How to do it...

The following code block draws five different plots to demonstrate most of the possible combinations for specifying the colors, line styles, and markers:

1. Define the figure layout, as follows:
   

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(12,6))

2. Define axes names for each of the plots:
   

ax1 = plt.subplot(321)
ax2 = plt.subplot(322)
ax3 = plt.subplot(323)
ax4 = plt.subplot(324)
ax5 = plt.subplot(325)
ax6 = plt.subplot(326)

3. Set up data for x co-ordinates:

x = np.linspace(0, 10, 20)

4. Following is the demonstration of many color specifications:
   • xkcd:sky blue: Name from xkcd color survey
   • green: CSS4 color name
   • 1F1F1F1F: Hexadecimal value in RGBA format; digits range from 0-F 
   • b: CSS4 color abbreviation
   • 1C0B2D: Hexadecimal value in RGB format
   • pink: Tableau color
   • C4: Color from property cycle; this is case-sensitive, and C has to be capitalized

We represent them in code format as follows:

color_list = ['xkcd:sky blue', 'green', '#1F1F1F1F', 'b', '#1C0B2D', 
              'pink', 'C4']
for i, color in enumerate(color_list):
    y = x - (-5*i + 15)
    ax1.plot(x, y, color)
ax1.set_title('colors demo')

5. The following is a demonstration of the many line styles:

line_style = ['-', '--', '-.', ':', '.']
for i, ls in enumerate(line_style):
    y = x - (-5*i + 15)
    line, = ax2.plot(x, y, ls)
ax2.set_title('line style demo')
plt.setp(line, ls='steps')

6. Here is a demonstration of the many marker specifications:

marker_list = ['.', ',', 'o', 'v', '^', 's', 'p', '*', 'h', 'H', 
               'D']
for i, marker in enumerate(marker_list):
    y = x - (-5*i + 15)
    ax3.plot(x, y, marker)
ax3.set_title('marker demo')

7. The following is a demonstration of specifying combinations of color, line styles, and markers:

y = x          # reset y to x
ax4.plot(x, y-10, 'k-d')
ax4.plot(x, y-5, 'c--')
ax4.plot(x, y, '|')
ax4.plot(x, y+5, '-.')
ax4.plot(x, y+10, color='purple', ls=':', marker='3')
ax4.plot(x, y+15, color='orange', linestyle=':', marker='1')
ax4.set_title('combination demo')

8. The following is a demonstration of specifying colors and sizes of lines and markers:

ax5.plot(x, y-10, 'y-D', linewidth=2, markersize=4, 
         markerfacecolor='red',  
         markeredgecolor='k',markeredgewidth=1)
ax5.plot(x, y-5, 'm-s', lw=4, ms=6, markerfacecolor='red', 
         markeredgecolor='y', markeredgewidth=1)
ax5.set_title('Line and Marker Sizes Demo')

9. The following is a demonstration of cap styles for dashed lines:

dash_capstyles = ['butt','projecting','round']
for i, cs in enumerate(dash_capstyles):
    y = x - (-5*i + 15)
    ax6.plot(x, y, ls='--', lw=10, dash_capstyle=cs)
ax6.set_title('dash capstyle demo')

10. Use just the space in between the plots, and display the figure on the screen:

plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()