diff --git a/src/components/colorscale/attributes.js b/src/components/colorscale/attributes.js
index 9b261728bd0..728d6730303 100644
--- a/src/components/colorscale/attributes.js
+++ b/src/components/colorscale/attributes.js
@@ -34,7 +34,17 @@ module.exports = {
     colorscale: {
         valType: 'colorscale',
         role: 'style',
-        description: 'Sets the colorscale.'
+        description: [
+            'Sets the colorscale.',
+            'The colorscale must be an array containing',
+            'arrays mapping a normalized value to an',
+            'rgb, rgba, hex, hsl, hsv, or named color string.',
+            'At minimum, a mapping for the lowest (0) and highest (1)',
+            'values are required. For example,',
+            '`[[0, \'rgb(0,0,255)\', [1, \'rgb(255,0,0)\']]`.',
+            'To control the bounds of the colorscale in z space,',
+            'use zmin and zmax'
+        ].join(' ')
     },
     autocolorscale: {
         valType: 'boolean',
diff --git a/src/traces/scatter/attributes.js b/src/traces/scatter/attributes.js
index 75f8c8d7c95..2d3e8e61669 100644
--- a/src/traces/scatter/attributes.js
+++ b/src/traces/scatter/attributes.js
@@ -246,8 +246,15 @@ module.exports = {
             valType: 'colorscale',
             role: 'style',
             description: [
-                'Has only an effect if `marker.color` is set to a numerical array.',
-                'Sets the colorscale.'
+                'Sets the colorscale.',
+                'The colorscale must be an array containing',
+                'arrays mapping a normalized value to an',
+                'rgb, rgba, hex, hsl, hsv, or named color string.',
+                'At minimum, a mapping for the lowest (0) and highest (1)',
+                'values are required. For example,',
+                '`[[0, \'rgb(0,0,255)\', [1, \'rgb(255,0,0)\']]`.',
+                'To control the bounds of the colorscale in color space,',
+                'use cmin and cmax'
             ].join(' ')
         },
         cauto: {
diff --git a/tasks/util/compress_attributes.js b/tasks/util/compress_attributes.js
index f5316a1e0fa..488c6a9594a 100644
--- a/tasks/util/compress_attributes.js
+++ b/tasks/util/compress_attributes.js
@@ -15,7 +15,9 @@ attributeNamesToRemove.forEach(function(attr, i) {
     // one line string with or without trailing comma
     regexStr += attr + ': \'.*\'' + ',?' + '|';
     // array of strings with or without trailing comma
-    regexStr += attr + ': \\[[\\s\\S]*?\\].*' + ',?';
+    regexStr += attr + ':.*\\n*.*\\.join\\(\\\'\\s\\\'\\)';
+
+    // attr:.*\n.*\.join\(\'\s\'\)
 
     if(i !== attributeNamesToRemove.length-1) regexStr += '|';
 });