[Matplotlib-users] The meaning of the figure(dpi=xxx) parameter

[Al S. <a.d...@wo...>]

In order to get the size of the overall plot window to anywhere near
full screen, I've had to use something like 

	figure(1, figsize=(18,12), dpi=72)
or	figure(1, figsize=(9,6),   dpi=144)

Both produce the same overall size plot window (11.25" wide by 8" tall),
but in the latter case, the text size is much larger than in the latter
case. Likewise the linewidths.

Can you please explain the interaction among the dpi value, the font
sizes displayed, and the overall plot size.

Note: If I omit the dpi parameter, the plot window remains at its
default (approx 4" x 3") size.  The only way I've gotten the window size
to change at all is by adding the dpi parameter to the fiigure() call,
hence the question.

FYI, this is under RH linux 9, with XFree86 4.3.0-2.

The display is a 15" diagonal (12" horizontal, 9" vertical) Dell laptop
with 1400x1050 NVIDIA GeForce 4 (generic) graphics. Naively, this looks
like the H-res is 1400/12" = 116.66 dpi and the V-res is 1050/9" =
116.66 dpi also.

Should I set dpi to the resolution of my display (117) or to the
resolution of the X fonts (75 or 100)?

Thanks,
-- 
Al Schapira <a.d...@wo...>