diff --git a/doc/users/next_whats_new/solarized_palette.rst b/doc/users/next_whats_new/solarized_palette.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..282f2b1bca91
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/users/next_whats_new/solarized_palette.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+Solarized palette are now named matplotlib colors
+-------------------------------------------------
+Ethan Schoonover's `Solarized palette <https://ethanschoonover.com/solarized/__`
+is now implemented as named matplotlib colors. Comprising of 16 colors, the
+colors can be accesseed by appending 'solarized:' to their name, e.g.
+`solarized:cyan` refers to cyan from the Solarized palette.
diff --git a/doc/users/whats_new.rst b/doc/users/whats_new.rst
index 4f89851070b5..6fbff58f59f4 100644
--- a/doc/users/whats_new.rst
+++ b/doc/users/whats_new.rst
@@ -15,12 +15,12 @@ revision, see the :ref:`github-stats`.
    For a release, add a new section after this, then comment out the include
    and toctree below by indenting them. Uncomment them after the release.
 
-  .. include:: next_whats_new/README.rst
-   .. toctree::
-      :glob:
-      :maxdepth: 1
+.. include:: next_whats_new/README.rst
+ .. toctree::
+    :glob:
+    :maxdepth: 1
 
-      next_whats_new/*
+    next_whats_new/*
 
 Ability to scale axis by a fixed order of magnitude
 ---------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/examples/color/color_demo.py b/examples/color/color_demo.py
index d366f0a1b959..b7a0d6708556 100644
--- a/examples/color/color_demo.py
+++ b/examples/color/color_demo.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 Color Demo
 ==========
 
-Matplotlib gives you 8 ways to specify colors,
+Matplotlib gives you 9 ways to specify colors,
 
 1) an RGB or RGBA tuple of float values in ``[0, 1]`` (e.g. ``(0.1, 0.2, 0.5)``
    or  ``(0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 0.3)``).  RGBA is short for Red, Green, Blue, Alpha;
@@ -23,6 +23,12 @@
    'tab:red', 'tab:purple', 'tab:brown', 'tab:pink',
    'tab:gray', 'tab:olive', 'tab:cyan'}`` which are the Tableau Colors from the
    'tab10' categorical palette (which is the default color cycle);
+9) one of ``{'solarized:base03', 'solarized:base02', 'solarized:base01',
+   'solarized:base00', 'solarized:base0', 'solarized:base1', 'solarized:base2',
+   'solarized:base3', 'solarized:yellow', 'solarized:orange', 'solarized:red',
+   'solarized:magenta', 'solarized:violet', 'solarized:blue', 'solarized:cyan',
+   'solarized:green'}`` which are the colors from Ethan Schoonover's
+   `Solarized palette <https://ethanschoonover.com/solarized/>`_;.
 
 For more information on colors in matplotlib see
 
diff --git a/examples/color/named_colors.py b/examples/color/named_colors.py
index 5a16c2d813f1..bcfbcd7982ad 100644
--- a/examples/color/named_colors.py
+++ b/examples/color/named_colors.py
@@ -11,53 +11,77 @@
 * the `matplotlib.colors` API;
 * the :doc:`/gallery/color/color_demo`.
 """
-
-import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
 from matplotlib import colors as mcolors
 
 
-colors = dict(mcolors.BASE_COLORS, **mcolors.CSS4_COLORS)
+# First, we define a custom plotting function that accepts a dictionary
+# from one of matplotlib's named color palettes.
+def plot_colors(colors, title, sort_colors=True, ncols=4):
+
+    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
+    from matplotlib.colors import rgb_to_hsv, to_rgba
+
+    extra_rows = 2  # Additional space for title.
+    cell_width = 225
+    cell_height = 30
+    swatch_width = 50
+
+    # Sort colors by hue, saturation, value and name.
+    by_hsv = ((tuple(rgb_to_hsv(to_rgba(color)[:3])), name)
+                    for name, color in colors.items())
+    if sort_colors is True:
+        by_hsv = sorted(by_hsv)
+    names = [name for hsv, name in by_hsv]
+
+    n = len(names)
+    nrows = (n + 1) // ncols
+
+    width = cell_width * ncols
+    height = cell_height * (nrows + extra_rows)
+    dpi = 72
+    fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(width / dpi, height / dpi), dpi=dpi)
 
-# Sort colors by hue, saturation, value and name.
-by_hsv = sorted((tuple(mcolors.rgb_to_hsv(mcolors.to_rgba(color)[:3])), name)
-                for name, color in colors.items())
-sorted_names = [name for hsv, name in by_hsv]
+    ax.set_xlim(0, width)
+    ax.set_ylim(height, 0)
+    ax.yaxis.set_visible(False)
+    ax.xaxis.set_visible(False)
+    ax.set_axis_off()
+    ax.text(0, cell_height, title, fontsize=20)
 
-n = len(sorted_names)
-ncols = 4
-nrows = n // ncols
+    for i, name in enumerate(names):
+        row = i % nrows
+        col = i // nrows
+        y = (row + extra_rows) * cell_height
 
-fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(9, 8))
+        swatch_start_x = cell_width * col
+        swatch_end_x = cell_width * col + swatch_width
+        text_pos_x = cell_width * col + swatch_width + 5
 
-# Get height and width
-X, Y = fig.get_dpi() * fig.get_size_inches()
-h = Y / (nrows + 1)
-w = X / ncols
+        ax.text(text_pos_x, y, name, fontsize=14,
+                horizontalalignment='left',
+                verticalalignment='center')
 
-for i, name in enumerate(sorted_names):
-    row = i % nrows
-    col = i // nrows
-    y = Y - (row * h) - h
+        ax.hlines(y, swatch_start_x, swatch_end_x,
+                  color=colors[name], linewidth=20)
 
-    xi_line = w * (col + 0.05)
-    xf_line = w * (col + 0.25)
-    xi_text = w * (col + 0.3)
+    plt.show()
 
-    ax.text(xi_text, y, name, fontsize=(h * 0.5),
-            horizontalalignment='left',
-            verticalalignment='center')
+# Display the 8 base colors in matplotlib.
+plot_colors(mcolors.BASE_COLORS, "Base Colors", sort_colors=False,
+            ncols=3)
 
-    ax.hlines(y + h * 0.1, xi_line, xf_line,
-              color=colors[name], linewidth=(h * 0.6))
+# Displays named colors as defined by the CSS specification.
+# For more on CSS colors, see https://www.w3.org/TR/css-color-4/
+plot_colors(mcolors.CSS4_COLORS, "CSS Colors")
 
-ax.set_xlim(0, X)
-ax.set_ylim(0, Y)
-ax.set_axis_off()
+# The Solarized palette is a 16-color palette designed for screen use.
+# For more information, see https://ethanschoonover.com/solarized/
+plot_colors(mcolors.SOLARIZED_COLORS, "Solarized Palette",
+            sort_colors=False)
 
-fig.subplots_adjust(left=0, right=1,
-                    top=1, bottom=0,
-                    hspace=0, wspace=0)
-plt.show()
+# This displays the classic 10-color default palette in Tableau.
+plot_colors(mcolors.TABLEAU_COLORS, "Tableau Palette", sort_colors=False,
+            ncols=2)
 
 #############################################################################
 #
@@ -73,7 +97,5 @@
 matplotlib.colors
 matplotlib.colors.rgb_to_hsv
 matplotlib.colors.to_rgba
-matplotlib.figure.Figure.get_size_inches
-matplotlib.figure.Figure.subplots_adjust
 matplotlib.axes.Axes.text
 matplotlib.axes.Axes.hlines
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/_color_data.py b/lib/matplotlib/_color_data.py
index 973f4a2f2435..5a50ca71e578 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/_color_data.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/_color_data.py
@@ -1142,3 +1142,26 @@
     'whitesmoke':           '#F5F5F5',
     'yellow':               '#FFFF00',
     'yellowgreen':          '#9ACD32'}
+
+# These are the 16 colors of the Solarized palette by Ethan Schoonover.
+# See https://ethanschoonover.com/solarized/
+# License: https://github.com/altercation/solarized/blob/master/LICENSE
+# Copyright (c) 2011 Ethan Schoonover
+SOLARIZED_COLORS = {
+    'solarized:base03':      '#002b36',
+    'solarized:base02':      '#073642',
+    'solarized:base01':      '#586e75',
+    'solarized:base00':      '#657b83',
+    'solarized:base0':       '#839496',
+    'solarized:base1':       '#93a1a1',
+    'solarized:base2':       '#eee8d5',
+    'solarized:base3':       '#fdf6e3',
+    'solarized:yellow':      '#b58900',
+    'solarized:orange':      '#cb4b16',
+    'solarized:red':         '#dc322f',
+    'solarized:magenta':     '#d33682',
+    'solarized:violet':      '#6c71c4',
+    'solarized:blue':        '#268bd2',
+    'solarized:cyan':        '#2aa198',
+    'solarized:green':       '#859900',
+}
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/colors.py b/lib/matplotlib/colors.py
index 82969ed18cb7..ad35a2c130d9 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/colors.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/colors.py
@@ -36,6 +36,12 @@
   'tab:red', 'tab:purple', 'tab:brown', 'tab:pink',
   'tab:gray', 'tab:olive', 'tab:cyan'}`` which are the Tableau Colors from the
   'T10' categorical palette (which is the default color cycle);
+* one of ``{'solarized:base03', 'solarized:base02', 'solarized:base01',
+  'solarized:base00', 'solarized:base0', 'solarized:base1', 'solarized:base2',
+  'solarized:base3', 'solarized:yellow', 'solarized:orange', 'solarized:red',
+  'solarized:magenta', 'solarized:violet', 'solarized:blue', 'solarized:cyan',
+  'solarized:green'}`` which are the colors from Ethan Schoonover's
+  `Solarized palette <https://ethanschoonover.com/solarized/>`_;.
 * a "CN" color spec, i.e. `'C'` followed by a single digit, which is an index
   into the default property cycle (``matplotlib.rcParams['axes.prop_cycle']``);
   the indexing occurs at artist creation time and defaults to black if the
@@ -50,7 +56,8 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 import matplotlib.cbook as cbook
-from ._color_data import BASE_COLORS, TABLEAU_COLORS, CSS4_COLORS, XKCD_COLORS
+from ._color_data import (BASE_COLORS, TABLEAU_COLORS, CSS4_COLORS,
+                          XKCD_COLORS, SOLARIZED_COLORS)
 
 
 class _ColorMapping(dict):
@@ -69,6 +76,7 @@ def __delitem__(self, key):
 
 _colors_full_map = {}
 # Set by reverse priority order.
+_colors_full_map.update(SOLARIZED_COLORS)
 _colors_full_map.update(XKCD_COLORS)
 _colors_full_map.update({k.replace('grey', 'gray'): v
                          for k, v in XKCD_COLORS.items()