Can I create a colorbar that is not associated to a figure?

Can I create a colorbar that is not associated to a figure? I have created a series of heat maps that I want a colorbar with, but it is not possible to change any properties of the colorbar from a heatmap. Thus, I want to know if it is possible to create one just from my limits that is not attached to the heatmap so I can adjust it.

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Samantha, try this:

rows = 512; % Whatever size you want.
columns = 50;
cmap = hsv(rows);
colorImage = ind2rgb([1:rows]', cmap);
colorImage = imresize(colorImage, [rows, columns], 'nearest');
imshow(colorImage);
axis on;