Re: [Matplotlib-users] change font in legend?

[John H. <jdh...@ac...>]

>>>>> "Jorgen" == Jorgen Bergstrom <jo...@po...> writes:

    Jorgen> Hi, I just discovered matplotlib, it seems really cool &
    Jorgen> just what I have been looking for.

    Jorgen> I have a hopefully simple question: How can I change the
    Jorgen> font size and type of the legend, and how can I remove the
    Jorgen> frame around the legend?

Hi Jorgen,

Right now there are no nice functions to access the attributes of the
legend, though they will be easy to add.  Basically, we need things
like

  leg = axes.get_legend() # return the axes Legend instance

and

  leg.get_texts()  # return the Text instances in the legend
  leg.get_lines()  # return the Line2D instances in the legend
  leg.get_patches()# return the Patch instance in the legend
  leg.get_frame()  # return the Rectangle bounding box
  leg.draw_frame(False)

Here is some code that accesses the attributes directly.  Not elegant,
but may get you what you want until proper accessor methods are added

Eg, in legend_demo, you could write

  texts = gca()._legend._texts
  set(texts, 'fontsize', 14)         # use big fonts for the legend text
  set(texts, 'fontname, 'courier')   # change the fontname

  box = gca()._legend._patch  # the Rectangle instance containing the legend
  box.set_facecolor('b')      # make the legend frame blue

  handles = gca()._legend._handles  # the line / patch instance inside the legend

See the Line2D, Text and Patch classes in matplotlib.lines,
matplotlib.text and matplotlib.patches for information on what
attributes you can set for each of these types.

If you want to add the required methods to axes and legend to expose
these attributes, it is not hard -- send me a patch.  Otherwise I'll
put it on my list of things to do.

JDH