.. _text_labels_and_annotations-rainbow_text: text_labels_and_annotations example code: rainbow_text.py ========================================================= .. plot:: /home/tcaswell/other_source/matplotlib/doc/mpl_examples/text_labels_and_annotations/rainbow_text.py :: # -*- coding: utf-8 -*- """ 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=18) plt.show() Keywords: python, matplotlib, pylab, example, codex (see :ref:`how-to-search-examples`)