Basic plots Scales API Tick locators API Animation API

756 plot([X],Y,[fmt],…) API ax.set_[xy]scale(scale,…) from matplotlib import ticker import matplotlib.animation as mpla
Cheat sheet 432 Version 3.5.0 X, Y, fmt, color, marker, linestyle linear
0.0 log
0.0 ax.[xy]axis.set_[minor|major]_locator(locator)

1 - + any values
2.5 0 + values > 0
2.510102101 0logit ticker.NullLocator() T = np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, 100)

Quick start 765 1234567 X,scatter(X,Y,…) API API

0.0 2 0 2 symlog 0.0 ticker.MultipleLocator(0.5)
S = np.sin(T)
line, = plt.plot(T, S)
423 Y, [s]izes, [c]olors, marker, cmap
-
2.5 1000100any values2.5 1 0 < values < 1
+ 0 1
0.0 0.5 1.0
ticker.FixedLocator([0, 1, 5])
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0
def animate(i):
import numpy as np
1 2
0 1 5 line.set_ydata(np.sin(T+i/50))
756 1234567 x,bar[h](x,height,…)
import matplotlib as mpl ticker.LinearLocator(numticks=3) anim = mpla.FuncAnimation(
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt API Projections API 0.0 2.5 5.0

432
plt.gcf(), animate, interval=5)
height, width, bottom, align, color ticker.IndexLocator(base=0.5, offset=0.25)
plt.show()
1 subplot(…,projection=p) 0.25 0.75 1.25 1.75 2.25 2.75 3.25 3.75 4.25 4.75
ticker.AutoLocator()
X = np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, 100)
765 1234567 imshow(Z,…) API
p=’polar’ p=’3d’ API 0 1 2 3 4 5
Styles API

3421
Y = np.cos(X) ticker.MaxNLocator(n=4)
Z, cmap, interpolation, extent, origin 0.0 1.5 3.0 4.5
fig, ax = plt.subplots() ticker.LogLocator(base=10, numticks=15) plt.style.use(style)

6754 1234567 contour[f]([X],[Y],Z,…)

103 104 105 106 107 108 109 1010
ax.plot(X, Y, color=’green’) p=ccrs.Orthographic() API
default grayscale
API classic
import cartopy.crs as ccrs 1.0 1.0 1.0

X, Y, Z, levels, colors, extent, origin

3
0.5

21
0.5 0.5

fig.savefig(“figure.pdf”)
Tick formatters
0.0 0.0 0.0

API 0.5 0.5 0.5

fig.show()
32 1234567 pcolormesh([X],[Y],Z,…)
1.0 1.0 1.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

10 API ggplot seaborn fast

from matplotlib import ticker

Anatomy of a figure X, Y, Z, vmin, vmax, cmap

1.0 1.0 1.0
ax.[xy]axis.set_[minor|major]_formatter(formatter)

12 Lines 0.5 0.5

API
0.5

0.0 0.0 0.0

7653 3210123 quiver([X],[Y],U,V,…)

ticker.NullFormatter() 0.5 0.5 0.5

4
Anatomy of a figure linestyle or ls
1.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
1.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
1.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6

API ticker.FixedFormatter(['zero', 'one', 'two', ]) bmh Solarize_Light2 seaborn-notebook

432
Title Blue signal
Major tick X, Y, U, V, C, units, angles
1.0 1.0 1.0
Red signal "-" ":" "--" "-." (0,(0.01,2)) zero one two three four five 0.5 0.5 0.5

1 capstyle or dash_capstyle
Legend ticker.FuncFormatter(lambda x, pos: "[%.2f]" % x) 0.0 0.0 0.0

0.5 0.5 0.5

765 1234567 Z, explode, labels, colors, radius

Minor tick [0.00] [1.00] [2.00] [3.00] [4.00] [5.00] 1.0 1.0 1.0

"butt" "round" "projecting"

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

pie(X,…) API ticker.FormatStrFormatter('>%d<')

432
3
>0< >1< >2< >3< >4< >5<
Major tick label Grid
Quick reminder
Line
(line plot) 1 Markers API 0
ticker.ScalarFormatter()
1 2 3 4 5

765 1234567T x,text(x,y,text,…) API ticker.StrMethodFormatter('{x}') ax.grid()

Y axis label

2
432 TEX y, text, va, ha, size, weight, transform 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 ax.set_[xy]lim(vmin, vmax)

1 ax.set_[xy]label(label)
'.' 'o' 's' 'P' 'X' '*' 'p' 'D' '<' '>' '^' 'v' ticker.PercentFormatter(xmax=5)
Y axis label 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% ax.set_[xy]ticks(ticks, [labels])
756 1234567 X,fill[_between][x](…)
Markers
(scatter plot)
API '1' '2' '3' '4' '+' 'x' '|' '_' 4 5 6 7 ax.set_[xy]ticklabels(labels)
1 432 Y1, Y2, color, where
Ornaments
ax.set_title(title)
1 '$ $''$ $''$ $''$ $''$ $''$ $''$ $''$ $''$ $''$ $''$ $''$ $'
markevery
ax.tick_params(width=10, …)

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Spines ax.legend(…) API ax.set_axis_[on|off]()
Figure Line 10 [0, -1] (25, 5) [0, 25, -1] handles, labels, loc, title, frameon
Axes (line plot)
Advanced plots fig.suptitle(title)
0

765
title
0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1 1.25 1.50 1.75 2 2.25 2.50 2.75 3 3.25 3.50 3.75 4 fig.tight_layout()
X axis label step(X,Y,[fmt],…) API
Colors Legend
432
Minor tick label API plt.gcf(), plt.gca()
X axis label X, Y, fmt, color, marker, where handletextpad
label
handle
1 C0 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 markerfacecolor (mfc) mpl.rc(’axes’, linewidth=1, …)
1
handlelength
’Cn’
Subplots layout
0 Label 1 Label 3 [fig|ax].patch.set_alpha(0)
765 1234567 X,boxplot(X,…)
API 0 b 2 g 4 r 6 c 8 m 10 y 12 k 14 w 16 ’x’
API 1 DarkRed Firebrick Crimson IndianRed Salmon labelspacing markeredgecolor (mec) text=r’$\frac{-e^{i\pi}}{2^n}$’
’name’

fig, axs = plt.subplots(3, 3) 3

subplot[s](rows,cols,…) API
42 10 (1,0,0) (1,0,0,0.75) (1,0,0,0.5) (1,0,0,0.25)
notch, sym, bootstrap, widths
0 2
10 #FF0000
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 (R,G,B[,A]) Label 2 Label 4
1
borderpad
0 2 4 #FF0000BB
6 8 #FF000088
10 12 #FF000044
14 16 ’#RRGGBB[AA]’ Keyboard shortcuts
columnspacing numpoints or scatterpoints
10 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 API
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 ’x.y’
756 246 X,errorbar(X,Y,xerr,yerr,…)
borderaxespad
0
API 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
ctrl + s Save ctrl + w Close plot
G = gridspec(rows,cols,…) API
432 Y, xerr, yerr, fmt ax.colorbar(…) API r Reset view f Fullscreen 0/1
ax = G[0,:]
1 Colormaps API
mappable, ax, cax, orientation
f View forward b View back
71
61
51 1234567 X,hist(X, bins, …)
API plt.get_cmap(name) p Pan view o Zoom to rect
ax.inset_axes(extent) 41
31
21
API bins, range, density, weights
Uniform
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
x X pan/zoom y Y pan/zoom
111 viridis g Minor grid 0/1 G Major grid 0/1
756 1234567 violinplot(D,…) API magma ax.annotate(…) API
l X axis log/linear L Y axis log/linear

ax = d.new_horizontal(’10%’) 3
d=make_axes_locatable(ax) API
42 D, positions, widths, vert plasma
text, xy, xytext, xycoords, textcoords, arrowprops

1 Sequential
text Ten simple rules
765 1234567 barbs([X],[Y],
Greys READ
API U, V, …) YlOrBr xytext xy
4
textcoords xycoords
X, Y, U, V, C, length, pivot, sizes
231
Wistia 1. Know your audience
Getting help Diverging 2. Identify your message

6754 1234567 positions, orientation, lineoffsets

Spectral 3. Adapt the figure
Å matplotlib.org eventplot(positions,…)
API
4. Captions are not optional
coolwarm
Event handling API
H github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/issues
ď discourse.matplotlib.org
321 Qualitative
RdGy

W stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/matplotlib
Ż https://gitter.im/matplotlib/matplotlib
7
654 1234567 hexbin(X,Y,C,…)
X, Y, C, gridsize, bins
F twitter.com/matplotlib
a Matplotlib users mailing list
321
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fig, ax = plt.subplots()
5. Do not trust the defaults
6. Use color effectively
API
tab10
tab20
def on_click(event):
print(event)
7. Do not mislead the reader
8. Avoid “chartjunk”
Cyclic
twilight
fig.canvas.mpl_connect(
’button_press_event’, on_click)
9. Message trumps beauty
10. Get the right tool
 Axes adjustments API Uniform colormaps Color names API Legend placement How do I …
plt.subplots_adjust( … ) viridis
plasma
black
k
dimgray
dimgrey
gray
floralwhite
darkgoldenrod
goldenrod
cornsilk
gold
darkturquoise
cadetblue
powderblue
lightblue
deepskyblue
L K J … resize a figure?
→ fig.set_size_inches(w, h)
… save a figure?

A 2 9 1 I
grey lemonchiffon skyblue
inferno
darkgray khaki lightskyblue → fig.savefig(”figure.pdf”)
darkgrey palegoldenrod steelblue
magma silver darkkhaki aliceblue … save a transparent figure?
top lightgray ivory dodgerblue
axes width cividis lightgrey beige lightslategray → fig.savefig(”figure.pdf”, transparent=True)
gainsboro lightyellow lightslategrey
whitesmoke lightgoldenrodyellow slategray … clear a figure/an axes?
w olive slategrey
→ fig.clear() → ax.clear()
Sequential colormaps white
snow
y
yellow
lightsteelblue
cornflowerblue
rosybrown olivedrab royalblue … close all figures?
B 6 10 7 H

figure height
lightcoral yellowgreen ghostwhite
axes height indianred darkolivegreen lavender → plt.close(”all”)
brown greenyellow midnightblue
Greys
firebrick chartreuse navy … remove ticks?
hspace Purples maroon lawngreen darkblue → ax.set_[xy]ticks([])
darkred honeydew mediumblue
Blues r darkseagreen b … remove tick labels ?
red palegreen blue
Greens mistyrose lightgreen slateblue → ax.set_[xy]ticklabels([])
salmon forestgreen darkslateblue
tomato limegreen mediumslateblue … rotate tick labels ?
C 3 8 4 G
left bottom wspace right Oranges
darksalmon darkgreen mediumpurple
Reds coral g rebeccapurple → ax.tick_params(axis=”x”, rotation=90)
orangered green blueviolet
YlOrBr lightsalmon lime indigo … hide top spine?
sienna seagreen darkorchid
figure width
D E F
YlOrRd seashell mediumseagreen darkviolet → ax.spines[’top’].set_visible(False)
chocolate springgreen mediumorchid
OrRd saddlebrown mintcream thistle … hide legend border?
sandybrown mediumspringgreen plum
peachpuff mediumaquamarine violet → ax.legend(frameon=False)
PuRd peru aquamarine purple
Extent & origin API linen turquoise darkmagenta ax.legend(loc=”string”, bbox_to_anchor=(x,y)) … show error as shaded region?
RdPu bisque lightseagreen m
darkorange mediumturquoise fuchsia
2: upper left 9: upper center 1: upper right → ax.fill_between(X, Y+error, Y‐error)
ax.imshow( extent=…, origin=… ) BuPu burlywood azure magenta
GnBu
antiquewhite
tan
lightcyan
paleturquoise
orchid
mediumvioletred 6: center left 10: center 7: center right … draw a rectangle?
origin="upper" origin="upper" PuBu
navajowhite
blanchedalmond
darkslategray
darkslategrey
deeppink
hotpink 3: lower left 8: lower center 4: lower right → ax.add_patch(plt.Rectangle((0, 0), 1, 1)
5
(0,0) (0,0)
YlGnBu
papayawhip
moccasin
teal
darkcyan
lavenderblush
palevioletred … draw a vertical line?
orange c crimson A: upper right / (-0.1,0.9) B: center right / (-0.1,0.5) → ax.axvline(x=0.5)
PuBuGn wheat aqua pink
oldlace cyan lightpink C: lower right / (-0.1,0.1) D: upper left / (0.1,-0.1) … draw outside frame?
BuGn E: upper center / (0.5,-0.1) F: upper right / (0.9,-0.1)
0
(4,4) (4,4) → ax.plot(…, clip_on=False)
extent=[0,10,0,5] extent=[10,0,0,5] YlGn G: lower left / (1.1,0.1) H: center left / (1.1,0.5)
Image interpolation API … use transparency?
origin="lower" origin="lower" I: upper left / (1.1,0.9) J: lower right / (0.9,1.1) → ax.plot(…, alpha=0.25)
5
(4,4) (4,4)
Diverging colormaps K: lower center / (0.5,1.1) L: lower left / (0.1,1.1) … convert an RGB image into a gray image?
→ gray = 0.2989*R + 0.5870*G + 0.1140*B
PiYG … set figure background color?
0
(0,0)
extent=[0,10,0,5] extent=[10,0,0,5]
(0,0)
PRGn Annotation connection styles API → fig.patch.set_facecolor(“grey”)
0 10 0 10 BrBG
… get a reversed colormap?
PuOr None none nearest arc3,
rad=0
arc3,
rad=0.3
angle3,
angleA=0,
→ plt.get_cmap(“viridis_r”)
angleB=90
… get a discrete colormap?
Text alignments
RdGy
API → plt.get_cmap(“viridis”, 10)
RdBu
… show a figure for one second?
ax.text( …, ha=… , va=…, …) RdYlBu
→ fig.show(block=False), time.sleep(1)

Matplotlib
RdYlGn
(1,1)
top
Performance tips
Spectral

bilinear bicubic spline16

angle, angle, arc,
coolwarm angleA=-90, angleA=-90, angleA=-90,
angleB=180, angleB=180, angleB=0,
center bwr rad=0 rad=25 armA=0,
armB=40,
baseline rad=0 scatter(X, Y) slow
bottom seismic plot(X, Y, marker=”o”, ls=””) fast
(0,0)
left center right
for i in range(n): plot(X[i]) slow
Qualitative colormaps plot(sum([x+[None] for x in X],[])) fast

Text parameters API bar, bar, bar, cla(), imshow(…), canvas.draw() slow
Pastel1 spline36 hanning hamming fraction=0.3 fraction=-0.3 angle=180,
fraction=-0.2 im.set_data(…), canvas.draw() fast
ax.text(…, family=…, size=…, weight=…) Pastel2
ax.text(…, fontproperties=…) Paired Beyond Matplotlib
The quick brown fox
Accent
xx-large (1.73)
Dark2 Seaborn: Statistical data visualization
The quick brown fox x-large (1.44)
Set1 Cartopy: Geospatial data processing
The quick brown fox large (1.20) yt: Volumetric data visualization
The quick brown fox
The quick brown fox
medium (1.00)
Set2
hermite kaiser quadric mpld3: Bringing Matplotlib to the browser
The quick brown fox
small
x-small
(0.83)
(0.69)
Set3
Annotation arrow styles API
Datashader: Large data processing pipeline
The quick brown fox xx-small (0.58) tab10
tab20 plotnine: A grammar of graphics for Python
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog black (900)
- <- -> <->
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog bold (700) tab20b
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog semibold (600) tab20c
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog normal (400) Matplotlib Cheatsheets
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog Copyright (c) 2021 Matplotlib Development Team
ultralight (100)

Miscellaneous colormaps
catrom gaussian bessel <|- -|> <|-|> ]-
Released under a CC‐BY 4.0 International License
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog monospace
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog serif
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog sans
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog cursive
terrain -[ ]-[ |-| ]->
ocean
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog italic
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog normal cubehelix
rainbow <-[ simple fancy wedge
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
small-caps
normal twilight mitchell sinc lanczos
Matplotlib for beginners
Matplotlib is a library for making 2D plots in Python. It is
Z = np.random.uniform(0, 1, (8,8)) 765 Organize
designed with the philosophy that you should be able to
create simple plots with just a few commands: 432 You can plot several data on the the same figure, but you
ax.contourf(Z)
1 can also split a figure in several subplots (named Axes):
1 Initialize
Z = np.random.uniform(0, 1, 4) 765 1234567 765
432
X = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
import numpy as np Y1, Y2 = np.sin(X), np.cos(X) 432
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt ax.pie(Z)
1 ax.plot(X, Y1, X, Y2)
1
Z = np.random.normal(0, 1, 100) 71
61
51 1234567 1234567
2 Prepare
41
31
21
fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(2,1)
ax1.plot(X, Y1, color=”C1”)
X = np.linspace(0, 4*np.pi, 1000) ax.hist(Z)
111 ax2.plot(X, Y2, color=”C0”)
Y = np.sin(X)
X = np.arange(5) 765 1234567
432
fig, (ax1, ax2) = plt.subplots(1,2)
3 Render Y = np.random.uniform(0, 1, 5) ax1.plot(Y1, X, color=”C1”)

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.errorbar(X, Y, Y∕4)
1 ax2.plot(Y2, X, color=”C0”)

ax.plot(X, Y) Z = np.random.normal(0, 1, (100,3)) 765 1234567

fig.show()
432 Label (everything)
ax.boxplot(Z)
1
4 Observe
246 ax.plot(X, Y)
543
A Sine wave

21
1.0 fig.suptitle(None)
0.5 Tweak ax.set_title(”A Sine wave”)

1234567
0.0
0.5 You can modify pretty much anything in a plot, including lim-
ax.plot(X, Y)
1.0 its, colors, markers, line width and styles, ticks and ticks la-
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 ax.set_ylabel(None)
bels, titles, etc.
ax.set_xlabel(”Time”)

765
Time
Choose X = np.linspace(0, 10, 100)
Y = np.sin(X) 432 Explore
Matplotlib offers several kind of plots (see Gallery): ax.plot(X, Y, color=”black”)
1 Figures are shown with a graphical user interface that al-
X = np.random.uniform(0, 1, 100) 765 X = np.linspace(0, 10, 100) 765 1234567 lows to zoom and pan the figure, to navigate between the
Y = np.random.uniform(0, 1, 100) 432 Y = np.sin(X) 432 different views and to show the value under the mouse.
ax.scatter(X, Y)
1 ax.plot(X, Y, linestyle=”--”)
1
X = np.arange(10) 765 1234567 X = np.linspace(0, 10, 100) 765 1234567 Save (bitmap or vector format)
Y = np.random.uniform(1, 10, 10) 432 Y = np.sin(X) 432
ax.bar(X, Y)
1 ax.plot(X, Y, linewidth=5)
1 fig.savefig(”my-first-figure.png”, dpi=300)
fig.savefig(”my-first-figure.pdf”)
Z = np.random.uniform(0, 1, (8,8)) 765 1234567 X = np.linspace(0, 10, 100) 765 1234567
432 Y = np.sin(X) 432
1 1
Matplotlib 3.5.0 handout for beginners. Copyright (c) 2021 Matplotlib Development
ax.imshow(Z) ax.plot(X, Y, marker=”o”) Team. Released under a CC-BY 4.0 International License. Supported by NumFOCUS.

1234567 1234567
Matplotlib for intermediate users
A matplotlib figure is composed of a hierarchy of elements Ticks & labels Legend
that forms the actual figure. Each element can be modified.
from mpl.ticker import MultipleLocator as ML ax.plot(X, np.sin(X), ”C0”, label=”Sine”)
from mpl.ticker import ScalarFormatter as SF ax.plot(X, np.cos(X), ”C1”, label=”Cosine”)
4
Anatomy of a figure ax.xaxis.set_minor_locator(ML(0.2)) ax.legend(bbox_to_anchor=(0,1,1,.1),ncol=2,
Title Blue signal ax.xaxis.set_minor_formatter(SF()) mode=”expand”, loc=”lower left”)
Major tick Red signal ax.tick_params(axis=’x’,which=’minor’,rotation=90)
Legend Sine Sine and Cosine Cosine
Minor tick 0 1 2 3 4 5

0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8

1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8

2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8

3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8

4.2
4.4
4.6
4.8
3
Major tick label Grid Lines & markers
Line
(line plot)
X = np.linspace(0.1, 10*np.pi, 1000) Annotation
Y axis label

2 Y = np.sin(X)
ax.plot(X, Y, ”C1o:”, markevery=25, mec=”1.0”) ax.annotate(”A”, (X[250],Y[250]),(X[250],-1),
Y axis label Markers ha=”center”, va=”center”,arrowprops =
(scatter plot) 1 {”arrowstyle” : ”->”, ”color”: ”C1”})
0
1 1 1
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0
Spines 1 A
Figure Line 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Axes (line plot) Scales & projections
0
0 0.25 0.50 0.75 1 1.25 1.50 1.75 2 2.25 2.50 2.75 3 3.25 3.50 3.75 4 Colors
X axis label fig, ax = plt.subplots()
Minor tick label
X axis label ax.set_xscale(”log”)
ax.plot(X, Y, ”C1o-”, markevery=25, mec=”1.0”) 1 AnyC0
color can be used, but Matplotlib offers sets of colors:
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9
10 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0
Figure, axes & spines
1 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
0 0
1 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
fig, axs = plt.subplots(3,3) 10 1 100 101
Size & DPI
axs[0,0].set_facecolor(”#ddddff”)
axs[2,2].set_facecolor(”#ffffdd”) Text & ornaments Consider a square figure to be included in a two-columns A4
paper with 2cm margins on each side and a column separa-
gs = fig.add_gridspec(3, 3) tion of 1cm. The width of a figure is (21 - 2*2 - 1)/2 = 8cm.
ax.fill_betweenx([-1,1],[0],[2*np.pi])
ax = fig.add_subplot(gs[0, :]) One inch being 2.54cm, figure size should be 3.15×3.15 in.
ax.text(0, -1, r” Period $\Phi$”)
ax.set_facecolor(”#ddddff”)
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(3.15,3.15), dpi=50)
1 plt.savefig(”figure.pdf”, dpi=600)
fig, ax = plt.subplots() 0
ax.spines[”top”].set_color(”None”) 1 Period Matplotlib 3.5.0 handout for intermediate users. Copyright (c) 2021 Matplotlib De-
velopment Team. Released under a CC-BY 4.0 International License. Supported by
ax.spines[”right”].set_color(”None”) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 NumFOCUS.
Matplotlib tips & tricks
Transparency Text outline Colorbar adjustment
Scatter plots can be enhanced by using transparency (al- Use text outline to make text more visible. You can adjust a colorbar’s size when adding it.
pha) in order to show area with higher density. Multiple scat-
import matplotlib.patheffects as fx im = ax.imshow(Z)
ter plots can be used to delineate a frontier. text = ax.text(0.5, 0.1, ”Label”)
text.set_path_effects([ cb = plt.colorbar(im,
X = np.random.normal(-1, 1, 500) fx.Stroke(linewidth=3, foreground=’1.0’), fraction=0.046, pad=0.04)
Y = np.random.normal(-1, 1, 500) fx.Normal()]) cb.set_ticks([])
ax.scatter(X, Y, 50, ”0.0”, lw=2) # optional
ax.scatter(X, Y, 50, ”1.0”, lw=0) # optional
ax.scatter(X, Y, 40, ”C1”, lw=0, alpha=0.1)

Multiline plot Taking advantage of typography

You can use a condensed font such as Roboto Condensed
Rasterization You can plot several lines at once using None as separator.
to save space on tick labels.
X,Y = [], []
If your figure has many graphical elements, such as a huge for x in np.linspace(0, 10*np.pi, 100):
for tick in ax.get_xticklabels(which=’both’):
tick.set_fontname(”Roboto Condensed”)
scatter, you can rasterize them to save memory and keep X.extend([x, x, None]), Y.extend([0, sin(x), None])
other elements in vector format. ax.plot(X, Y, ”black”)
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8
0 1 2 3 4 5
X = np.random.normal(-1, 1, 10_000)
Y = np.random.normal(-1, 1, 10_000)
ax.scatter(X, Y, rasterized=True) Getting rid of margins
fig.savefig(”rasterized-figure.pdf”, dpi=600)
Once your figure is finished, you can call tight_layout()
to remove white margins. If there are remaining margins,
Dotted lines you can use the pdfcrop utility (comes with TeX live).
Offline rendering
To have rounded dotted lines, use a custom linestyle and
Use the Agg backend to render a figure directly in an array. modify dash_capstyle. Hatching
from matplotlib.backends.backend_agg import FigureCanvas ax.plot([0,1], [0,0], ”C1”, You can achieve a nice visual effect with thick hatch pat-
canvas = FigureCanvas(Figure())) linestyle = (0, (0.01, 1)), dash_capstyle=”round”) terns.
... # draw some stuff ax.plot([0,1], [1,1], ”C1”, 59%
53%
canvas.draw() linestyle = (0, (0.01, 2)), dash_capstyle=”round”) cmap = plt.get_cmap(”Oranges”)
38%
Z = np.array(canvas.renderer.buffer_rgba()) plt.rcParams[’hatch.color’] = cmap(0.2) 27%
plt.rcParams[’hatch.linewidth’] = 8
ax.bar(X, Y, color=cmap(0.6), hatch=”∕” )
2018 2019

Range of continuous colors

You can use colormap to pick from a range of continuous
colors.
X = np.random.randn(1000, 4)
cmap = plt.get_cmap(”Oranges”)
colors = cmap([0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8])
ax.hist(X, 2, histtype=’bar’, color=colors)
Combining axes Read the documentation
You can use overlaid axes with different projections. Matplotlib comes with an extensive documentation explain-
ing the details of each command and is generally accom-
ax1 = fig.add_axes([0,0,1,1],
label=”cartesian”)
panied by examples. Together with the huge online gallery,
ax2 = fig.add_axes([0,0,1,1], this documentation is a gold-mine.
label=”polar”,
Matplotlib 3.5.0 handout for tips & tricks. Copyright (c) 2021 Matplotlib Development
projection=”polar”)
Team. Released under a CC-BY 4.0 International License. Supported by NumFOCUS.