diff --git a/comut/comut.py b/comut/comut.py
index 270656c..fd76217 100644
--- a/comut/comut.py
+++ b/comut/comut.py
@@ -1720,6 +1720,8 @@ def add_unified_legend(self, axis_name=None, border_white=None, headers=True,
 
                 handles, labels = axis.get_legend_handles_labels()
 
+                labels, handles = zip(*sorted(zip(labels, handles), key=lambda t: t[0]))
+
                 # create label-patch dict
                 handle_lookup = dict(zip(labels, handles))