colororder

Set the color order for the figure to four colors. Define an x-coordinate vector and four y-coordinate vectors. Then plot each set of coordinates.

newcolors = [0.83 0.14 0.14
             1.00 0.54 0.00
             0.47 0.25 0.80
             0.25 0.80 0.54];
         
colororder(newcolors)

% Define coordinates
x = linspace(0,10);
y1 = sin(x);
y2 = sin(x-0.5);
y3 = sin(x-1);
y4 = sin(x-1.5);

% Plot coordinates
plot(x,y1,'LineWidth',2)
hold on
plot(x,y2,'LineWidth',2)
plot(x,y3,'LineWidth',2)
plot(x,y4,'LineWidth',2)
hold off

Create a vector of x-coordinates and a matrix of y-coordinates. Then plot the coordinates.

x = [1 2];
y = [0 1 2 3; 1 2 3 4];
plot(x,y,"LineWidth",2)

Change the colors of the plot by passing four hexadecimal color codes to the colororder function.

newcolors = ["#0B0" "#00F" "#50F" "#A0F"];
colororder(newcolors)

You can also specify one of several named color palettes. Change the colors to the palette named sail.

colororder("sail")

Display three series of bars. Then set the color order to blue, purple, and gray.

bar([10 20 30; 25 35 45; 30 40 52])
newcolors = [0 0.5 1; 0.5 0 1; 0.7 0.7 0.7];
colororder(newcolors)

Setting the color order for the figure before calling yyaxis sets the color for each y-axis. The left side uses the first color, and the right side uses the second color. If you specify more than two colors, the additional colors are not used by either side.

Define newcolors as a matrix containing two RGB triplets. Set the color order for the figure, and plot two lines against the left side. Then plot two lines against the right side.

newcolors = [0.40 0.30 0.90; 0.50 0.65 0.15];
colororder(newcolors)

% Left side
yyaxis left
plot([1 2; 3 4])

% Right side
yyaxis right
plot([4 3; 2 1])

Setting the color order for the figure after calling yyaxis sets the color for the active side.

Activate the left y-axis and plot three lines. Set the line style order to one solid line and change the y-axis color to blue. Then set the color order to three shades of blue.

% Left side
yyaxis left
plot([1 2 3; 4 5 6])
ax = gca;
ax.LineStyleOrder = '-';
ax.YColor = 'blue';
leftcolors = [0 0 1; 0 0.50 1; 0 0.80 1];
colororder(leftcolors)

Activate the right y-axis and plot two lines. Change the y-axis color to black. Then set the color order to black.

% Right side
yyaxis right
plot([4 3; 2 1])
ax.YColor = 'black';
colororder('black')

When you call a plotting function with a color argument, the plotting function uses that color instead of the next color in the color order.

Set the color order of the figure to red, magenta, and blue. Call the scatter function to plot a series of scattered points. Then plot a second series of points, and specify the markers as black asterisks.

newcolors = {'red','magenta','blue'};
colororder(newcolors)
scatter(1:10,rand(1,10),'filled')
hold on
scatter(1:10,rand(1,10),'*k')

Plot a third series of points without specifying the marker color. Notice that this series uses the third color in the color order, which is blue.

scatter(1:10,rand(1,10),'filled')
hold off

Create a tiled chart layout and plot three lines in the first tile.

tiledlayout('flow')
nexttile
plot([1 2 3; 4 5 6],'LineWidth',2)

Call the nexttile function with a return argument to get the axes object for the second tile. Plot three lines in the second tile. Then get the color order matrix for the axes and return the output in C. Change the first color in C to purple, and set the axes color order to the modified C matrix.

ax = nexttile;
plot(ax,[4 5 6; 1 2 3],'LineWidth',2)
C = colororder(ax);
C(1,:) = [0.5 0 1];
colororder(ax,C)

Since R2023b

Named palettes provide a convenient way to change the colors of a chart. This example compares four different palettes in a tiled chart layout.

Create a tiled chart layout containing one axes object by calling the nexttile function. Then create a bar chart of random numbers using the default palette, gem.

nexttile
bar(rand(3,5))
title("gem")

Create three more bar charts using the reef, meadow, and earth palettes. To specify the colors for the different axes, you must pass the axes object to the colororder function. To get the axes objects, specify an output argument when you call nexttile.

ax2 = nexttile;
bar(rand(3,5))
colororder(ax2,"reef")
title("reef")

ax3 = nexttile;
bar(rand(3,5))
colororder(ax3,"meadow")
title("meadow")

ax4 = nexttile;
bar(rand(3,5))
colororder(ax4,"earth")
title("earth")