diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e8f06648..69a6a2fe 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/).
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Changed
+- default colorbar is sampled at 4096 points (was 256)
+
 ## [3.5.5]
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/WrightTools/artists/_colors.py b/WrightTools/artists/_colors.py
index b0253e4e..b5066899 100644
--- a/WrightTools/artists/_colors.py
+++ b/WrightTools/artists/_colors.py
@@ -424,7 +424,7 @@ def __getitem__(self, key):
 colormaps = cmapdict()
 
 colormaps["cubehelix"] = copy.copy(plt.get_cmap("cubehelix_r"))
-colormaps["default"] = cubehelix
+colormaps["default"] = cubehelix.resampled(2**12)
 colormaps["signed"] = copy.copy(plt.get_cmap("bwr"))
 colormaps["greenscale"] = mplcolors.LinearSegmentedColormap.from_list("greenscale", greenscale)
 colormaps["greyscale"] = mplcolors.LinearSegmentedColormap.from_list("greyscale", greyscale)