forked from matplotlib/matplotlib.github.com
-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
Expand file tree
/
Copy pathtext_intro.html
More file actions
637 lines (580 loc) · 84.1 KB
/
text_intro.html
File metadata and controls
637 lines (580 loc) · 84.1 KB
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Text in Matplotlib Plots — Matplotlib 2.2.4 documentation</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../../_static/mpl.css"
type="text/css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../../_static/pygments.css"
type="text/css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../../_static/graphviz.css" type="text/css" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../../_static/gallery.css" type="text/css" />
<script type="text/javascript">
var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = {
URL_ROOT: '../../',
VERSION: '2.2.4',
COLLAPSE_INDEX: false,
FILE_SUFFIX: '.html',
HAS_SOURCE: true,
SOURCELINK_SUFFIX: '.txt'
};
</script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../../_static/jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../../_static/underscore.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../../_static/doctools.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="../../_static/language_data.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.5/latest.js?config=TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML"></script>
<link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml"
title="Search within Matplotlib 2.2.4 documentation"
href="../../_static/opensearch.xml"/>
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="../../_static/favicon.ico"/>
<link rel="index" title="Index" href="../../genindex.html"
/>
<link rel="search" title="Search" href="../../search.html"
/>
<link rel="top" title="Matplotlib 2.2.4 documentation" href="../../index.html" />
<link rel="up" title="Tutorials" href="../index.html" />
<link rel="next" title="The mplot3d Toolkit" href="../toolkits/mplot3d.html" />
<link rel="prev" title="Text properties and layout" href="text_props.html" />
<link rel="canonical" href="https://matplotlib.org/stable/tutorials/text/text_intro.html" />
</head>
<body>
<div id="unreleased-message"> You are reading an old version of the documentation (v2.2.4). For the latest version see <a href="https://matplotlib.org/stable/tutorials/text/text_intro.html">https://matplotlib.org/stable/tutorials/text/text_intro.html</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: left; padding: 10px 10px 15px 15px; position: relative;">
<a href="../../index.html">
<div style="float: left; position: absolute; width: 496px; bottom: 0; padding-bottom: 24px"><span style="float: right; color: #789; background: white">Version 2.2.4</span></div>
<img src="../../_static/logo2.png" height="125px" border="0" alt="matplotlib"/></a>
<!-- The "Fork me on github" ribbon -->
<div id="forkongithub"><a href="https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib">Fork me on GitHub</a></div>
</div>
<div class="related">
<h3>Navigation</h3>
<ul>
<li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px">
<a href="../../genindex.html" title="General Index"
accesskey="I">index</a></li>
<li class="right" >
<a href="../../py-modindex.html" title="Python Module Index"
>modules</a> |</li>
<li class="right" >
<a href="../toolkits/mplot3d.html" title="The mplot3d Toolkit"
accesskey="N">next</a> |</li>
<li class="right" >
<a href="text_props.html" title="Text properties and layout"
accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li>
<li><a href="../../index.html">home</a>| </li>
<li><a href="../../gallery/index.html">examples</a>| </li>
<li><a href="../index.html">tutorials</a>| </li>
<li><a href="../../api/pyplot_summary.html">pyplot</a>| </li>
<li><a href="../../contents.html">docs</a> »</li>
<li><a href="../../users/index.html" >User's Guide</a> »</li>
<li><a href="../index.html" accesskey="U">Tutorials</a> »</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="sphinxsidebar">
<div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper">
<div id="searchbox" style="display: none" role="search">
<h3>Quick search</h3>
<div class="searchformwrapper">
<form class="search" action="../../search.html" method="get">
<input type="text" name="q" />
<input type="submit" value="Go" />
<input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" />
<input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" />
</form>
</div>
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script>
<h3><a href="../../contents.html">Table of Contents</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#">Text in Matplotlib Plots</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#basic-text-commands">Basic text commands</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#labels-for-x-and-y-axis">Labels for x- and y-axis</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#titles">Titles</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#ticks-and-ticklabels">Ticks and ticklabels</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#terminology">Terminology</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#simple-ticks">Simple ticks</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#tick-locators-and-formatters">Tick Locators and Formatters</a></li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#dateticks">Dateticks</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference internal" href="#legends-and-annotations">Legends and Annotations</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<div class="relations">
<h3>Related Topics</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="../../contents.html">Documentation overview</a><ul>
<li><a href="../../users/index.html">User's Guide</a><ul>
<li><a href="../index.html">Tutorials</a><ul>
<li>Previous: <a href="text_props.html" title="previous chapter">Text properties and layout</a></li>
<li>Next: <a href="../toolkits/mplot3d.html" title="next chapter">The mplot3d Toolkit</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ul></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div id="sidebar-pagesource" role="note" aria-label="source link"
style="margin-top: 1.5em; padding-top: 0.1em; border-top: 1px solid #86989b">
<a href="../../_sources/tutorials/text/text_intro.rst.txt"
style="color: #c0c0c0" rel="nofollow">Show Page Source</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="document">
<div class="documentwrapper">
<div class="bodywrapper">
<div class="body">
<div class="sphx-glr-download-link-note admonition note">
<p class="first admonition-title">Note</p>
<p class="last">Click <a class="reference internal" href="#sphx-glr-download-tutorials-text-text-intro-py"><span class="std std-ref">here</span></a> to download the full example code</p>
</div>
<div class="sphx-glr-example-title section" id="text-in-matplotlib-plots">
<span id="sphx-glr-tutorials-text-text-intro-py"></span><h1>Text in Matplotlib Plots<a class="headerlink" href="#text-in-matplotlib-plots" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>Introduction to plotting and working with text in Matplotlib.</p>
<p>Matplotlib has extensive text support, including support for
mathematical expressions, truetype support for raster and
vector outputs, newline separated text with arbitrary
rotations, and unicode support.</p>
<p>Because it embeds fonts directly in output documents, e.g., for postscript
or PDF, what you see on the screen is what you get in the hardcopy.
<a class="reference external" href="https://www.freetype.org/">FreeType</a> support
produces very nice, antialiased fonts, that look good even at small
raster sizes. matplotlib includes its own
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#module-matplotlib.font_manager" title="matplotlib.font_manager"><code class="xref py py-mod docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.font_manager</span></code></a> (thanks to Paul Barrett), which
implements a cross platform, <code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">W3C</span></code>
compliant font finding algorithm.</p>
<p>The user has a great deal of control over text properties (font size, font
weight, text location and color, etc.) with sensible defaults set in
the <code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">rc</span> <span class="pre">file</span></code>.
And significantly, for those interested in mathematical
or scientific figures, matplotlib implements a large number of TeX
math symbols and commands, supporting <a class="reference internal" href="mathtext.html#sphx-glr-tutorials-text-mathtext-py"><span class="std std-ref">mathematical expressions</span></a> anywhere in your figure.</p>
<div class="section" id="basic-text-commands">
<h2>Basic text commands<a class="headerlink" href="#basic-text-commands" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>The following commands are used to create text in the pyplot
interface and the object-oriented API:</p>
<table border="1" class="docutils">
<colgroup>
<col width="25%" />
<col width="25%" />
<col width="50%" />
</colgroup>
<thead valign="bottom">
<tr class="row-odd"><th class="head"><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.html#module-matplotlib.pyplot" title="matplotlib.pyplot"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">pyplot</span></code></a> API</th>
<th class="head">OO API</th>
<th class="head">description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr class="row-even"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.text.html#matplotlib.pyplot.text" title="matplotlib.pyplot.text"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">text</span></code></a></td>
<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.text.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.text" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.text"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">text</span></code></a></td>
<td>Add text at an arbitrary location of
the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/axes_api.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Axes</span></code></a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.annotate.html#matplotlib.pyplot.annotate" title="matplotlib.pyplot.annotate"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">annotate</span></code></a></td>
<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.annotate.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.annotate" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.annotate"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">annotate</span></code></a></td>
<td>Add an annotation, with an optional
arrow, at an arbitrary location of the
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/axes_api.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Axes</span></code></a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.xlabel.html#matplotlib.pyplot.xlabel" title="matplotlib.pyplot.xlabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">xlabel</span></code></a></td>
<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_xlabel</span></code></a></td>
<td>Add a label to the
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/axes_api.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Axes</span></code></a>'s x-axis.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.ylabel.html#matplotlib.pyplot.ylabel" title="matplotlib.pyplot.ylabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ylabel</span></code></a></td>
<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_ylabel</span></code></a></td>
<td>Add a label to the
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/axes_api.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Axes</span></code></a>'s y-axis.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.title.html#matplotlib.pyplot.title" title="matplotlib.pyplot.title"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">title</span></code></a></td>
<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_title"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_title</span></code></a></td>
<td>Add a title to the
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/axes_api.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Axes</span></code></a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-odd"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.figtext.html#matplotlib.pyplot.figtext" title="matplotlib.pyplot.figtext"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">figtext</span></code></a></td>
<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.text" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.text"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">text</span></code></a></td>
<td>Add text at an arbitrary location of
the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Figure</span></code></a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr class="row-even"><td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.suptitle.html#matplotlib.pyplot.suptitle" title="matplotlib.pyplot.suptitle"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">suptitle</span></code></a></td>
<td><a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure.suptitle" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure.suptitle"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">suptitle</span></code></a></td>
<td>Add a title to the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.figure.Figure.html#matplotlib.figure.Figure" title="matplotlib.figure.Figure"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Figure</span></code></a>.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>All of these functions create and return a <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/text_api.html#matplotlib.text.Text" title="matplotlib.text.Text"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Text</span></code></a> instance, which can be
configured with a variety of font and other properties. The example below
shows all of these commands in action, and more detail is provided in the
sections that follow.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib</span>
<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.pyplot</span> <span class="kn">as</span> <span class="nn">plt</span>
<span class="n">fig</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.figure.html#matplotlib.pyplot.figure" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.figure"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">figure</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">suptitle</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'bold figure suptitle'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fontsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">14</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fontweight</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'bold'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">fig</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">add_subplot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">111</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots_adjust</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">top</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.85</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_title</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'axes title'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_xlabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'xlabel'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ylabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'ylabel'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">text</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">8</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'boxed italics text in data coords'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">style</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'italic'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">bbox</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">{</span><span class="s1">'facecolor'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="s1">'red'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'alpha'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mf">0.5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'pad'</span><span class="p">:</span> <span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">})</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">text</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="sa">r</span><span class="s1">'an equation: $E=mc^2$'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fontsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">15</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">text</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="sa">u</span><span class="s1">'unicode: Institut für Festkörperphysik'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">text</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">0.95</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">0.01</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'colored text in axes coords'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">verticalalignment</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'bottom'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">horizontalalignment</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'right'</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">transform</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">transAxes</span><span class="p">,</span>
<span class="n">color</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'green'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fontsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">15</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">],</span> <span class="s1">'o'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">annotate</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'annotate'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">xy</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">xytext</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="n">arrowprops</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="nb">dict</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">facecolor</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'black'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">shrink</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.05</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">axis</span><span class="p">([</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">])</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_001.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_001.png" />
</div>
<div class="section" id="labels-for-x-and-y-axis">
<h2>Labels for x- and y-axis<a class="headerlink" href="#labels-for-x-and-y-axis" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Specifying the labels for the x- and y-axis is strightforward, via the
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_xlabel</span></code></a> and
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_ylabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_ylabel</span></code></a> methods.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.pyplot</span> <span class="kn">as</span> <span class="nn">plt</span>
<span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">numpy</span> <span class="kn">as</span> <span class="nn">np</span>
<span class="n">x1</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/generated/numpy.linspace.html#numpy.linspace" title="View documentation for numpy.linspace"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">linspace</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">0.0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">5.0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">100</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">y1</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/generated/numpy.cos.html#numpy.cos" title="View documentation for numpy.cos"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">cos</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span> <span class="o">*</span> <a href="https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/constants.html#numpy.pi" title="View documentation for numpy.pi"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">pi</span></a> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o">*</span> <a href="https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/generated/numpy.exp.html#numpy.exp" title="View documentation for numpy.exp"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">exp</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="o">-</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots_adjust</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">bottom</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.15</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">left</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.2</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_xlabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'time [s]'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ylabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'Damped oscillation [V]'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_002.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_002.png" />
<p>The x- and y-labels are automatically placed so that they clear the x- and
y-ticklabels. Compare the plot below with that above, and note the y-label
is to the left of the one above.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots_adjust</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">bottom</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.15</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">left</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.2</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="mi">10000</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_xlabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'time [s]'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ylabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'Damped oscillation [V]'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_003.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_003.png" />
<p>If you want to move the labels, you can specify the <em>labelpad</em> kyeword
argument, where the value is points (1/72", the same unit used to specify
fontsizes).</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots_adjust</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">bottom</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.15</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">left</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.2</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="mi">10000</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_xlabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'time [s]'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ylabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'Damped oscillation [V]'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">labelpad</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">18</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_004.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_004.png" />
<p>Or, the labels accept all the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/text_api.html#matplotlib.text.Text" title="matplotlib.text.Text"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Text</span></code></a> keyword arguments, including
<em>position</em>, via which we can manually specify the label positions. Here we
put the xlabel to the far left of the axis. Note, that the y-coordinate of
this position has no effect - to adjust the y-position we need to use the
<em>labelpad</em> kwarg.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots_adjust</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">bottom</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.15</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">left</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.2</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_xlabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'time [s]'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">position</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">0.</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">1e6</span><span class="p">),</span>
<span class="n">horizontalalignment</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'left'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ylabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'Damped oscillation [V]'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_005.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_005.png" />
<p>All the labelling in this tutorial can be changed by manipulating the
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" title="matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties</span></code></a> method, or by named kwargs to
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel" title="matplotlib.axes.Axes.set_xlabel"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">set_xlabel</span></code></a></p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">from</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.font_manager</span> <span class="kn">import</span> <a href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" title="View documentation for matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties"><span class="n">FontProperties</span></a>
<span class="n">font</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/font_manager_api.html#matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties" title="View documentation for matplotlib.font_manager.FontProperties"><span class="n">FontProperties</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">font</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_family</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'serif'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">font</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_name</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'Times New Roman'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">font</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_style</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'italic'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots_adjust</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">bottom</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.15</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">left</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.2</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_xlabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'time [s]'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fontsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'large'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fontweight</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'bold'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ylabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'Damped oscillation [V]'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">fontproperties</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">font</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_006.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_006.png" />
<p>Finally, we can use native TeX rendering in all text objects and have
multiple lines:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots_adjust</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">bottom</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">left</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.2</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <a href="https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/generated/numpy.cumsum.html#numpy.cumsum" title="View documentation for numpy.cumsum"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">cumsum</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">y1</span><span class="o">**</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_xlabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'time [s] </span><span class="se">\n</span><span class="s1"> This was a long experiment'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ylabel</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="sa">r</span><span class="s1">'$\int\ Y^2\ dt\ \ [V^2 s]$'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_007.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_007.png" />
</div>
<div class="section" id="titles">
<h2>Titles<a class="headerlink" href="#titles" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Subplot titles are set in much the same way as labels, but there is
the <em>loc</em> keyword arguments that can change the position and justification
from the default value of <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">loc=center</span></code>.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">axs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">tight_layout</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">locs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'center'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'left'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">'right'</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">ax</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">loc</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="nb">zip</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">locs</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_title</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'Title with loc at '</span><span class="o">+</span><span class="n">loc</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">loc</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">loc</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_008.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_008.png" />
<p>Vertical spacing for titles is controlled via <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">rcParams[axes.titlepad]</span></code>,
which defaults to 5 points. Setting to a different value moves the title.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">))</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots_adjust</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">top</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mf">0.8</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_title</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'Vertically offset title'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">pad</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">30</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_009.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_009.png" />
</div>
<div class="section" id="ticks-and-ticklabels">
<h2>Ticks and ticklabels<a class="headerlink" href="#ticks-and-ticklabels" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<p>Placing ticks and ticklabels is a very tricky aspect of making a figure.
Matplotlib does the best it can automatically, but it also offers a very
flexible framework for determining the choices for tick locations, and
how they are labelled.</p>
<div class="section" id="terminology">
<h3>Terminology<a class="headerlink" href="#terminology" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p><em>Axes</em> have an <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/axis_api.html#module-matplotlib.axis" title="matplotlib.axis"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.axis</span></code></a> object for the <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ax.xaxis</span></code>
and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ax.yaxis</span></code> that
contain the information about how the labels in the axis are laid out.</p>
<p>The axis API is explained in detail in the documentation to
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/axis_api.html#module-matplotlib.axis" title="matplotlib.axis"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">axis</span></code></a>.</p>
<p>An Axis object has major and minor ticks. The Axis has a
<code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.xaxis.set_major_locator</span></code> and
<code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.xaxis.set_minor_locator</span></code> methods that use the data being plotted
to determine
the location of major and minor ticks. There are also
<code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.xaxis.set_major_formatter</span></code> and
<code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.xaxis.set_minor_formatters</span></code> methods that format the tick labels.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="simple-ticks">
<h3>Simple ticks<a class="headerlink" href="#simple-ticks" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>It often is convenient to simply define the
tick values, and sometimes the tick labels, overriding the default
locators and formatters. This is discouraged because it breaks itneractive
navigation of the plot. It also can reset the axis limits: note that
the second plot has the ticks we asked for, including ones that are
well outside the automatic view limits.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">axs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">tight_layout</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ticks</span><span class="p">(</span><a href="https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/generated/numpy.arange.html#numpy.arange" title="View documentation for numpy.arange"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">arange</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">0.</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">8.1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">2.</span><span class="p">))</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_010.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_010.png" />
<p>We can of course fix this after the fact, but it does highlight a
weakness of hard-coding the ticks. This example also changes the format
of the ticks:</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">axs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">tight_layout</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ticks</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/generated/numpy.arange.html#numpy.arange" title="View documentation for numpy.arange"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">arange</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">0.</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">8.1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">2.</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1"># list comprehension to get all tick labels...</span>
<span class="n">tickla</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="si">%1.2f</span><span class="s1">'</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="n">tick</span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">tick</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="n">ticks</span><span class="p">]</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ticks</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">ticks</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ticklabels</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">tickla</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_xlim</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get_xlim</span><span class="p">())</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_011.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_011.png" />
</div>
<div class="section" id="tick-locators-and-formatters">
<h3>Tick Locators and Formatters<a class="headerlink" href="#tick-locators-and-formatters" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Instead of making a list of all the tickalbels, we could have
used a <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter" title="matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter</span></code></a> and passed it to the
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ax.xaxis</span></code></p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">axs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">tight_layout</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ticks</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/generated/numpy.arange.html#numpy.arange" title="View documentation for numpy.arange"><span class="n">np</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">arange</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mf">0.</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">8.1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mf">2.</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="c1"># list comprehension to get all tick labels...</span>
<span class="n">formatter</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.StrMethodFormatter" title="View documentation for matplotlib.ticker.StrMethodFormatter"><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ticker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">StrMethodFormatter</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'{x:1.1f}'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_ticks</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">ticks</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_formatter</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">formatter</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_xlim</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">get_xlim</span><span class="p">())</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_012.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_012.png" />
<p>And of course we could have used a non-default locator to set the
tick locations. Note we still pass in the tick values, but the
x-limit fix used above is <em>not</em> needed.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">axs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">tight_layout</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">formatter</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter" title="View documentation for matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter"><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ticker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">FormatStrFormatter</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="si">%1.1f</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">locator</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FixedLocator" title="View documentation for matplotlib.ticker.FixedLocator"><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ticker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">FixedLocator</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">ticks</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_locator</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">locator</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_formatter</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">formatter</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_013.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_013.png" />
<p>The default formatter is the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator" title="matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator</span></code></a> called as
<code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">ticker.MaxNLocator(self,</span> <span class="pre">nbins='auto',</span> <span class="pre">steps=[1,</span> <span class="pre">2,</span> <span class="pre">2.5,</span> <span class="pre">5,</span> <span class="pre">10])</span></code>
The <em>steps</em> keyword contains a list of multiples that can be used for
tick values. i.e. in this case, 2, 4, 6 would be acceptable ticks,
as would 20, 40, 60 or 0.2, 0.4, 0.6. However, 3, 6, 9 would not be
acceptable because 3 doesn't appear in the list of steps.</p>
<p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">nbins=auto</span></code> uses an algorithm to determine how many ticks will
be acceptable based on how long the axis is. The fontsize of the
ticklabel is taken into account, but the length of the tick string
is not (because its not yet known.) In the bottom row, the
ticklabels are quite large, so we set <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">nbins=4</span></code> to make the
labels fit in the right-hand plot.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">axs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">8</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">tight_layout</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">axs</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">flatten</span><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">n</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="nb">enumerate</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="o">*</span><span class="mf">10.</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">formatter</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter" title="View documentation for matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter"><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ticker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">FormatStrFormatter</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="si">%1.1f</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">locator</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator" title="View documentation for matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator"><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ticker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">MaxNLocator</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">nbins</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'auto'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">steps</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">10</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_locator</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">locator</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_formatter</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">formatter</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">formatter</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter" title="View documentation for matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter"><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ticker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">FormatStrFormatter</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="si">%1.5f</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">locator</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.AutoLocator" title="View documentation for matplotlib.ticker.AutoLocator"><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ticker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">AutoLocator</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_formatter</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">formatter</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_locator</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">locator</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">formatter</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter" title="View documentation for matplotlib.ticker.FormatStrFormatter"><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ticker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">FormatStrFormatter</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="si">%1.5f</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">locator</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator" title="View documentation for matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator"><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ticker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">MaxNLocator</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">nbins</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">4</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_formatter</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">formatter</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">axs</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_locator</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">locator</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_014.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_014.png" />
<p>Finally, we can specify functions for the formatter using
<a class="reference internal" href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter" title="matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter</span></code></a>.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="k">def</span> <span class="nf">formatoddticks</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">pos</span><span class="p">):</span>
<span class="sd">"""Format odd tick positions</span>
<span class="sd"> """</span>
<span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">x</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="mi">2</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="s1">'</span><span class="si">%1.2f</span><span class="s1">'</span> <span class="o">%</span> <span class="n">x</span>
<span class="k">else</span><span class="p">:</span>
<span class="k">return</span> <span class="s1">''</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">tight_layout</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">x1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">formatter</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter" title="View documentation for matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter"><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ticker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">FuncFormatter</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">formatoddticks</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">locator</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/ticker_api.html#matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator" title="View documentation for matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator"><span class="n">matplotlib</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">ticker</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">MaxNLocator</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">nbins</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">6</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_formatter</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">formatter</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_locator</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">locator</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_015.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_015.png" />
</div>
<div class="section" id="dateticks">
<h3>Dateticks<a class="headerlink" href="#dateticks" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h3>
<p>Matplotlib can accept <a class="reference external" href="https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#datetime.datetime" title="(in Python v3.7)"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">datetime.datetime</span></code></a> and <code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">numpy.datetime64</span></code>
objects as plotting arguments. Dates and times require special
formatting, which can often benefit from manual intervention. In
order to help, dates have spectial Locators and Formatters,
defined in the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/dates_api.html#module-matplotlib.dates" title="matplotlib.dates"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.dates</span></code></a> module.</p>
<p>A simple example is as follows. Note how we have to rotate the
tick labels so that they don't over-run each other.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">datetime</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">tight_layout</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">base</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">datetime</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">datetime</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">2017</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">time</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="p">[</span><span class="n">base</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="n">datetime</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">timedelta</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">days</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="n">x</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">for</span> <span class="n">x</span> <span class="ow">in</span> <span class="nb">range</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="nb">len</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">))]</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">time</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">tick_params</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">axis</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'x'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">rotation</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">70</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_016.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_016.png" />
<p>Maybe the format of the labels above is acceptable, but the choices is
rather idiosyncratic. We can make the ticks fall on the start of the month
by modifying <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.AutoDateLocator" title="matplotlib.dates.AutoDateLocator"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.dates.AutoDateLocator</span></code></a></p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="kn">import</span> <span class="nn">matplotlib.dates</span> <span class="kn">as</span> <span class="nn">mdates</span>
<span class="n">locator</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.AutoDateLocator" title="View documentation for matplotlib.dates.AutoDateLocator"><span class="n">mdates</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">AutoDateLocator</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">interval_multiples</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">tight_layout</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_locator</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">locator</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">time</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">tick_params</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">axis</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'x'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">rotation</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">70</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_017.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_017.png" />
<p>However, this changes the tick labels. The easiest fix is to pass a format
to <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" title="matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter</span></code></a>. Also note that the 29th and the
next month are very close together. We can fix this by using the
<code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">dates.DayLocator</span></code> class, which allows us to specify a list of days of the
month to use. Similar formatters are listed in the <a class="reference internal" href="../../api/dates_api.html#module-matplotlib.dates" title="matplotlib.dates"><code class="xref py py-obj docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">matplotlib.dates</span></code></a> module.</p>
<div class="highlight-python notranslate"><div class="highlight"><pre><span></span><span class="n">locator</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DayLocator" title="View documentation for matplotlib.dates.DayLocator"><span class="n">mdates</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">DayLocator</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">bymonthday</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">1</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">15</span><span class="p">])</span>
<span class="n">formatter</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/dates_api.html#matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter" title="View documentation for matplotlib.dates.DateFormatter"><span class="n">mdates</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">DateFormatter</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="s1">'%b </span><span class="si">%d</span><span class="s1">'</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">fig</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">ax</span> <span class="o">=</span> <a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.subplots.html#matplotlib.pyplot.subplots" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.subplots"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">subplots</span></a><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">figsize</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="mi">5</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="mi">3</span><span class="p">),</span> <span class="n">tight_layout</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="bp">True</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_locator</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">locator</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">xaxis</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">set_major_formatter</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">formatter</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">plot</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">time</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">y1</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">ax</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">tick_params</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">axis</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="s1">'x'</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">rotation</span><span class="o">=</span><span class="mi">70</span><span class="p">)</span>
<a href="../../api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.show.html#matplotlib.pyplot.show" title="View documentation for matplotlib.pyplot.show"><span class="n">plt</span><span class="o">.</span><span class="n">show</span></a><span class="p">()</span>
</pre></div>
</div>
<img alt="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_018.png" class="sphx-glr-single-img" src="../../_images/sphx_glr_text_intro_018.png" />
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="legends-and-annotations">
<h2>Legends and Annotations<a class="headerlink" href="#legends-and-annotations" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
<blockquote>
<div><ul class="simple">
<li>Legends: <a class="reference internal" href="../intermediate/legend_guide.html"><span class="doc">Legend guide</span></a></li>
<li>Annotations: <a class="reference internal" href="annotations.html"><span class="doc">Annotations</span></a></li>
</ul>
</div></blockquote>
<div class="sphx-glr-footer class sphx-glr-footer-example docutils container" id="sphx-glr-download-tutorials-text-text-intro-py">
<div class="sphx-glr-download docutils container">
<a class="reference download internal" download="" href="../../_downloads/b0f6548b9a7b5cf53abe9a41ec2d7019/text_intro.py"><code class="xref download docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Download</span> <span class="pre">Python</span> <span class="pre">source</span> <span class="pre">code:</span> <span class="pre">text_intro.py</span></code></a></div>
<div class="sphx-glr-download docutils container">
<a class="reference download internal" download="" href="../../_downloads/fafc156126618345cab29678893444c5/text_intro.ipynb"><code class="xref download docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Download</span> <span class="pre">Jupyter</span> <span class="pre">notebook:</span> <span class="pre">text_intro.ipynb</span></code></a></div>
</div>
<p class="sphx-glr-signature">Keywords: matplotlib code example, codex, python plot, pyplot
<a class="reference external" href="https://sphinx-gallery.readthedocs.io">Gallery generated by Sphinx-Gallery</a></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="clearer"></div>
</div>
<div class="footer">
© Copyright 2002 - 2012 John Hunter, Darren Dale, Eric Firing, Michael Droettboom and the Matplotlib development team; 2012 - 2018 The Matplotlib development team.
<br />
Last updated on Feb 28, 2019.
Created using
<ahref="http://sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> 1.8.4.
Doc version v2.2.4-2-g38a93e9a0-dirty.
</div>
<script>
(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');
ga('create', 'UA-55954603-1', 'auto');
ga('send', 'pageview');
</script>
</body>
<footer>
</footer>
</html>