diff --git a/tempo_embeddings/visualization/jscatter.py b/tempo_embeddings/visualization/jscatter.py
index 9bdf2ca..0e3c81c 100644
--- a/tempo_embeddings/visualization/jscatter.py
+++ b/tempo_embeddings/visualization/jscatter.py
@@ -379,6 +379,28 @@ def export(change):
 
             return widgets.HBox((button, csv_file, overwrite))
 
+        def _color_by_dropdown(self):
+            current = self._scatter_plot.color()["by"]
+            columns = [
+                c
+                for c in self._df.columns
+                if not self._df[c].hasnans and 1 < self._df[c].unique().size <= 50
+            ]
+            if current not in columns:
+                columns.append(current)
+            # TODO: update columns by selection
+
+            def handle_change(change):
+                self._scatter_plot.color(by=change["new"], map="auto")
+
+            color_by_dropdown = widgets.Dropdown(
+                options=columns, value=current, description="Color by:", disabled=False
+            )
+
+            color_by_dropdown.observe(handle_change, names="value")
+
+            return color_by_dropdown
+
         def _category_field_filter(
             self, field: str
         ) -> Optional[widgets.SelectMultiple]:
@@ -525,5 +547,6 @@ def get_widgets(
                 widgets.HBox(
                     [widget for widget in category_filters if widget is not None]
                 ),
+                self._color_by_dropdown(),
                 self._export_button(),
             ]
diff --git a/tests/unit/visualization/test_jscatter.py b/tests/unit/visualization/test_jscatter.py
index 946fe47..760ff18 100644
--- a/tests/unit/visualization/test_jscatter.py
+++ b/tests/unit/visualization/test_jscatter.py
@@ -233,3 +233,15 @@ def test_export_button(self, corpus, tmp_path):
         df = pd.read_csv(target_file)
         assert df.columns.to_list() == expected_columns
         assert len(df) == len(corpus)
+
+    def test_color_by(self, corpus):
+        pw = JScatterVisualizer.PlotWidgets(
+            df=corpus.to_dataframe(), color_by="corpus", tooltip_fields=set()
+        )
+
+        color_box = pw._color_by_dropdown()
+        assert isinstance(color_box, Dropdown)
+        assert color_box.value == "corpus"
+
+        color_box.value = "year"
+        assert pw._scatter_plot.color()["by"] == "year"