Index: /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/plot/colormaps/cmaptools.py
===================================================================
--- /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/plot/colormaps/cmaptools.py	(revision 17649)
+++ /issm/trunk-jpl/src/m/plot/colormaps/cmaptools.py	(revision 17649)
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+import numpy as npy
+
+try:
+	import matplotlib as mpl
+except ImportError:
+	print 'cannot import matplotlib, no plotting capabilities enabled'
+
+def truncate_colormap(cmap, minval=0.0, maxval=1.0, n=100):
+	'''
+	truncate a colormap within normalized limits [0,1]
+
+	cmap - a matplotlib colormap
+	minval - minimum value, normalized, of cmap to be returned.
+	maxval - maximum value, normalized, of cmap to be returned.
+	n - number of levels to use in constructing the new colormap
+
+	Example:
+		newcmap=truncate_colormap(oldcmap,minval=0.2,maxval=0.8,n=128)
+
+	'''
+
+	new_cmap = mpl.colors.LinearSegmentedColormap.from_list('trunc({n},{a:.2f},{b:.2f})'.format(n=cmap.name,
+		a=minval, b=maxval), cmap(npy.linspace(minval, maxval, n)))
+	
+	return new_cmap