This comes from a question made here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32956419/weird-matplotlib-color-issue-when-plotting-line

I'm running Python v2.7.6 and matplotlib v1.4.3. I have a simple plot:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
x, y = np.random.random(50), np.random.random(50)
plt.plot(x, y, c='red', ls='-', lw=1., label='a', zorder=2)
plt.show()

Notice that the color is supposed to be red as per c='red'. What I get instead is:

If I use the full name of the argument color='red', the line is red as it should. If I remove any of the arguments after c='red', e.g.:

plt.plot(x, y, c='red', ls='-', lw=1., label='a')
plt.plot(x, y, c='red', ls='-', lw=1., zorder=2)
plt.plot(x, y, c='red', ls='-', label='a', zorder=2)
plt.plot(x, y, c='red', lw=1., label='a', zorder=2)

the plotted line is also red. Using:

plt.plot(x, y, c='r', ls='-', lw=1., label='a', zorder=2)

(i.e.: c='r' instead of c='red') has no effect on my system, I still get the blue line.