# Adding custom legend in plotly

**URL:** <https://community.plotly.com/t/adding-custom-legend-in-plotly/65610>\
**Category:** 📊 Plotly Python\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [June 30, 2022, 7:48am UTC](https://community.plotly.com/t/adding-custom-legend-in-plotly/65610 "2022-06-30T07:48:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Natasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/df705f/32.png) [@Natasha](https://community.plotly.com/u/Natasha)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2022, 7:48am UTC](https://community.plotly.com/t/adding-custom-legend-in-plotly/65610/1 "2022-06-30T07:48:34Z")

</div>

I have the following code to generate a figure in plotly

```
import plotly.graph_objects as go
import numpy as np
import plotly.express as px

# ref: https://plotly.com/python/sliders/

if __name__ == ' __main__':

    df = px.data.iris()
    df = df.iloc[0:10, :]
    # print(df)
    petal_width = [1.3, 1.4, 1.4]
    # Create figure
    fig = go.Figure()
    custom_legend = {'square':'A', 'circle-open': 'B', 'cirlce':'C'}
    # Add traces, one for each slider step
    data = [
            go.Scatter(
                mode="lines+markers",
                x=df['sepal_width'],
                y=df['sepal_length'],
                marker=dict(size=7, color="red", symbol='circle-open'),
            ),

            go.Scatter(
            mode="lines+markers",
            x=df['sepal_width'],
            y=df['sepal_length']+2,
            marker=dict(size=7, color="black", symbol='circle'),
            ),

            go.Scatter(
                mode="lines+markers",
                x=df['sepal_width'],
                y=df['sepal_length'] + 3,
                marker=dict(size=7, color="blue", symbol='square'),
            )

        ]

    slider_range = min(petal_width), max(petal_width)
    low, high = slider_range

    # slides = []
    # for i in range(3):
    # slide = dict(
    # method="update",
    # args=[{"visible": [False] * len(fig.data)},
    # {"title": "Slider switched to step: " + str(i)}], # layout attribute
    # )
    # slide["args"][0]["visible"][i] = True # Toggle i'th trace to "visible"
    # slides.append(slide)
    #
    # sliders = [
    # dict(
    # active=10,
    # currentvalue={"prefix": "Frequency: "},
    # pad={"t": 50},
    # steps=slides
    # )
    # ]

    fig = go.Figure(data=data)

    # fig.update_layout(
    # sliders=slider
    # )
    # fig.show()
    with open("check.html", 'a') as f:
        f.write(fig.to_html(full_html=False, include_plotlyjs='cdn'))

```

[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/yR6TL.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/yR6TL.png)

I want to create a secondary legend (like shown here [Add custom legend (markers color) to plotly python](https://community.plotly.com/t/add-custom-legend-markers-color-to-plotly-python/19635), but I am not able to understand how to adapt this for my use case) for the marker symbols, the legend entries are in `custom_legend`. Suggestions on how to do this will be really helpful.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Natasha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/df705f/32.png) [@Natasha](https://community.plotly.com/u/Natasha)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2022, 10:40am UTC](https://community.plotly.com/t/adding-custom-legend-in-plotly/65610/2 "2022-07-01T10:40:16Z")

</div>

This is a kind reminder

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![akroma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex024/user_avatar/community.plotly.com/akroma/32/20346_2.png) [@akroma](https://community.plotly.com/u/akroma)\
**Post date:** [July 15, 2022, 5:00pm UTC](https://community.plotly.com/t/adding-custom-legend-in-plotly/65610/3 "2022-07-15T17:00:06Z")

</div>

Hey @Natasha ,

You can add dummy traces and show them in legend.

Here’s an example:

```auto
import plotly.graph_objects as go
import numpy as np
import plotly.express as px

if __name__ == ' __main__':

    df = px.data.iris()
    df = df.iloc[0:10, :]
   
    petal_width = [1.3, 1.4, 1.4]
  
    fig = go.Figure()
    custom_legend = {'square':'A', 'circle-open': 'B', 'cirlce':'C'}
    
    data = [
            go.Scatter(
                mode="lines+markers",
                x=df['sepal_width'],
                y=df['sepal_length'],
                marker=dict(size=7, color="red", symbol='circle-open'),
            ),

            go.Scatter(
            mode="lines+markers",
            x=df['sepal_width'],
            y=df['sepal_length']+2,
            marker=dict(size=7, color="black", symbol='circle'),
            ),

            go.Scatter(
                mode="lines+markers",
                x=df['sepal_width'],
                y=df['sepal_length'] + 3,
                marker=dict(size=7, color="blue", symbol='square'),
            ),

            #Custom Legend
            go.Scatter(
                x=[None],
                y=[None],
                mode="markers",
                name="A",
                marker=dict(size=7, color="blue", symbol='square'),
            ),

            go.Scatter(
                x=[None],
                y=[None],
                mode="markers",
                name="B",
                marker=dict(size=7, color="red", symbol='circle-open'),
            ),

            go.Scatter(
                x=[None],
                y=[None],
                mode="markers",
                name="C",
                marker=dict(size=7, color="black", symbol='circle'),
            ),

        ]

    fig = go.Figure(data=data)
    fig.show()

```

 ![example_legend](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex024/uploads/plot/original/3X/6/0/601880ddcbcfd3679789a648af61f78c20f03ba9.png)

Have a nice day.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mikedzhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e19b73/32.png) [@mikedzhal](https://community.plotly.com/u/mikedzhal)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://community.plotly.com/t/adding-custom-legend-in-plotly/65610/4 "2024-10-30T20:56:15Z")

</div>

Thanks a lot for this elegant solution!

I used it to replace the go.Waterfall legend when adding multiple traces to it.  
The icon will show exactly the same in each trace.  
I set legendgroups between the mock trace and the waterfall traces so I kept the interactivity of the plot.

Sorry for the ping after 2 years, but would like to leave behind something about the Waterfall plot legend, which was super tedious to solve.