Develop Reference

Shrink and anchor matplotlib colorbar

How do I use colorbar attributes such as in this snippet:
import seaborn as sns
uniform_data = np.random.rand(10, 12) # random data
ax = sns.heatmap(uniform_data)
cbar = ax.collections[0].colorbar
plt.show()
To shrink the colorbar and put it to the bottom and anchored to the lower left corner (that is, NOT centered)?
Something like this, but with the colorbar shrunk to, let's say 70% and anchored to the bottom left
I am unsure how to search for the methods as cbar.set_location() is not available.

If you want infinite customizability, you need to go more low level than you will get with seaborn, which gives convenience, but can't have knobs for everything.
The most straightforward way to get what you want is to place the colorbar axes manually. Note that you will need to play with the y offset, which I set here to -0.2.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
uniform_data = np.random.rand(10, 12) # random data
fig, ax = plt.subplots(layout='constrained')
pc = ax.imshow(uniform_data)
cbax = ax.inset_axes([0, -0.2, 0.7, 0.05], transform=ax.transAxes)
fig.colorbar(pc, ax=ax, cax=cbax, shrink=0.7, orientation='horizontal')
plt.show()

You could create the colorbar via seaborn, extract its position, adapt it and set it again:
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
import numpy as np
uniform_data = np.random.rand(10, 12)
ax = sns.heatmap(uniform_data, cmap='rocket_r', cbar_kws={'orientation': 'horizontal', 'ticks': np.linspace(0, 1, 6)})
cax = ax.collections[0].colorbar.ax # get the ax of the colorbar
pos = cax.get_position() # get the original position
cax.set_position([pos.x0, pos.y0, pos.width * 0.6, pos.height]) # set a new position
cax.set_frame_on(True)
cax.invert_xaxis() # invert the direction of the colorbar
for spine in cax.spines.values(): # show the colorbar frame again
spine.set(visible=True, lw=.8, edgecolor='black')
plt.show()
Note that you need cbar_kws={'orientation': 'horizontal'} for a horizontal colorbar that by default is aligned with the x-axis.
After using .set_position, something like plt.tight_layout() won't work anymore.
About your new questions:
cax.invert_xaxis() doesn't invert the colorbar direction
Yes it does. You seem to want to reverse the colormap. Matplotlib's convention is to append _r to the colormap name. In this case, seaborn is using the rocket colormap, rocket_r would be the reverse. Note that changing the ticks doesn't work the way you try it, as these are just numeric positions which will be sorted before they are applied.
If you want to show 0 and 1 in the colorbar (while the values in the heatmap are e.g. between 0.001 and 0.999, you could use vmin and vmax. E.g. sns.heatmap(..., vmin=0, vmax=1). vmin and vmax are one way to change the mapping between the values and the colors. By default, vmin=data.min() and vmax=data.max().
To show the colorbar outline: Add a black frame around a colorbar
ax.collections[0].colorbar is a colorbar, which in the latest versions also supports some functions to set ticks
ax.collections[0].colorbar.ax is an Axes object (a subplot). Matplotlib creates a small subplot on which the colorbar will be drawn. axs support a huge number of functions to change how the subplot looks or to add new elements. Note that a stackoverflow answer isn't meant to put of full matplotlib tutorial. The standard tutorials could be a starting point.

Superimposing plots in seaborn cause x-axis to misallign

I am having an issue trying to superimpose plots with seaborn. I am able to generate the two plots separetly as
fig, (ax1,ax2) = plt.subplots(ncols=2,figsize=(30, 7))
sns.lineplot(data=data1, y='MSE',x='pct_gc',ax=ax1)
sns.boxplot(x="pct_gc", y="MSE", data=data2,ax=ax2,width=0.4)
The output looks like this:
But when i try to put both plots superimposed, but assiging both to the same ax object.
fig, (ax1,ax2) = plt.subplots(ncols=2,figsize=(30, 7))
sns.lineplot(data=data1, y='MSE',x='pct_gc',ax=ax1)
sns.boxplot(x="pct_gc", y="MSE", data=data2,ax=ax2,width=0.4)
I am not able to identify with the X axis in the Lineplot changes when superimposing both plots (both plots X axis go from 0 to 0.069).
My goal is for both plots to be superimposed, while keeping the same X axis range.

Seaborn's boxplot creates categorical x-axis, with all boxes nicely with the same distance. Internally the x-axis is numbered as 0, 1, 2, ... but externally it gets the labels from 0 to 0.069.
To combine a line plot with a boxplot, matplotlib's boxplot can be addressed directly, so that positions and widths can be set explicitly. When patch_artist=True, a rectangle is created (instead of just lines), for which a facecolor can be given. manage_ticks=False prevents that boxplot changes the x ticks and their limits. Optionally notch=True would accentuate the median a bit more, but depending on the data, the confidence interval might be too large and look weird.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import pandas as pd
import seaborn as sns
data1 = pd.DataFrame({'pct_gc': np.linspace(0, 0.069, 200), 'MSE': np.random.normal(0.02, 0.1, 200).cumsum()})
data1['pct_range'] = pd.cut(data1['pct_gc'], 10)
fig, ax1 = plt.subplots(ncols=1, figsize=(20, 7))
sns.lineplot(data=data1, y='MSE', x='pct_gc', ax=ax1)
for interval, color in zip(np.unique(data1['pct_range']), plt.cm.tab10.colors):
ax1.boxplot(data1[data1['pct_range'] == interval]['MSE'],
positions=[interval.mid], widths=0.4 * interval.length,
patch_artist=True, boxprops={'facecolor': color},
notch=False, medianprops={'color':'yellow', 'linewidth':2},
manage_ticks=False)
plt.show()

Multiple plots on common x axis in Matplotlib with common y-axis labeling

I have written the following minimal Python code in order to plot various functions of x on the same X-axis.
import numpy as np
import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from cycler import cycler
cycle = plt.rcParams['axes.prop_cycle'].by_key()['color']
xlabel='$X$'; ylabel='$Y$'
### Set tick features
plt.tick_params(axis='both',which='major',width=2,length=10,labelsize=18)
plt.tick_params(axis='both',which='minor',width=2,length=5)
#plt.set_axis_bgcolor('grey') # Doesn't work if I uncomment!
lines = ["-","--","-.",":"]
Nlayer=4
f, axarr = plt.subplots(Nlayer, sharex=True)
for a in range(1,Nlayer+1):
X = np.linspace(0,10,100)
Y = X**a
index = a-1 + np.int((a-1)/Nlayer)
axarr[a-1].plot(X, Y, linewidth=2.0+index, color=cycle[a], linestyle = lines[index], label='Layer = {}'.format(a))
axarr[a-1].legend(loc='upper right', prop={'size':6})
#plt.legend()
# Axes labels
plt.xlabel(xlabel, fontsize=20)
plt.ylabel(ylabel, fontsize=20)
plt.show()
However, the plots don't join together on the X-axis and I failed to get a common Y-axis label. It actually labels for the last plot (see attached figure). I also get a blank plot additionally which I couldn't get rid of.
I am using Python3.

The following code will produce the expected output :
without blank plot which was created because of the two plt.tick_params calls before creating the actual fig
with the gridspec_kw argument of subplots that allows you to control the space between rows and cols of subplots environment in order to join the different layer plots
with unique and centered common ylabel using fig.text with relative positioning and rotation argument (same thing is done to xlabel to get an homogeneous final result). One may note that, it can also be done by repositioning the ylabel with ax.yaxis.set_label_coords() after an usual call like ax.set_ylabel().
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
cycle = plt.rcParams['axes.prop_cycle'].by_key()['color']
xlabel='$X$'; ylabel='$Y$'
lines = ["-","--","-.",":"]
Nlayer = 4
fig, axarr = plt.subplots(Nlayer, sharex='col',gridspec_kw={'hspace': 0, 'wspace': 0})
X = np.linspace(0,10,100)
for i,ax in enumerate(axarr):
Y = X**(i+1)
ax.plot(X, Y, linewidth=2.0+i, color=cycle[i], linestyle = lines[i], label='Layer = {}'.format(i+1))
ax.legend(loc='upper right', prop={'size':6})
with axes labels, first option :
fig.text(0.5, 0.01, xlabel, va='center')
fig.text(0.01, 0.5, ylabel, va='center', rotation='vertical')
or alternatively :
# ax is here, the one of the last Nlayer plotted, i.e. Nlayer=4
ax.set_xlabel(xlabel)
ax.set_ylabel(ylabel)
# change y positioning to be in the horizontal center of all Nlayer, i.e. dynamically Nlayer/2
ax.yaxis.set_label_coords(-0.1,Nlayer/2)
which gives :
I also simplified your for loop by using enumerate to have an automatic counter i when looping over axarr.

adjust matplotlib subplot spacing after tight_layout

I would like to minimize white space in my figure. I have a row of sub plots where four plots share their y-axis and the last plot has a separate axis.
There are no ylabels or ticklabels for the shared axis middle panels.
tight_layout creates a lot of white space between the the middle plots as if leaving space for tick labels and ylabels but I would rather stretch the sub plots. Is this possible?
import matplotlib.gridspec as gridspec
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import seaborn as sns
fig = plt.figure()
gs = gridspec.GridSpec(1, 5, width_ratios=[4,1,4,1,2])
ax = fig.add_subplot(gs[0])
axes = [ax] + [fig.add_subplot(gs[i], sharey=ax) for i in range(1, 4)]
axes[0].plot(np.random.randint(0,100,100))
barlist=axes[1].bar([1,2],[1,20])
axes[2].plot(np.random.randint(0,100,100))
barlist=axes[3].bar([1,2],[1,20])
axes[0].set_ylabel('data')
axes.append(fig.add_subplot(gs[4]))
axes[4].plot(np.random.randint(0,5,100))
axes[4].set_ylabel('other data')
for ax in axes[1:4]:
plt.setp(ax.get_yticklabels(), visible=False)
sns.despine();
plt.tight_layout(pad=0, w_pad=0, h_pad=0);

Setting w_pad = 0 is not changing the default settings of tight_layout. You need to set something like w_pad = -2. Which produces the following figure:
You could go further, to say -3 but then you would start to get some overlap with your last plot.
Another way could be to remove plt.tight_layout() and set the boundaries yourself using
plt.subplots_adjust(left=0.065, right=0.97, top=0.96, bottom=0.065, wspace=0.14)
Though this can be a bit of a trial and error process.
Edit
A nice looking graph can be achieved by moving the ticks and the labels of the last plot to the right hand side. This answer shows you can do this by using:
ax.yaxis.tick_right()
ax.yaxis.set_label_position("right")
So for your example:
axes[4].yaxis.tick_right()
axes[4].yaxis.set_label_position("right")
In addition, you need to remove sns.despine(). Finally, there is now no need to set w_pad = -2, just use plt.tight_layout(pad=0, w_pad=0, h_pad=0)
Using this creates the following figure:

Python: subplots with different total sizes

Original Post
I need to make several subplots with different sizes.
I have simulation areas of the size (x y) 35x6µm to 39x2µm and I want to plot them in one figure. All subplots have the same x-ticklabels (there is a grid line every 5µm on the x-axis).
When I plot the subplots into one figure, then the graphs with the small x-area are streched, so that the x-figuresize is completely used. Therefore, the x-gridlines do not match together anymore.
How can I achieve that the subplots aren't streched anymore and are aligned on the left?
Edit: Here is some code:
size=array([[3983,229],[3933,350],[3854,454],[3750,533],[3500,600]], dtype=np.float)
resolution=array([[1024,256],[1024,320],[1024,448],[1024,512],[1024,640]], dtype=np.float)
aspect_ratios=(resolution[:,0]/resolution[:,1])*(size[:,1]/size[:,0])
number_of_graphs=len(data)
fig, ax=plt.subplots(nrows=number_of_graphs, sharex=xshare)
fig.set_size_inches(12,figheight)
for i in range(number_of_graphs):
temp=np.rot90(np.loadtxt(path+'/'+data[i]))
img=ax[i].imshow(temp,
interpolation="none",
cmap=mapping,
norm=specific_norm,
aspect=aspect_ratios[i]
)
ax[i].set_adjustable('box-forced')
#Here I have to set some ticks and labels....
ax[i].xaxis.set_ticks(np.arange(0,int(size[i,0]),stepwidth_width)*resolution[i,0]/size[i,0])
ax[i].set_xticklabels((np.arange(0, int(size[i,0]), stepwidth_width)))
ax[i].yaxis.set_ticks(np.arange(0,int(size[i,1]),stepwidth_height)*resolution[i,1]/size[i,1])
ax[i].set_yticklabels((np.arange(0, int(size[i,1]), stepwidth_height)))
ax[i].set_title(str(mag[i]))
grid(True)
savefig(path+'/'+name+'all.pdf', bbox_inches='tight', pad_inches=0.05) #saves graph
Here are some examples:
If I plot different matrices in a for loop, the iPhython generates an output which is pretty much what I want. The y-distande between each subplot is constant, and the size of each figure is correct. You can see, that the x-labels match to each other:
When I plot the matrices in one figure using subplots, then this is not the case: The x-ticks do not fit together, and every subplot has the same size on the canvas (which means, that for thin subplots there is more white space reservated on the canvas...).
I simply want the first result from iPython in one output file using subplots.
Using GridSpec
After the community told me to use GridSpec to determine the size of my subplots directly I wrote a code for automatic plotting:
size=array([[3983,229],[3933,350],[3854,454],[3750,533],[3500,600]], dtype=np.float)
#total size of the figure
total_height=int(sum(size[:,1]))
total_width=int(size.max())
#determines steps of ticks
stepwidth_width=500
stepwidth_height=200
fig, ax=plt.subplots(nrows=len(size))
fig.set_size_inches(size.max()/300., total_height/200)
gs = GridSpec(total_height, total_width)
gs.update(left=0, right=0.91, hspace=0.2)
height=0
for i in range (len(size)):
ax[i] = plt.subplot(gs[int(height):int(height+size[i,1]), 0:int(size[i,0])])
temp=np.rot90(np.loadtxt(path+'/'+FFTs[i]))
img=ax[i].imshow(temp,
interpolation="none",
vmin=-100,
vmax=+100,
aspect=aspect_ratios[i],
)
#Some rescaling
ax[i].xaxis.set_ticks(np.arange(0,int(size[i,0]),stepwidth_width)*resolution[i,0]/size[i,0])
ax[i].set_xticklabels((np.arange(0, int(size[i,0]), stepwidth_width)))
ax[i].yaxis.set_ticks(np.arange(0,int(size[i,1]),stepwidth_height)*resolution[i,1]/size[i,1])
ax[i].set_yticklabels((np.arange(0, int(size[i,1]), stepwidth_height)))
ax[i].axvline(antenna[i]) #at the antenna position a vertical line is plotted
grid(True)
#colorbar
cbaxes = fig.add_axes([0.93, 0.2, 0.01, 0.6]) #[left, bottom, width, height]
cbar = plt.colorbar(img, cax = cbaxes, orientation='vertical')
tick_locator = ticker.MaxNLocator(nbins=3)
cbar.locator = tick_locator
cbar.ax.yaxis.set_major_locator(matplotlib.ticker.AutoLocator())
cbar.set_label('Intensity',
#fontsize=12
)
cbar.update_ticks()
height=height+size[i,1]
plt.show()
And here is the result....
Do you have any ideas?

What about using matplotlib.gridspec.GridSpec? Docs.
You could try something like
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.gridspec import GridSpec
gs = GridSpec(8, 39)
ax1 = plt.subplot(gs[:6, :35])
ax2 = plt.subplot(gs[6:, :])
data1 = np.random.rand(6, 35)
data2 = np.random.rand(2, 39)
ax1.imshow(data1)
ax2.imshow(data2)
plt.show()