[Matplotlib-users] Setting size of subplot

Hello,

I am new to matplotlib and am having trouble understanding how to set
the size of a subplot when a figure contains multiple subplots. In
particular, I have been playing around with the scatter_hist.py demo
at http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/axes_grid/scatter_hist.html.
A simplified version of this code is given below:

*****************

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid import make_axes_locatable

fig = plt.figure(1, figsize=(4,4))

axScatter = plt.subplot(111)
divider = make_axes_locatable(axScatter)
axHisty = divider.new_horizontal(1.2, pad=0.5, sharey=axScatter)
fig.add_axes(axHisty)

x = np.random.randn(1000)
y = np.random.randn(1000)
axScatter.scatter(x, y)
axHisty.hist(x, orientation='horizontal')

plt.draw()
plt.show()

*****************

I'd like to have direct control over the size of the scatter plot in
this figure. As it stands, I can 'sort of' control its size by
changing the figsize property of the figure. I say 'sort of' since the
size of any labels also come into play here. Is it possible to
directly make the scatter plot a certain size (say, 3 x 2 inches), set
the figure size independently (say, 5 x 4 inches), and have the
histogram size be set based on the scatter plot height and width set
in divider.new_horizontal (in this case to 3 x 1.2 inches)?

I realize that in this example, it probably seems silly to not just
change figsize, but I am working with a more complicated plot in
reality where I'd like precise control over the size of the initial
subplot since the aspect ratio is important to me. I can then adjust
the figsize to make sure all the labels fit in nicely.

Thanks for any and all help.

Cheers,
Donovan