3 
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/158575-values-fo-colormap-parula

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Re: [matplotlib-devel] Matlab parula colormap

2014-10-21 Thread Eric Firing
On 2014/10/20, 9:50 PM, Pierre Haessig wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Matlab is now shipping with a new default colormap, named "parula"
> [1,2]. It is meant to overcome the many issues of the current default
> "jet". It seems that the RGB values of this new colormap are already
> onnline [3].
>
> So my question is:
> * is it worth adding this parula in the Matplotlib colormap collection ?
> (I think it is)

Yes, *if* the answer to your next question allows it.

> * is there any copyright issue with that ? (I have no idea how
> copyrightable a list of numbers is !)

That's the big question: what is the IP status?

Eric


>
> (I'm not speeking of changing the *default* colormap since this is
> already discussed here https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues/875)
>
> best,
> Pierre
>
> 1
> http://blogs.mathworks.com/steve/2014/10/13/a-new-colormap-for-matlab-part-1-introduction/
> 2
> http://blogs.mathworks.com/steve/2014/10/20/a-new-colormap-for-matlab-part-2-troubles-with-rainbows/
> 3
> http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/158575-values-fo-colormap-parula
>
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Re: [matplotlib-devel] Matlab parula colormap

2014-10-21 Thread Nathaniel Smith
On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 8:50 AM, Pierre Haessig
 wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Matlab is now shipping with a new default colormap, named "parula"
> [1,2]. It is meant to overcome the many issues of the current default
> "jet". It seems that the RGB values of this new colormap are already
> onnline [3].
>
> So my question is:
> * is it worth adding this parula in the Matplotlib colormap collection ?
> (I think it is)
> * is there any copyright issue with that ? (I have no idea how
> copyrightable a list of numbers is !)

The general rule is that copyright requires "creative expression".
This is a pretty marginal case at best, since that the colormap
appears to have been derived by solving an optimization problem, but
worst case we could always re-solve that optimization problem
ourselves. (I've played before with using CAM02-UCS to automatically
generate perceptually uniform colormaps - it's not terribly difficult
to do.)

-n

-- 
Nathaniel J. Smith
Postdoctoral researcher - Informatics - University of Edinburgh
http://vorpus.org

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Re: [matplotlib-devel] Matlab parula colormap

2014-10-21 Thread Eric Firing
On 2014/10/21, 6:27 AM, Nathaniel Smith wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 8:50 AM, Pierre Haessig
>  wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> Matlab is now shipping with a new default colormap, named "parula"
>> [1,2]. It is meant to overcome the many issues of the current default
>> "jet". It seems that the RGB values of this new colormap are already
>> onnline [3].
>>
>> So my question is:
>> * is it worth adding this parula in the Matplotlib colormap collection ?
>> (I think it is)
>> * is there any copyright issue with that ? (I have no idea how
>> copyrightable a list of numbers is !)
>
> The general rule is that copyright requires "creative expression".
> This is a pretty marginal case at best, since that the colormap
> appears to have been derived by solving an optimization problem, but
> worst case we could always re-solve that optimization problem
> ourselves. (I've played before with using CAM02-UCS to automatically
> generate perceptually uniform colormaps - it's not terribly difficult
> to do.)
>
> -n
>
There are additional considerations, such as working well for the most 
common form of color-blindness, providing as much resolution as 
possible, and being aesthetically pleasing to most people.

Eric

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Re: [matplotlib-devel] Matlab parula colormap

2014-10-21 Thread Nathaniel Smith
On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 8:09 PM, Eric Firing  wrote:
> On 2014/10/21, 6:27 AM, Nathaniel Smith wrote:
>> On Tue, Oct 21, 2014 at 8:50 AM, Pierre Haessig
>>  wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Matlab is now shipping with a new default colormap, named "parula"
>>> [1,2]. It is meant to overcome the many issues of the current default
>>> "jet". It seems that the RGB values of this new colormap are already
>>> onnline [3].
>>>
>>> So my question is:
>>> * is it worth adding this parula in the Matplotlib colormap collection ?
>>> (I think it is)
>>> * is there any copyright issue with that ? (I have no idea how
>>> copyrightable a list of numbers is !)
>>
>> The general rule is that copyright requires "creative expression".
>> This is a pretty marginal case at best, since that the colormap
>> appears to have been derived by solving an optimization problem, but
>> worst case we could always re-solve that optimization problem
>> ourselves. (I've played before with using CAM02-UCS to automatically
>> generate perceptually uniform colormaps - it's not terribly difficult
>> to do.)
>>
> There are additional considerations, such as working well for the most
> common form of color-blindness, providing as much resolution as
> possible, and being aesthetically pleasing to most people.

Sure, but the first two of those are just extra constraints on the optimization.

Apparently they'll be making another blog post soon describing the
actual constraints they used.

-- 
Nathaniel J. Smith
Postdoctoral researcher - Informatics - University of Edinburgh
http://vorpus.org

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