diff --git a/src/components/drawing/index.js b/src/components/drawing/index.js
index 34e2572bc8d..d57350f61ef 100644
--- a/src/components/drawing/index.js
+++ b/src/components/drawing/index.js
@@ -276,9 +276,8 @@ drawing.singlePointStyle = function(d, sel, trace) {
 
     // allow array marker and marker line colors to be
     // scaled by given max and min to colorscales
-    var markerIn = (trace._input || {}).marker || {},
-        markerScale = drawing.tryColorscale(marker, markerIn, ''),
-        lineScale = drawing.tryColorscale(marker, markerIn, 'line.');
+    var markerScale = drawing.tryColorscale(marker, ''),
+        lineScale = drawing.tryColorscale(marker, 'line');
 
     singlePointStyle(d, sel, trace, markerScale, lineScale, marker, markerLine);
 
@@ -290,50 +289,22 @@ drawing.pointStyle = function(s, trace) {
     // allow array marker and marker line colors to be
     // scaled by given max and min to colorscales
     var marker = trace.marker;
-    var markerIn = (trace._input || {}).marker || {},
-        markerScale = drawing.tryColorscale(marker, markerIn, ''),
-        lineScale = drawing.tryColorscale(marker, markerIn, 'line.');
+    var markerScale = drawing.tryColorscale(marker, ''),
+        lineScale = drawing.tryColorscale(marker, 'line');
 
     s.each(function(d) {
         drawing.singlePointStyle(d, d3.select(this), trace, markerScale, lineScale);
     });
 };
 
-// for a given color attribute (ie m -> mc = marker.color) look to see if we
-// have a colorscale for it (ie mscl, mcmin, mcmax) - if we do, translate
-// all numeric color values according to that scale
-drawing.tryColorscale = function(cont, contIn, prefix) {
-    var colorArray = Lib.nestedProperty(cont, prefix + 'color').get(),
-        scl = Lib.nestedProperty(cont, prefix + 'colorscale').get(),
-        auto = Lib.nestedProperty(cont, prefix + 'cauto').get(),
-        minProp = Lib.nestedProperty(cont, prefix + 'cmin'),
-        maxProp = Lib.nestedProperty(cont, prefix + 'cmax'),
-        min = minProp.get(),
-        max = maxProp.get();
-
-    // TODO handle this in Colorscale.calc
-    if(scl && Array.isArray(colorArray)) {
-        if(auto || !isNumeric(min) || !isNumeric(max)) {
-            min = Infinity;
-            max = -Infinity;
-            colorArray.forEach(function(color) {
-                if(isNumeric(color)) {
-                    if(min > color) min = +color;
-                    if(max < color) max = +color;
-                }
-            });
-            if(min > max) {
-                min = 0;
-                max = 1;
-            }
-            minProp.set(min);
-            maxProp.set(max);
-            Lib.nestedProperty(contIn, prefix + 'cmin').set(min);
-            Lib.nestedProperty(contIn, prefix + 'cmax').set(max);
-        }
+drawing.tryColorscale = function(marker, prefix) {
+    var cont = prefix ? Lib.nestedProperty(marker, prefix).get() : marker,
+        scl = cont.colorscale,
+        colorArray = cont.color;
 
+    if(scl && Array.isArray(colorArray)) {
         return Colorscale.makeColorScaleFunc(
-            Colorscale.extractScale(scl, min, max)
+            Colorscale.extractScale(scl, cont.cmin, cont.cmax)
         );
     }
     else return Lib.identity;
diff --git a/src/traces/bar/style.js b/src/traces/bar/style.js
index a976340c3ae..49aa025324a 100644
--- a/src/traces/bar/style.js
+++ b/src/traces/bar/style.js
@@ -41,9 +41,8 @@ module.exports = function style(gd) {
         var trace = d[0].trace,
             marker = trace.marker,
             markerLine = marker.line,
-            markerIn = (trace._input || {}).marker || {},
-            markerScale = Drawing.tryColorscale(marker, markerIn, ''),
-            lineScale = Drawing.tryColorscale(marker, markerIn, 'line.');
+            markerScale = Drawing.tryColorscale(marker, ''),
+            lineScale = Drawing.tryColorscale(marker, 'line');
 
         d3.select(this).selectAll('path').each(function(d) {
             // allow all marker and marker line colors to be scaled
diff --git a/test/image/baselines/colorscale_constraint.png b/test/image/baselines/colorscale_constraint.png
index c6edd7ea90c..6f197e8547f 100644
Binary files a/test/image/baselines/colorscale_constraint.png and b/test/image/baselines/colorscale_constraint.png differ
diff --git a/test/image/mocks/colorscale_constraint.json b/test/image/mocks/colorscale_constraint.json
index 17e29fe17a8..4443b177f39 100644
--- a/test/image/mocks/colorscale_constraint.json
+++ b/test/image/mocks/colorscale_constraint.json
@@ -6,7 +6,12 @@
       "color": [1,2,3,4],
       "cmin": 2,
       "cmax": 3,
-      "showscale": true
+      "colorbar": {
+        "title": "trace 0",
+        "len": 0.3,
+        "y": 0,
+        "yanchor": "bottom"
+      }
     }
   }, {
     "x": [1,2,3,4,5],
@@ -15,7 +20,26 @@
       "color": [1,2,3,4],
       "cmin": 1,
       "cmax": 4,
-      "showscale": false
+      "colorbar": {
+        "title": "trace 1",
+        "len": 0.3,
+        "y": 0.3,
+        "yanchor": "bottom"
+      }
+    }
+  }, {
+    "x": [1,2,3,4],
+    "y": [2.5,2.5,2.5,2.5],
+    "mode": "markers",
+    "marker": {
+      "color": [0,0,0,0],
+      "size": 10,
+      "colorbar": {
+        "title": "trace 2",
+        "len": 0.3,
+        "y": 0.6,
+        "yanchor": "bottom"
+      }
     }
   }],
   "layout": {