diff --git a/src/backends/pyplot.jl b/src/backends/pyplot.jl
index 1bfe4a64..082e704b 100644
--- a/src/backends/pyplot.jl
+++ b/src/backends/pyplot.jl
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ function _initialize_backend(::PyPlotBackend)
         const mplot3d = PyPlot.pywrap(PyPlot.pyimport("mpl_toolkits.mplot3d"))
         const pypatches = PyPlot.pywrap(PyPlot.pyimport("matplotlib.patches"))
         const pyfont = PyPlot.pywrap(PyPlot.pyimport("matplotlib.font_manager"))
+        const pyticker = PyPlot.pywrap(PyPlot.pyimport("matplotlib.ticker"))
         # const pycolorbar = PyPlot.pywrap(PyPlot.pyimport("matplotlib.colorbar"))
     end
 
@@ -42,6 +43,11 @@ function getPyPlotColorMap(c::ColorGradient, α=nothing)
     pycolors.pymember("LinearSegmentedColormap")[:from_list]("tmp", pyvals)
 end
 
+# convert vectors and ColorVectors to standard ColorGradients
+# TODO: move this logic to colors.jl and keep a barebones wrapper for pyplot
+getPyPlotColorMap(cv::ColorVector, α=nothing) = getPyPlotColorMap(ColorGradient(cv.v), α)
+getPyPlotColorMap(v::AVec, α=nothing) = getPyPlotColorMap(ColorGradient(v), α)
+
 # anything else just gets a bluesred gradient
 getPyPlotColorMap(c, α=nothing) = getPyPlotColorMap(default_gradient(), α)
 
@@ -138,6 +144,15 @@ function getPyPlotFont(font::Font)
     )
 end
 
+function get_locator_and_formatter(vals::AVec)
+    pyticker.pymember("FixedLocator")(1:length(vals)), pyticker.pymember("FixedFormatter")(vals)
+end
+
+function add_pyfixedformatter(cbar, vals::AVec)
+    cbar[:locator], cbar[:formatter] = get_locator_and_formatter(vals)
+    cbar[:update_ticks]()
+end
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 type PyPlotAxisWrapper
@@ -310,6 +325,7 @@ function _add_series(pkg::PyPlotBackend, plt::Plot, d::KW)
     # holds references to any python object representing the matplotlib series
     handles = []
     needs_colorbar = false
+    discrete_colorbar_values = nothing
 
     # for each plotting command, optionally build and add a series handle to the list
 
@@ -500,6 +516,9 @@ function _add_series(pkg::PyPlotBackend, plt::Plot, d::KW)
 
     if lt == :heatmap
         x, y, z = heatmap_edges(x), heatmap_edges(y), z.surf'
+        if !(eltype(z) <: Number)
+            z, discrete_colorbar_values = indices_and_unique_values(z)
+        end
         handle = ax[:pcolormesh](x, y, z;
             label = d[:label],
             zorder = plt.n,
@@ -531,7 +550,23 @@ function _add_series(pkg::PyPlotBackend, plt::Plot, d::KW)
 
     # add the colorbar legend
     if needs_colorbar && plt.plotargs[:colorbar] != :none
-        PyPlot.colorbar(handles[end], ax=ax)
+        # cbar = PyPlot.colorbar(handles[end], ax=ax)
+
+        # do we need a discrete colorbar?
+        if discrete_colorbar_values == nothing
+            PyPlot.colorbar(handles[end], ax=ax)
+        else
+            # add_pyfixedformatter(cbar, discrete_colorbar_values)
+            locator, formatter = get_locator_and_formatter(discrete_colorbar_values)
+            vals = 1:length(discrete_colorbar_values)
+            PyPlot.colorbar(handles[end],
+                ax = ax,
+                ticks = locator,
+                format = formatter,
+                boundaries = vcat(0, vals + 0.5),
+                values = vals
+            )
+        end
     end
 
     # this sets the bg color inside the grid
diff --git a/src/series_args.jl b/src/series_args.jl
index 8db6e392..2dceba87 100644
--- a/src/series_args.jl
+++ b/src/series_args.jl
@@ -302,7 +302,7 @@ function process_inputs{TX,TY}(plt::AbstractPlot, d::KW, x::AVec{TX}, y::AVec{TY
 end
 
 # surface-like... matrix grid
-function process_inputs{TX,TY,TZ<:Number}(plt::AbstractPlot, d::KW, x::AVec{TX}, y::AVec{TY}, zmat::AMat{TZ})
+function process_inputs{TX,TY,TZ}(plt::AbstractPlot, d::KW, x::AVec{TX}, y::AVec{TY}, zmat::AMat{TZ})
     @assert size(zmat) == (length(x), length(y))
     if TX <: Number && !issorted(x)
         idx = sortperm(x)
@@ -312,13 +312,7 @@ function process_inputs{TX,TY,TZ<:Number}(plt::AbstractPlot, d::KW, x::AVec{TX},
         idx = sortperm(y)
         y, zmat = y[idx], zmat[:, idx]
     end
-    #
-    #     !issorted(y)
-    #     y_idx = sortperm(y)
-    #     x, y = x[x_idx], y[y_idx]
-    #     zmat = zmat[x_idx, y_idx]
-    # end
-    d[:x], d[:y], d[:z] = x, y, Surface{Matrix{Float64}}(zmat)
+    d[:x], d[:y], d[:z] = x, y, Surface{Matrix{TZ}}(zmat)
     if !like_surface(get(d, :linetype, :none))
         d[:linetype] = :contour
     end
diff --git a/src/utils.jl b/src/utils.jl
index 30f6106d..d2f591e0 100644
--- a/src/utils.jl
+++ b/src/utils.jl
@@ -243,6 +243,14 @@ Base.merge(a::AbstractVector, b::AbstractVector) = sort(unique(vcat(a,b)))
 nanpush!(a::AbstractVector, b) = (push!(a, NaN); push!(a, b))
 nanappend!(a::AbstractVector, b) = (push!(a, NaN); append!(a, b))
 
+# given an array of discrete values, turn it into an array of indices of the unique values
+# returns the array of indices (znew) and a vector of unique values (vals)
+function indices_and_unique_values(z::AbstractArray)
+    vals = sort(unique(z))
+    vmap = Dict([(v,i) for (i,v) in enumerate(vals)])
+    newz = map(zi -> vmap[zi], z)
+    newz, vals
+end
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------