scatterplot with numbers as symbols + legend

I would like to draw a scatterplot that has colored numbers instead of points as symbols. I did as follow

n=np.arange(1,14,1)

fig, axs = plt.subplots(1, 2)

axs[0].scatter(x, y, linestyle='None', color="white")

for i, txt in enumerate(n):
     axs[0].annotate(txt, (x[i], y[i]), color=x_y_colours[i], ha="center", va="center")

It worked but now I don't know how to create the legend! I would like to have colored numbers as the symbol and then the label.

Solution

You can use markers in latex form, using text or digits as marker. For this, you can write marker='$...$', similar to how latex is used in matplotlib labels. Note that these markers get centered automatically.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

n = np.arange(1, 14)
theta = np.pi * n * (3 - np.sqrt(5))
r = np.sqrt(n)
x = r * np.cos(theta)
y = r * np.sin(theta)
x_y_colours = plt.get_cmap('hsv')(n / n.max())
x_y_labels = [*'abcdefghijklm']

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
for xi, yi, color_i, label_i, txt in zip(x, y, x_y_colours, x_y_labels, n):
    ax.scatter(xi, yi, marker=f'${txt}$', s=200, color=color_i, label=label_i)
ax.legend(markerscale=0.5, bbox_to_anchor=[1.01, 1.01], loc='upper left')
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()