Re: [matplotlib-devel] latex symbols as markers

[Michael D. <md...@st...>]

That's a very interesting idea.  I actually think that with the recent 
textpath functionality that Jae-Joon added, we may be able to tie text 
and markers together without too much pain.  Then it can advantage of 
all the performance optimizations in draw_markers.  Each of the marker 
styles now contains a function that draws a path for the marker and then 
passes that to draw_marker.  We could add one that draws an arbitrary 
text path, and then passes that along.  I propose that Line.set_marker 
supports a new marker style "$...$" which would render whatever "..." is 
as math text.

Were you offering to try to produce a patch yourself?  Either way, it 
would be great to file an enhancement request in the tracker so this 
idea doesn't get lost.  It's a good one.

Mike

tcb wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Is there some way to add support for latex symbols as markers?
>
> I think it would be an extension of the current methods for plotting
> markers- since I dont think all the color, edge, line style etc
> properties would be relevant (or even possible). However, it would
> allow arbitrary symbols (at least whatever latex can do) to be used,
> which would be really useful.
>
> The current marker set is fine for most simple plots- but when there
> are a few different symbols it quickly becomes tricky to find a set
> which can easily be distinguished from each other. The other problem
> is that when preparing a graph for publication, it is occasionally
> necessary to be able to refer to or quote the symbols in the caption
> or the main text- and latex symbols in the graphs would make this look
> a bit better.
>
> I've had a quick look at how the marker symbols are implemented, and
> it is my impression that it would be reasonably hard to implement a
> new symbol of choice. On the other hand, since I am already using
> latex to produce all the text in the graph, it seems it should be
> fairly straightforward (with some careful attention to the
> positioning...) to use the same text-drawing code which is used for
> the legend, axes labels etc, to put the markers on the plot.
>
> Is there any interest in this?
>
> thanks,
>
> tcb
>
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-- 
Michael Droettboom
Science Software Branch
Operations and Engineering Division
Space Telescope Science Institute
Operated by AURA for NASA