DOC: df.plot() is missing color parameter on documentation

[eicchen]

Pandas version checks

• I have checked that the issue still exists on the latest versions of the docs on main here

Location of the documentation

https://pandas.pydata.org/docs/reference/api/pandas.DataFrame.plot.html

Documentation problem

The documentaion only makes reference to colormap and colorbar for color options. Though it also mentions that you can pass matplotlib method, this may not be directly intuitive to someone who is less familiar with the library.

Suggested fix for documentation

If adding it directly as a parameter in the documentation isn't suitable, having a "commonly used matplotlib parameters" could be helpful.

[ethandavidlee]

take

[rhshadrach]

Thanks for the report! Related: #11042

Since pandas can interact with multiple backends, and these can have different arguments, we'd need to add a compatibility layer and some backends could take some arguments but not others. As such, I think it's better to document arguments for each backend.

I'd suggest adding a subsection to the section

https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/dev/user_guide/visualization.html#plotting-backends

for each backend with arguments it can take. We should add an example usage with any argument we're documenting so that documentation building breaks if the third party package changes.

[ethandavidlee]

I can add a subsection, Backend-Specific Plotting Arguments, under Plotting Backends, noting that Matplotlib is the default backend but Pandas supports multiple backends, such as Plotly and Bokeh. In this section, I'll list commonly used optional arguments and indicate which backends support them, with links to each backend’s full documentation for further information.

I also think it would be helpful to update the df.plot() documentation to reference this new section to address the original concern RE the color argument by making the backend-specific arguments easier to find.

[eicchen]

I also think it would be helpful to update the df.plot() documentation to reference this new section to address the original concern RE the color argument by making the backend-specific arguments easier to find.

I also agree with this, as it may not be intuitive for someone who is just looking up the function to visit the plotting backend page to find the information they would need. I know it certainly didn't occur to me to do so.