Re: [Matplotlib-users] Basemap: High resolution output & cutout marks on contours

[Jeff W. <js...@fa...>]

  On 10/4/10 3:36 AM, nickj wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I'm playing with Matplotlib & Basemap for the first time, and 
> attempting to render data from the NOAA GFS models. With joy I finally 
> got something on screen, however I was wondering what I might be able 
> to do, to better improve the contour rendering of the final map. To 
> better illustrate my problem, here is a screenshot with added red 
> lines pointing to the odd slicing I get around the contours: 
> http://www.bigoceans.com/slices.png
>
> Is there any way to rectify that?
>

Nick:  Are you using matplotlib 1.0.0?  I'm not sure, but I think there 
were some improvements to contour in that release which fixed this 
problem.  If you are using 1.0.0, could you post the script so I can try it?
> Also, part of my project is to output massively high resolution images 
> of this work, which I'll be using to display in a number of mediums 
> which are of particular aesthetic importance (I'm not a scientist, I'm 
> producing something more in the realm of infographics). I decided 
> perhaps the best method to achieve this is as a PDF/Vector output, 
> which I could generate bitmaps at a later date at any resolution I 
> choose to render the PDF as (upwards of 8000pixels). Would anyone be 
> able to best recommend how I can achieve the highest possible 
> contouring, country borders and other things related to detail? I have 
> attempted to use the resolution=full keyword, however my computer 
> balked and failed to respond after five minutes. What is this keyword 
> actually doing? What can I do to get the greatest resolution of 
> coastline & map representation?


The default is ='c' (or 'crude' which gives very low resolution 
coastlines).  Moving upward in resolution, there is 'l','i','h' and 
finally 'f', which is probably overkill for a domain of this size (it 
will be very slow and use a lot of memory).

-Jeff

-- 
Jeffrey S. Whitaker         Phone  : (303)497-6313
Meteorologist               FAX    : (303)497-6449
NOAA/OAR/PSD  R/PSD1        Email  : Jef...@no...
325 Broadway                Office : Skaggs Research Cntr 1D-113
Boulder, CO, USA 80303-3328 Web    : http://tinyurl.com/5telg