Multi-colored Bar Chart with ZedGraph

From IronPython Cookbook

ZedGraph is a powerful and attractive charting library. It provides a Windows Forms control and a web control, but this example produces an image file directly.

You'll need the zedgraph.dll, which you can download from the sourceforge project.

Although the samples are generally focussed on using a Windows Forms control, adapting them to produce images instead is easy. This sample produces multi-colored bars (using a five color gradient fill):

import clr
clr.AddReference('ZedGraph')
clr.AddReference('System.Drawing')

from ZedGraph import GraphPane, PointPairList, Fill, FillType
from System.Drawing import Bitmap, Color, Graphics, RectangleF
from System.Drawing.Imaging import ImageFormat

from System import Array, Math, Random

title = "Multi-Colored Bar Chart"
xAxisTitle = "Bar Number"
yAxisTitle = "Value"
pane = GraphPane(RectangleF(0, 0, 640, 480), title, xAxisTitle, yAxisTitle)

# The ZedGraph data collection class
ppl = PointPairList()

# A .NET random number generator
rand = Random()

for i in range(16):
    x = float(i + 1)
    y = rand.NextDouble() * 1000

    # The Z axis is the color, from 0.0 to 4.0
    z = i / 4.0
    ppl.Add(x, y, z)

colorList = [Color.Red, Color.Yellow, Color.Green, Color.Blue, Color.Purple]
colors = Array[Color](colorList)

curve = pane.AddBar("Multi-Colored Bars", ppl, Color.Blue)
curve.Bar.Fill = Fill(colors)
curve.Bar.Fill.Type = FillType.GradientByZ

curve.Bar.Fill.RangeMin = 0
curve.Bar.Fill.RangeMax = 4

cream = Color.FromArgb(220, 220, 255)
pane.Chart.Fill = Fill(Color.White, cream, 45)
pane.Fill = Fill(Color.White, cream, 45)

# A hack because the axis change needs a real
# image if we aren't using a control    
bm = Bitmap(1, 1)
g = Graphics.FromImage(bm)
pane.AxisChange(g)

pane.GetImage().Save('example.png', ImageFormat.Png)

This is adapted from this ZedGraph example.

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