matplotlib-users

[Matplotlib-users] Controlling spacing between subplots

[Brad M. <bra...@gm...>]

Hi, I am trying to do a simple 2x2 box of plots. My code is so far very
simple, and simply looks something like this.

          ax=subplot(221)
>
> plot(x2cp,y2cp)
> ax.set_title('2cP')
> ylabel('Displacement')
> ax=subplot(222)
> plot(x2cb,y2cb)
> ax.set_title('2cB')
> ax=subplot(223)
> plot(x6fp,y6fp)
> ax.set_title('6fP')
> ax=subplot(224)
> plot(x6fb,y6fb)
> ax.set_title('6fB')
> show()
>
>
But when I do this, the text and numbers from various plots overlap each
other and get in the way (I noticed this is a common problem among the
images in the matplotlib gallery as well). I have 2 questions:

1). How can I control the spacing, or padding, between the plots so that the
numbers don't overlap?
2). Is there a way for me to have a single common y-axis label and x-axis
label that runs along the full left-hand side and bottom, respectively?

Thanks so much for the help!

Brad

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Controlling spacing between subplots

[Brad M. <bra...@gm...>]

Hello again,

I've actually made some more progress on my last question after finding this
site:
http://www.scipy.org/Cookbook/Matplotlib/Multiple_Subplots_with_One_Axis_Label

and I was able to adjust the widths of my spacing.

My current plot looks like this:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/current.png/

with source code that looks like:

> adjustprops = dict(left=0.1, bottom=0.1, right=0.97, top=0.93, wspace=0.25,
> hspace=0.25)
> fig=figure()
> fig.subplots_adjust(**adjustprops)
>
> ax=subplot(221)
> plot(x2cp,y2cp,'bo',markersize=3)
> #ax.set_title('2cP')
> text(12,0.03,'2cP')
> #ylabel('Displacement')
> axis([0,16,0,0.04])
> bx=subplot(223)
> plot(x2cb,y2cb,'bo',markersize=3)
> #ax.set_title('2cB')
> text(12,0.225,'2cB')
> axis([0,16,0,0.3])
> cx=subplot(222)
> plot(x6fp,y6fp,'bo',markersize=3)
> #ax.set_title('6fP')
> text(12,0.03375,'6fP')
> axis([0,16,0,0.045])
> dx=subplot(224)
> plot(x6fb,y6fb,'bo',markersize=3)
> #ax.set_title('6fB')
> text(12,0.225,'6fB')
> axis([0,16,0,0.3])
>
>
> show()



Now the only thing I'd like to do now is create a global y-axis and a global
x-axis along the bottom for all 4 plots (which the website I linked to above
gives some hints about, but trying what I thought was equivalent didn't
work). And lastly, I wanted those y-axes which go from 0.000 to 0.040 to
instead go from 0.00 to 0.04 (i.e., only two decimal places, getting rid of
the ones that are in between).

Thanks for any guidance you can give.

Best,
Brad

On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 3:32 PM, Brad Malone <bra...@gm...> wrote:

> Hi, I am trying to do a simple 2x2 box of plots. My code is so far very
> simple, and simply looks something like this.
>
>           ax=subplot(221)
>>
>> plot(x2cp,y2cp)
>> ax.set_title('2cP')
>> ylabel('Displacement')
>> ax=subplot(222)
>> plot(x2cb,y2cb)
>> ax.set_title('2cB')
>> ax=subplot(223)
>> plot(x6fp,y6fp)
>> ax.set_title('6fP')
>> ax=subplot(224)
>> plot(x6fb,y6fb)
>> ax.set_title('6fB')
>> show()
>>
>>
> But when I do this, the text and numbers from various plots overlap each
> other and get in the way (I noticed this is a common problem among the
> images in the matplotlib gallery as well). I have 2 questions:
>
> 1). How can I control the spacing, or padding, between the plots so that
> the numbers don't overlap?
> 2). Is there a way for me to have a single common y-axis label and x-axis
> label that runs along the full left-hand side and bottom, respectively?
>
> Thanks so much for the help!
>
> Brad
>

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Controlling spacing between subplots

[Jeffrey S. <jef...@gm...>]

Not sure what you mean global axis but I think I was trying to do 
something similar with this. This is the chunk of one subplot. 
Specifically look at last three lines:
ax = fig.add_subplot(2,2,2)
ax.set_title('b) 5')
ax.set_ylim((0,yUpper))
for i in tempRun:
     ax.plot(x,actSum[1,semi,i,semi], label=tempLabel[i],   
linestyle=dashs[i%len(dashs)], color=plotColor[i%len(plotColor)])
clear_spines(ax)
ax.set_xticklabels('')
ax.yaxis.set_ticks_position('left')
ax.xaxis.set_ticks_position('bottom')

Cheers,
Jeff

On 20/09/11 09:20, Brad Malone wrote:
> Hello again,
>
> I've actually made some more progress on my last question after 
> finding this site: 
> http://www.scipy.org/Cookbook/Matplotlib/Multiple_Subplots_with_One_Axis_Label
>
> and I was able to adjust the widths of my spacing.
>
> My current plot looks like this:
> http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/current.png/
>
> with source code that looks like:
>
>     adjustprops = dict(left=0.1, bottom=0.1, right=0.97, top=0.93,
>     wspace=0.25, hspace=0.25)
>     fig=figure()
>     fig.subplots_adjust(**adjustprops)
>
>     ax=subplot(221)
>     plot(x2cp,y2cp,'bo',markersize=3)
>     #ax.set_title('2cP')
>     text(12,0.03,'2cP')
>     #ylabel('Displacement')
>     axis([0,16,0,0.04])
>     bx=subplot(223)
>     plot(x2cb,y2cb,'bo',markersize=3)
>     #ax.set_title('2cB')
>     text(12,0.225,'2cB')
>     axis([0,16,0,0.3])
>     cx=subplot(222)
>     plot(x6fp,y6fp,'bo',markersize=3)
>     #ax.set_title('6fP')
>     text(12,0.03375,'6fP')
>     axis([0,16,0,0.045])
>     dx=subplot(224)
>     plot(x6fb,y6fb,'bo',markersize=3)
>     #ax.set_title('6fB')
>     text(12,0.225,'6fB')
>     axis([0,16,0,0.3])
>
>
>     show()
>
>
>
> Now the only thing I'd like to do now is create a global y-axis and a 
> global x-axis along the bottom for all 4 plots (which the website I 
> linked to above gives some hints about, but trying what I thought was 
> equivalent didn't work). And lastly, I wanted those y-axes which go 
> from 0.000 to 0.040 to instead go from 0.00 to 0.04 (i.e., only two 
> decimal places, getting rid of the ones that are in between).
>
> Thanks for any guidance you can give.
>
> Best,
> Brad
>
> On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 3:32 PM, Brad Malone <bra...@gm... 
> <mailto:bra...@gm...>> wrote:
>
>     Hi, I am trying to do a simple 2x2 box of plots. My code is so far
>     very simple, and simply looks something like this.
>
>                   ax=subplot(221)
>
>             plot(x2cp,y2cp)
>             ax.set_title('2cP')
>             ylabel('Displacement')
>             ax=subplot(222)
>             plot(x2cb,y2cb)
>             ax.set_title('2cB')
>             ax=subplot(223)
>             plot(x6fp,y6fp)
>             ax.set_title('6fP')
>             ax=subplot(224)
>             plot(x6fb,y6fb)
>             ax.set_title('6fB')
>             show()
>
>
>     But when I do this, the text and numbers from various plots
>     overlap each other and get in the way (I noticed this is a common
>     problem among the images in the matplotlib gallery as well). I
>     have 2 questions:
>
>     1). How can I control the spacing, or padding, between the plots
>     so that the numbers don't overlap?
>     2). Is there a way for me to have a single common y-axis label and
>     x-axis label that runs along the full left-hand side and bottom,
>     respectively?
>
>     Thanks so much for the help!
>
>     Brad
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> All the data continuously generated in your IT infrastructure contains a
> definitive record of customers, application performance, security
> threats, fraudulent activity and more. Splunk takes this data and makes
> sense of it. Business sense. IT sense. Common sense.
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-d2dcopy1
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Matplotlib-users mailing list
> Mat...@li...
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Controlling spacing between subplots

[Brad M. <bra...@gm...>]

Hi Jeffrey,

Thanks the response. Sorry about the term "global axis". That was clearly
not the best way to say it. What I meant to say is global x axis LABEL and
y-axis LABEL. This can be seen in this example (
http://www.scipy.org/Cookbook/Matplotlib/Multiple_Subplots_with_One_Axis_Label?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=Same_ylabel_subplots.png
)

although when I tried to do something similar with a 2x2 grid of plots it
didn't seem to be working for me. Their example works due to these lines
here

  import pylab
>    2
>    3 figprops = dict(figsize=(8., 8. / 1.618), dpi=128)
>                      # Figure properties
>    4 adjustprops = dict(left=0.1, bottom=0.1, right=0.97, top=0.93,
> wspace=0.2 hspace=0.2)       # Subplot properties
>    5
>    6 fig = pylab.figure(**figprops)
>                      # New figure
>    7 fig.subplots_adjust(**adjustprops)
>                      # Tunes the subplot layout
>    8
>    9 ax = fig.add_subplot(3, 1, 1)
>   10 bx = fig.add_subplot(3, 1, 2, sharex=ax, sharey=ax)
>   11 cx = fig.add_subplot(3, 1, 3, sharex=ax, sharey=ax)
>   12
>   13 ax.plot([0,1,2], [2,3,4], 'k-')
>   14 bx.plot([0,1,2], [2,3,4], 'k-')
>   15 cx.plot([0,1,2], [2,3,4], 'k-')
>   16
>   17 pylab.setp(ax.get_xticklabels(), visible=False)
>   18 pylab.setp(bx.get_xticklabels(), visible=False)
>   19
>   20 bx.set_ylabel('This is a long label shared among more axes',
> fontsize=14)
>   21 cx.set_xlabel('And a shared x label', fontsize=14)



specifically probably the bx/cx_set label commands coupled with the sharex
commands in the subplot label. But when I tried to add these things for my
2x2 plot it always looked like the label was attached to one of the plots or
another instead of spanning the whole range.

Thanks,
Brad

On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 1:28 AM, Jeffrey Spencer <jef...@gm...>wrote:

>  Not sure what you mean global axis but I think I was trying to do
> something similar with this. This is the chunk of one subplot. Specifically
> look at last three lines:
> ax = fig.add_subplot(2,2,2)
> ax.set_title('b) 5')
> ax.set_ylim((0,yUpper))
> for i in tempRun:
>     ax.plot(x,actSum[1,semi,i,semi], label=tempLabel[i],
> linestyle=dashs[i%len(dashs)], color=plotColor[i%len(plotColor)])
> clear_spines(ax)
> ax.set_xticklabels('')
> ax.yaxis.set_ticks_position('left')
> ax.xaxis.set_ticks_position('bottom')
>
> Cheers,
> Jeff
>
>
> On 20/09/11 09:20, Brad Malone wrote:
>
> Hello again,
>
>  I've actually made some more progress on my last question after finding
> this site:
> http://www.scipy.org/Cookbook/Matplotlib/Multiple_Subplots_with_One_Axis_Label
>
>  and I was able to adjust the widths of my spacing.
>
>  My current plot looks like this:
> http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/849/current.png/
>
>  with source code that looks like:
>
>> adjustprops = dict(left=0.1, bottom=0.1, right=0.97, top=0.93,
>> wspace=0.25, hspace=0.25)
>> fig=figure()
>> fig.subplots_adjust(**adjustprops)
>>
>> ax=subplot(221)
>> plot(x2cp,y2cp,'bo',markersize=3)
>> #ax.set_title('2cP')
>> text(12,0.03,'2cP')
>> #ylabel('Displacement')
>> axis([0,16,0,0.04])
>> bx=subplot(223)
>> plot(x2cb,y2cb,'bo',markersize=3)
>> #ax.set_title('2cB')
>> text(12,0.225,'2cB')
>> axis([0,16,0,0.3])
>> cx=subplot(222)
>> plot(x6fp,y6fp,'bo',markersize=3)
>> #ax.set_title('6fP')
>> text(12,0.03375,'6fP')
>> axis([0,16,0,0.045])
>> dx=subplot(224)
>> plot(x6fb,y6fb,'bo',markersize=3)
>> #ax.set_title('6fB')
>> text(12,0.225,'6fB')
>> axis([0,16,0,0.3])
>>
>>
>> show()
>
>
>
>  Now the only thing I'd like to do now is create a global y-axis and a
> global x-axis along the bottom for all 4 plots (which the website I linked
> to above gives some hints about, but trying what I thought was equivalent
> didn't work). And lastly, I wanted those y-axes which go from 0.000 to 0.040
> to instead go from 0.00 to 0.04 (i.e., only two decimal places, getting rid
> of the ones that are in between).
>
>  Thanks for any guidance you can give.
>
>  Best,
> Brad
>
> On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 3:32 PM, Brad Malone <bra...@gm...>wrote:
>
>> Hi, I am trying to do a simple 2x2 box of plots. My code is so far very
>> simple, and simply looks something like this.
>>
>>             ax=subplot(221)
>>>
>>> plot(x2cp,y2cp)
>>> ax.set_title('2cP')
>>> ylabel('Displacement')
>>> ax=subplot(222)
>>> plot(x2cb,y2cb)
>>> ax.set_title('2cB')
>>> ax=subplot(223)
>>> plot(x6fp,y6fp)
>>> ax.set_title('6fP')
>>> ax=subplot(224)
>>> plot(x6fb,y6fb)
>>> ax.set_title('6fB')
>>> show()
>>>
>>>
>>  But when I do this, the text and numbers from various plots overlap each
>> other and get in the way (I noticed this is a common problem among the
>> images in the matplotlib gallery as well). I have 2 questions:
>>
>>  1). How can I control the spacing, or padding, between the plots so that
>> the numbers don't overlap?
>> 2). Is there a way for me to have a single common y-axis label and x-axis
>> label that runs along the full left-hand side and bottom, respectively?
>>
>>  Thanks so much for the help!
>>
>>  Brad
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> All the data continuously generated in your IT infrastructure contains a
> definitive record of customers, application performance, security
> threats, fraudulent activity and more. Splunk takes this data and makes
> sense of it. Business sense. IT sense. Common sense.http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-d2dcopy1
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Matplotlib-users mailing lis...@li...https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-users
>
>

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Controlling spacing between subplots

[Benjamin R. <ben...@ou...>]

On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 11:06 AM, Brad Malone <bra...@gm...> wrote:

> Hi Jeffrey,
>
> Thanks the response. Sorry about the term "global axis". That was clearly
> not the best way to say it. What I meant to say is global x axis LABEL and
> y-axis LABEL. This can be seen in this example (
> http://www.scipy.org/Cookbook/Matplotlib/Multiple_Subplots_with_One_Axis_Label?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=Same_ylabel_subplots.png
> )
>
> although when I tried to do something similar with a 2x2 grid of plots it
> didn't seem to be working for me. Their example works due to these lines
> here
>
>   import pylab
>>    2
>>    3 figprops = dict(figsize=(8., 8. / 1.618), dpi=128)
>>                        # Figure properties
>>    4 adjustprops = dict(left=0.1, bottom=0.1, right=0.97, top=0.93,
>> wspace=0.2 hspace=0.2)       # Subplot properties
>>    5
>>    6 fig = pylab.figure(**figprops)
>>                        # New figure
>>    7 fig.subplots_adjust(**adjustprops)
>>                        # Tunes the subplot layout
>>    8
>>    9 ax = fig.add_subplot(3, 1, 1)
>>   10 bx = fig.add_subplot(3, 1, 2, sharex=ax, sharey=ax)
>>   11 cx = fig.add_subplot(3, 1, 3, sharex=ax, sharey=ax)
>>   12
>>   13 ax.plot([0,1,2], [2,3,4], 'k-')
>>   14 bx.plot([0,1,2], [2,3,4], 'k-')
>>   15 cx.plot([0,1,2], [2,3,4], 'k-')
>>   16
>>   17 pylab.setp(ax.get_xticklabels(), visible=False)
>>   18 pylab.setp(bx.get_xticklabels(), visible=False)
>>   19
>>   20 bx.set_ylabel('This is a long label shared among more axes',
>> fontsize=14)
>>   21 cx.set_xlabel('And a shared x label', fontsize=14)
>
>
>
> specifically probably the bx/cx_set label commands coupled with the sharex
> commands in the subplot label. But when I tried to add these things for my
> 2x2 plot it always looked like the label was attached to one of the plots or
> another instead of spanning the whole range.
>
> Thanks,
> Brad
>
>
Maybe the label_outer() function will be what you need.  Call it for each
subplot axes, and set the labels as you would normally.  matplotlib would
then set visible only the labels that are on the outside edge.

Another option is to use the AxesGrid1 toolkit, which makes these things
easy.  Also note that the soon-to-be released v1.1 will have a
tight_layout() function that can help with your spacing issues.

Cheers!
Ben Root

Re: [Matplotlib-users] Controlling spacing between subplots

[Brad M. <bra...@gm...>]

Hi Ben,

Thanks. Using label_outer() does, as you say, only show labels on the edge
and that is something I wanted to do. It doesn't, however, make a common
y-axis label and a common x-axis label (instead there are now 2 of each,
instead of 4). It appears that I might be able to add a common y and x label
by brute-forcing the labels with text, along the lines of something like:



fig.text(0.5,0.04,'common xlabel',ha='center',va='center')

fig.text(0.00,0.5,'common
> ylabel',ha='center',va='center',rotation='vertical')


Now I just need to play with spacing and change precise ticklabels and I'll
be able to finish this plot up!

Thanks everyone,
Brad


On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 9:12 AM, Benjamin Root <ben...@ou...> wrote:

>
>
> On Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 11:06 AM, Brad Malone <bra...@gm...>wrote:
>
>> Hi Jeffrey,
>>
>> Thanks the response. Sorry about the term "global axis". That was clearly
>> not the best way to say it. What I meant to say is global x axis LABEL and
>> y-axis LABEL. This can be seen in this example (
>> http://www.scipy.org/Cookbook/Matplotlib/Multiple_Subplots_with_One_Axis_Label?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=Same_ylabel_subplots.png
>> )
>>
>> although when I tried to do something similar with a 2x2 grid of plots it
>> didn't seem to be working for me. Their example works due to these lines
>> here
>>
>>   import pylab
>>>    2
>>>    3 figprops = dict(figsize=(8., 8. / 1.618), dpi=128)
>>>                        # Figure properties
>>>    4 adjustprops = dict(left=0.1, bottom=0.1, right=0.97, top=0.93,
>>> wspace=0.2 hspace=0.2)       # Subplot properties
>>>    5
>>>    6 fig = pylab.figure(**figprops)
>>>                        # New figure
>>>    7 fig.subplots_adjust(**adjustprops)
>>>                        # Tunes the subplot layout
>>>    8
>>>    9 ax = fig.add_subplot(3, 1, 1)
>>>   10 bx = fig.add_subplot(3, 1, 2, sharex=ax, sharey=ax)
>>>   11 cx = fig.add_subplot(3, 1, 3, sharex=ax, sharey=ax)
>>>   12
>>>   13 ax.plot([0,1,2], [2,3,4], 'k-')
>>>   14 bx.plot([0,1,2], [2,3,4], 'k-')
>>>   15 cx.plot([0,1,2], [2,3,4], 'k-')
>>>   16
>>>   17 pylab.setp(ax.get_xticklabels(), visible=False)
>>>   18 pylab.setp(bx.get_xticklabels(), visible=False)
>>>   19
>>>   20 bx.set_ylabel('This is a long label shared among more axes',
>>> fontsize=14)
>>>   21 cx.set_xlabel('And a shared x label', fontsize=14)
>>
>>
>>
>> specifically probably the bx/cx_set label commands coupled with the sharex
>> commands in the subplot label. But when I tried to add these things for my
>> 2x2 plot it always looked like the label was attached to one of the plots or
>> another instead of spanning the whole range.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Brad
>>
>>
> Maybe the label_outer() function will be what you need.  Call it for each
> subplot axes, and set the labels as you would normally.  matplotlib would
> then set visible only the labels that are on the outside edge.
>
> Another option is to use the AxesGrid1 toolkit, which makes these things
> easy.  Also note that the soon-to-be released v1.1 will have a
> tight_layout() function that can help with your spacing issues.
>
> Cheers!
> Ben Root
>
>