["python","matplotlib","colormap"]
How to pick a new color for each plotted line within a figure

I'd like to NOT specify a color for each plotted line, and have each line get a distinct color. But if I run: from matplotlib import pyplot as plt for i in range(20): plt.plot([0, 1], [i, i]) plt.show() then I get this output: If you look at the image above, you can see that matplotlib attempts to pick colors for each line that are different, but eventually it re-uses colors - the top ten lines use the same colors as the bottom ten. I just want to stop it from repeating already used colors AND/OR feed it a list of colors to use.
matplotlib 1.5+ You can use axes.set_prop_cycle (example). matplotlib 1.0-1.4 You can use axes.set_color_cycle (example). matplotlib 0.x You can use Axes.set_default_color_cycle.