Controlling line properties

Lines have many attributes that you can set: linewidth, dash style, antialiased, etc; see :class:`matplotlib.lines.Line2D`. There are several ways to set line properties

• Use keyword args:

  plt.plot(x, y, linewidth=2.0)
  

• Use the setter methods of the Line2D instance. plot returns a list of lines; eg line1, line2 = plot(x1,y1,x2,x2). Below I have only one line so it is a list of7 length 1. I use tuple unpacking in the line, = plot(x, y, 'o') to get the first element of the list:

  line, = plt.plot(x, y, 'o')
  line.set_antialiased(False) # turn off antialising
  

• Use the :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.setp` command. The example below uses matlab handle graphics style command to set multiple properties on a list of lines. setp works transparently with a list of objects or a single object. You can either use python keyword arguments or matlab-style string/value pairs:

  lines = plt.plot(x1, y1, x2, y2)
  # use keyword args
  plt.setp(lines, color='r', linewidth=2.0)
  # or matlab style string value pairs
  plt.setp(lines, 'color', 'r', 'linewidth', 2.0)
  

Here are the available :class:`~matplotlib.lines.Line2D` properties.

To get a list of settable line properties, call the :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.setp` function with a line or lines as argument

In [69]: lines = plot([1,2,3])

In [70]: setp(lines)
  alpha: float
  animated: [True | False]
  antialiased or aa: [True | False]
  ...snip

Working with multiple figure and axes

Matlab, and :mod:`~matplotlib.pyplot`, have the concept of the current figure and the current axes. All plotting commands apply to the current axes. The function :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.gca` returns the current axes (a :class:`matplotlib.axes.Axes` instance), and :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.gcf` returns the current figure (:class:`matplotlib.figure.Figure` instance). Normally, you don't have to worry about this, because it is all taken care of behind the scenes. Below is an script to create two subplots.

The :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.figure` command here is optional because figure(1) will be created by default, just as a subplot(111) will be created by default if you don't manually specify an axes. The :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.subplot` command specifies numrows, numcols, fignum where fignum ranges from 1 to numrows*numcols. The commas in the subplot command are optional if ``numrows*numcols<10. So subplot(211) is identical to subplot(2,1,1). You can create an arbitrary number of subplots and axes. If you want to place an axes manually, ie, not on a rectangular grid, use the :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.axes` command, which allows you to specify the location as axes([left, bottom, width, height]) where all values are in fractional (0 to 1) coordinates. See axes_demo.py for an example of placing axes manually and line_styles.py for an example with lots-o-subplots.

You can create multiple figures by using multiple :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.figure` calls with an increasing figure number. Of course, each figure can contain as many axes and subplots as your heart desires:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.figure(1)                # the first figure
plt.plot([1,2,3])

plt.figure(2)                # a second figure
plt.plot([4,5,6])

plt.figure(1)                # figure 1 current
plt.title('Easy as 1,2,3')   # figure 1 title

You can clear the current figure with :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.clf` and the current axes with :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.cla`.

Working with text

The :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.text` command can be used to add text in an arbitrary location, and the :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.xlabel`, :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.ylabel` and :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.title` are used to add text in the indicated locations.

All of the text commands The :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.text` commands return an :class:`matplotlib.text.Text` instance. Just as with with lines above, you can customize the properties by passing keyword arguments into the text functions or using :func:`~matplotlib.pyplot.setp`:

t = plt.xlabel('my data', fontsize=14, color='red')

The following font properties can be set

See align_text for examples of how to control the alignment and orientation of text.