### Navigation

- index
- modules |
- next |
- previous |
- home|
- examples|
- tutorials|
- pyplot|
- docs »
- The Matplotlib API »
- matplotlib.pyplot »

# matplotlib.pyplot.axis

`matplotlib.pyplot.``axis`(*v, **kwargs)

  Convenience method to get or set axis properties.

  Calling with no arguments:

      >>> axis()

  returns the current axes limits `[xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax]`.:

      >>> axis(v)

  sets the min and max of the x and y axes, with `v = [xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax]`.:

      >>> axis('off')

  turns off the axis lines and labels.:

      >>> axis('equal')

  changes limits of x or y axis so that equal increments of x and y have the same length; a circle is circular.:

      >>> axis('scaled')

  achieves the same result by changing the dimensions of the plot box instead of the axis data limits.:

      >>> axis('tight')

  changes x and y axis limits such that all data is shown. If all data is already shown, it will move it to the center of the figure without modifying (xmax - xmin) or (ymax - ymin). Note this is slightly different than in MATLAB.:

      >>> axis('image')

  is ‘scaled’ with the axis limits equal to the data limits.:

      >>> axis('auto')

  and:

      >>> axis('normal')

  are deprecated. They restore default behavior; axis limits are automatically scaled to make the data fit comfortably within the plot box.

  if `len(*v)==0`, you can pass in xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax as kwargs selectively to alter just those limits without changing the others.

      >>> axis('square')

  changes the limit ranges (xmax-xmin) and (ymax-ymin) of the x and y axes to be the same, and have the same scaling, resulting in a square plot.

  The xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax tuple is returned

  See also

  `xlim()`, `ylim()`
    For setting the x- and y-limits individually.