diff --git a/ReferenceTests/src/tests/figures_and_makielayout.jl b/ReferenceTests/src/tests/figures_and_makielayout.jl
index 9d3d24d5cee..ea48e27f7d0 100644
--- a/ReferenceTests/src/tests/figures_and_makielayout.jl
+++ b/ReferenceTests/src/tests/figures_and_makielayout.jl
@@ -151,13 +151,13 @@ end
     f = Figure(resolution = (800, 400))
     ax1 = PolarAxis(f[1, 1], title = "No spine", spinevisible = false)
     scatterlines!(ax1, range(0, 1, length=100), range(0, 10pi, length=100), color = 1:100)
-    
+
     ax2 = PolarAxis(f[1, 2], title = "Modified spine")
     ax2.spinecolor[] = :red
     ax2.spinestyle[] = :dash
     ax2.spinewidth[] = 5
     scatterlines!(ax2, range(0, 1, length=100), range(0, 10pi, length=100), color = 1:100)
-    
+
     f
 end
 
@@ -166,9 +166,9 @@ end
 @reference_test "PolarAxis decorations" begin
     f = Figure(resolution = (400, 400), backgroundcolor = :black)
     ax = PolarAxis(
-        f[1, 1], 
+        f[1, 1],
         backgroundcolor = :black,
-        rminorgridvisible = true, rminorgridcolor = :red, 
+        rminorgridvisible = true, rminorgridcolor = :red,
         rminorgridwidth = 1.0, rminorgridstyle = :dash,
         thetaminorgridvisible = true, thetaminorgridcolor = :blue,
         thetaminorgridwidth = 1.0, thetaminorgridstyle = :dash,
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ end
         thetaticklabelsize = 18, thetaticklabelcolor = :blue,
         thetaticklabelstrokewidth = 1, thetaticklabelstrokecolor = :white,
     )
-    
+
     f
 end
 
@@ -192,3 +192,34 @@ end
     end
     f
 end
+
+@reference_test "Colorbar for recipes" begin
+    fig, ax, pl = barplot(1:3; color=1:3, colormap=Makie.Categorical(:viridis))
+    Colorbar(fig[1, 2], pl; size=100)
+    x = LinRange(-1, 1, 20)
+    y = LinRange(-1, 1, 20)
+    z = LinRange(-1, 1, 20)
+    values = [sin(x[i]) * cos(y[j]) * sin(z[k]) for i in 1:20, j in 1:20, k in 1:20]
+
+    # TO not make this fail in CairoMakie, we dont actually plot the volume
+    _f, ax, cp = contour(x, y, z, values; levels=10, colormap=:viridis)
+    Colorbar(fig[2, :], cp; size=300)
+
+    # horizontal colorbars
+    Colorbar(fig[1, 3][2, 1]; limits=(0, 10), colormap=:viridis,
+             vertical=false)
+    Colorbar(fig[1, 3][3, 1]; limits=(0, 5), size=25,
+             colormap=cgrad(:Spectral, 5; categorical=true), vertical=false)
+    Colorbar(fig[1, 3][4, 1]; limits=(-1, 1), colormap=:heat, vertical=false, flipaxis=false,
+             highclip=:cyan, lowclip=:red)
+
+    ax, hm = contourf(fig[2, 3][1, 1], xs, ys, zs;
+                      colormap=:Spectral, levels=[-1, -0.5, -0.25, 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1])
+    Colorbar(fig[2, 3][1, 2], hm; ticks=-1:0.25:1)
+
+    ax, hm = contourf(fig[3, :][1, 1], xs, ys, zs;
+                      colormap=:Spectral, colorscale=sqrt, levels=[ 0, 0.25, 0.5, 1])
+    Colorbar(fig[3, :][1, 2], hm; width=200)
+
+    fig
+end
diff --git a/src/makielayout/blocks/colorbar.jl b/src/makielayout/blocks/colorbar.jl
index d251f079778..7ef9bc73e85 100644
--- a/src/makielayout/blocks/colorbar.jl
+++ b/src/makielayout/blocks/colorbar.jl
@@ -123,6 +123,7 @@ function initialize_block!(cb::Colorbar)
     if cb.colormap[] isa ColorMapping
         cmap = cb.colormap[]
     else
+        # Old way without Colormapping. We keep it, to be able to create a colormap directly
         limits = lift(blockscene, cb.limits, cb.colorrange) do limits, colorrange
             if all(!isnothing, (limits, colorrange))
                 error("Both colorrange + limits are set, please only set one, they're aliases. colorrange: $(colorrange), limits: $(limits)")
@@ -141,7 +142,7 @@ function initialize_block!(cb::Colorbar)
     colors = lift(blockscene, cmap.mapping, cmap.color_mapping_type, cmap.color, limits, cb.nsteps; ignore_equal_values=true) do mapping, mapping_type, values, limits, n
         if mapping === nothing
             if mapping_type === Makie.banded
-                return sort!(convert(Vector{Float64}, mapping))
+                error("Banded without a mapping is invalid. Please use colormap=cgrad(...; categorical=true)")
             elseif mapping_type === Makie.categorical
                 return convert(Vector{Float64},1:length(unique(values)))
             else
@@ -197,7 +198,6 @@ function initialize_block!(cb::Colorbar)
 
     # for continous colormaps we sample a 1d image
     # to avoid white lines when rendering vector graphics
-
     continous_pixels = lift(blockscene, cb.vertical, colors,
                             cmap.color_mapping_type) do v, colors, mapping_type
         if mapping_type !== Makie.categorical
@@ -206,9 +206,9 @@ function initialize_block!(cb::Colorbar)
         n = length(colors)
         return v ? reshape((colors), 1, n) : reshape((colors), n, 1)
     end
+
     # TODO, implement interpolate = true for irregular grics in CairoMakie
     # Then, we can just use heatmap! and don't need the image plot!
-
     show_cats = Observable(false; ignore_equal_values=true)
     show_continous = Observable(false; ignore_equal_values=true)
     on(blockscene, cmap.color_mapping_type; update=true) do type
@@ -328,6 +328,7 @@ function initialize_block!(cb::Colorbar)
 
     ticks = Observable{Any}()
     map!(ticks, colors, cmap.color_mapping_type, cb.ticks) do cs, type, ticks
+        # For categorical we just enumerate
         type === Makie.categorical ? (1:length(cs), string.(cs)) : ticks
     end