Re: [Matplotlib-users] subplots: common x and y labels

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

On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 6:16 AM, Francesco Montesano <
fra...@gm...> wrote:

> Dear matplolibers,
>
> when dealing with multi-axes plot sometimes would be nice to use
> figure-wide x and y labels.
> On the web I've found some suggestion on how to do this, but I found
> no solution valid in the general case and that integrate in the
> matplotlib ecosystem.
> The ideal would be to have a "set_xlabel" and "set_ylabel" method in the
> Figure class, with the same api of the corresponding Axes methods.
>
> As a proof of concept I've written a class derived from Figure , which
> implements the two methods simply adding a horizontal (vertical) text below
> (left of) the lowest (leftmost) axes.
> The class together with a short example is attached.
> I'm aware that the current implementation is really poor (no integration
> with tight_layout, the padding must be adjusted by hand, a problem in
> particular for the y label).
>
> The best is to use "self.xaxis.set_label_text(xlabel, fontdict, **kwargs)"
> as in the Axis set_xlabel (as I gather this create a label that is rendered
> in the correct position accounting for ticklabels, ticks, tight_layout,
> etc). To do this one would have to create:
>
>    - a figure-wide invisible axes that encloses all the other
>    axes/subplots, and whose dimension has to be updated every time a new
>    axis/subplot is added (this should be easily done) with only the label
>    visible. This could also allow to use axis features, like twin axis.
>    - just the required axis (invisible) that hosts the labels. I think
>    that this approach is less demanding computationally, but I don't know how
>    much sense have two axis not attached to axes.
>
> Any suggestions/hints on how to implement these methods in a better way is
> very welcome.
>
> If there is no opposition, later in the day I'll submit PR on github with
> the two new method and see if we can get something out of this idea.
>
> Cheers,
> Francesco
>
>
I am not exactly sure if this is the same as what you are thinking, but the
axes objects have a "label_outer()" method that would turn on and off the
visibility of various axis components based on their location in a subplot
grid.  You call it for each axes in a subplot grid.

Cheers!
Ben Root