The de-facto standard library for plotting in Python is "matplotlib".
matplotlib: http://matplotlib.org/
http://matplotlib.org/gallery.html
http://matplotlib.org/faq/usage_faq.html
http://matplotlib.org/users/pyplot_tutorial.html
http://matplotlib.org/users/artists.html
https://github.com/rasbt/matplotlib-gallery
seaborn: http://stanford.edu/~mwaskom/software/seaborn/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/elegantfigures/2013/08/05/subtleties-of-color-part-1-of-6/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/elegantfigures/2013/08/06/subtleties-of-color-part-2-of-6/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/elegantfigures/2013/08/12/subtleties-of-color-part-3-of-6/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/elegantfigures/2013/08/19/subtleties-of-color-connecting-color-to-meaning/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/elegantfigures/2013/08/28/subtleties-of-color-part-5-of-6/
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/elegantfigures/2013/09/10/subtleties-of-color-part-6-of-6/
perceptual rainbow:
https://mycarta.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/perceptual-rainbow-palette-the-method/
https://mycarta.wordpress.com/color-palettes/
http://nbviewer.ipython.org/urls/dl.dropbox.com/s/5t9jrhr7va3wscj/colors.ipynb
http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/kwinkunks/notebooks/blob/master/Matteo_colourmaps.ipynb