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In this package, you will find:

The author biography

A preview chapter from the book, Chapter 6 'Customization and
Configuration'
A synopsis of the books content
More information on Mastering matplotlib

About the Author

Duncan M. McGreggor, having programmed with GOTOs in the 1980s, has made

up for that through community service by making open source contributions for more
than 20 years. He has spent a major part of the past 10 years dealing with distributed
and scientific computing (in languages ranging from Python, Common Lisp, and Julia
to Clojure and Lisp Flavored Erlang). In the 1990s, after serving as a linguist in the
US Army, he spent considerable time working on projects related to MATLAB and
Mathematica, which was a part of his physics and maths studies at the university.
Since the mid 2000s, matplotlib and NumPy have figured prominently in many of
the interesting problems that he has solved for his customers. With the most recent
addition of the IPython Notebook, matplotlib and the suite of the Python scientific
computing libraries remain some of his most important professional tools.

Preface
In just over a decade, matplotlib has grown to offer the Python scientific computing
community a world-class plotting and visualization library. When combined with
related projects, such as Jupyter, NumPy, SciPy, and SymPy, matplotlib competes
head-to-head with commercial software, which is far more established in the
industry. Furthermore, the growth experienced by this open source software project
is reflected again and again by individuals around the world, who make their way
through the thorny wilds that face the newcomer and who develop into strong
intermediate users with the potential to be very productive.
In essence, Mastering matplotlib is a very practical book. Yet every chapter was written
considering this learning process, as well as a larger view of the same. It is not just the
raw knowledge that defines how far developers progress in their goal. It is also the
ability of motivated individuals to apply meta-levels of analysis to the problem and
the obstacles that must be surmounted. Implicit in the examples that are provided in
each chapter are multiple levels of analysis, which are integral to the mastery of the
subject matter. These levels of analysis involve the processes of defining the problem,
anticipating potential solutions, evaluating approaches without losing focus, and
enriching your experience with a wider range of useful projects.
Finding resources that facilitate developers in their journey towards advanced
knowledge and beyond can be difficult. This is not due to the lack of materials.
Rather, it is because of the complex interaction of learning styles, continually
improving codebases with strong legacies, and the very flexible nature of the
Python programming language itself. The matplotlib developers who aspire to
attain an advanced level, must tackle all of this and more. This book aims to be
a guide for those in search of such mastery.

Preface

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Up to Speed, covers some history and background of matplotlib,
goes over some of the latest features of the library, provides a refresher on Python
3 and IPython Notebooks, and whets the reader's appetite with some advanced
plotting examples.
Chapter 2, The matplotlib Architecture, reviews the original design goals of matplotlib
and then proceeds to discuss its current architecture in detail, providing visualizations
of the conceptual structure and relationships between the Python modules.
Chapter 3, matplotlib APIs and Integrations, walks the reader through the matplotlib
APIs, adapting a single example accordingly, examines how third-party libraries
are integrated with matplotlib, and gives migration advice to the advanced users
of the deprecated pylab API.
Chapter 4, Event Handling and Interactive Plots, provides a review of the event-based
systems, covers event loops in matplotlib and IPython, goes over a selection of
matplotlib events, and shows how to take advantage of these to create interactive plots.
Chapter 5, High-level Plotting and Data Analysis, combines the interrelated topics,
providing a historical background of plotting, a discussion on the grammar of
graphics, and an overview of high-level plotting libraries. This is then put to use
in a detailed analysis of weather-related data that spans 120 years.
Chapter 6, Customization and Configuration, covers the custom styles in matplotlib
and the use of grid specs to create a dashboard effect with the combined plots. The
lesser-known configuration options are also discussed with an eye to optimization.
Chapter 7, Deploying matplotlib in Cloud Environments, explores a use case for
matplotlib in a remote deployment, which is followed by a detailed programmatic
batch-job example using Docker and Amazon AWS.
Chapter 8, matplotlib and Big Data, provides detailed examples of working with
large local data sets, as well as distributed ones, covering options such as
numpy.memmap, HDF5, and Hadoop. Plots with millions of points will also
be demonstrated.
Chapter 9, Clustering for matplotlib, introduces parallel programming and clusters
that are designed for use with matplotlib, demonstrating how to distribute the
parts of a problem and then assemble the results for analysis in matplotlib.

Customization and
Configuration
This chapter marks a conceptual dividing line for the book. We've focused on topics
such as matplotlib internals and APIs, plot interaction, high-level plotting, and the use
of third-party libraries. We will continue in that vein in the first part of this chapter
as we discuss advanced customization techniques for matplotlib. We will finish the
chapter by discussing the elements of the advanced and lesser-known matplotlib
configuration. The configuration theme will continue into the next chapter and then go
beyond that into the realm of deployment. As such, this chapter will mark a transition
to our exploration of matplotlib in the real world and its usage in computationally
intensive tasks.
This chapter will provide an overview of the following, giving you enough
confidence to tackle these in more depth at your own pace:

Customization

matplotlib styles

Subplots

Further exploration

Configuration

The matplotlib run control

Options in IPython

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Customization and Configuration

To follow along with this chapter's code, clone the notebook's repository and start up
IPython in the following way:
$ git clone https://github.com/masteringmatplotlib/custom-and-config.git
$ cd custom-and-config
$ make

Customization
On the journey through the lands of matplotlib, one of the signposts for
intermediate territories is an increased need for fine-grained control over the
libraries in the ecosystem. In our case, this means being able to tweak matplotlib
for particular use cases such as specialty scales or projections, complex layouts,
or a custom look and feel.

Creating a custom style

The first customization topic that we will cover is that of the new style support
introduced in matplotlib 1.4. In the previous notebook, we saw how to get a list
of the available styles:
In [2]: print(plt.style.available)
['bmh', 'ggplot', 'fivethirtyeight', 'dark_background',
'grayscale']

Now, we're going to see how we can create and use one of our own custom styles.
You can create custom styles and use them by calling style.use with the path or
URL to the style sheet. Alternatively, if you save the <style-name>.mplstyle file
to the ~/.matplotlib/stylelib directory (you may need to create it), you can
reuse your custom style sheet with a call to style.use(<style-name>). Note that a
custom style sheet in ~/.matplotlib/stylelib will override a style sheet defined
by matplotlib if the styles have the same name.
There is a custom matplotlib style sheet included in this chapter's IPython Notebook

git repository, but before we go further, let's create a function that will generate a

demo plot for us. We'll then render it by using the default style in the following way,
thus having a baseline to compare our work to:

In [3]: def make_plot ():

x = np.random.randn(5000, 6)
(figure, axes) = plt.subplots(figsize=(16,10))

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Chapter 6
(n, bins, patches) = axes.hist(
x, 12, normed=1, histtype='bar',
label=['Color 1', 'Color 2', 'Color 3',
'Color 4', 'Color 5', 'Color 6'])
axes.set_title(
"Histogram\nfor a\nNormal Distribution", fontsize=24)
axes.set_xlabel("Data Points", fontsize=16)
axes.set_ylabel("Counts", fontsize=16)
axes.legend()
plt.show()
In [4]: make_plot()

The following is the sample plot obtained as result of the preceding code:

The preceding plot is the default style for matplotlib plots. Let's do something fun
by copying the style of Thomas Park's Superhero Bootstrap theme. It's a darker theme
with muted blues and desaturated accent colors. There is a screenshot of a demo
website in the IPython Notebook for this chapter.
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Customization and Configuration

There are two styles provided, which differ only in the coloring of the text:
In [6]: ls -l ../styles
total 16
-rw-r--r--

1 u

473 Feb

4 14:54 superheroine-1.mplstyle

-rw-r--r--

1 u

473 Feb

4 14:53 superheroine-2.mplstyle

Let's take a look at the second one's contents, which show the hexadecimal colors
that we copied from the Bootstrap theme:
In [7]: cat ../styles/superheroine-2.mplstyle
lines.color: 4e5d6c
patch.edgecolor: 4e5d6c

text.color: df691b

axes.facecolor: 2b3e50
axes.edgecolor: 4e5d6c
axes.labelcolor: df691b
axes.color_cycle: df691b, 5cb85c, 5bc0de, f0ad4e, d9534f, 4e5d6c
axes.axisbelow: True

xtick.color: 8c949d
ytick.color: 8c949d

grid.color: 4e5d6c

figure.facecolor: 2b3e50
figure.edgecolor: 2b3e50

savefig.facecolor: 2b3e50
savefig.edgecolor: 2b3e50

legend.fancybox: True
legend.shadow: True
legend.frameon: True
legend.framealpha: 0.6

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Chapter 6

The idea behind the matplotlib styles is wonderfully simpledon't reinvent

anything, just offer an option for easy organization of data. If the preceding
code looks familiar, it's because it is also available in the matplotlib run control
configuration file, matplotlibrc, which will be discussed at the end of the chapter.
Let's see how our custom style overrides the default color definitions:
In [8]: plt.style.use("../styles/superheroine-2.mplstyle")
In [9]: make_plot()

The following is the plot obtained as result of the preceding code:

For a tiny bit of an effort, we have a significantly different visual impact. We'll
continue using this style for the remainder of the chapter. In particular, we'll see
what it looks like in the following section, when we assemble a collection of subplots.

Subplots
In this section, we'll create a sophisticated subplot to give you a sense of matplotlib's
plot layout capabilities. The system is flexible enough to accommodate everything
from simple adjustments to the creation of dashboards in a single plot.
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Customization and Configuration

For this section, we have chosen to ingest data from the well-known UCI Machine
Learning Repository. In particular, we'll use the 1985 Automobile Data Set. It serves
as an example of data that can be used to assess the insurance risks for different
vehicles. We will use it in an effort to compare 21 automobile manufacturers (using
the 1985 data) along the following dimensions:

Mean price

Mean city MPG

Mean highway MPG

Mean horsepower

Mean curb weight

Mean relative average loss payment

Mean insurance riskiness

We will limit ourselves to automobile manufacturers that have data for losses, as
well as six or more rows of data. Our subplot will comprise of the following sections:

An overall title

Line plots for maximum, mean, and minimum prices

A stacked bar chart for combined riskiness or losses

A stacked bar chart for riskiness

A stacked bar chart for losses

Radar charts for each automobile manufacturer

A combined scatterplot for the city and highway MPG

These will be composed as subplots in the following manner:

-------------------------------------------|
overall title
|
-------------------------------------------|
price ranges
|
-------------------------------------------| combined loss/risk |
|
|
|
radar
|
---------------------plots
|
| risk
|
loss
|
|
-------------------------------------------|
mpg
|
--------------------------------------------

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Chapter 6

Revisiting Pandas
We've going to use a set of demonstration libraries that we included with this
notebook to extract and manipulate the automobile maker data. Like we did before,
we will take advantage of the power provided by the Pandas statistical analysis
library. Let's load our modules by using the following code:
In [10]: import sys
sys.path.append("../lib")
import demodata, demoplot

As you can see in the IPython Notebook, there's more data there than what we need
for the subplotting tasks. Let's created a limited set by using the following code:
In [11]: limited_data = demodata.get_limited_data()
limited_data.head()
Out[11]:

The following table is obtained as a result of the preceding command:

make

price

city
mpg

highway
mpg

horsepower

weight

riskiness

losses

audi

13950

24

30

102

2337

164

audi

17450

18

22

115

2824

164

audi

17710

19

25

110

2844

158

audi

23875

17

20

140

3086

158

bmw

16430

23

29

101

2395

192

This has provided us with the full set of data minus the columns that we don't care
about right now. However, we want to apply an additional constraintwe want to
exclude auto manufacturers that have fewer than six rows in our dataset. We will do
so with the help of the following command:
In [16]: data = demodata.get_limited_data(lower_bound=6)

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Customization and Configuration

We've got the data that we want, but we still have some preparations left to do. In
particular, how are we going to compare data of different scales and relationships?
Normalization seems like the obvious answer, but we want to make sure that the
normalized values compare appropriately. High losses and a high riskiness factor are
less favorable, while a higher number of miles per gallon is more favorable. All this
is taken care of by the following code:
In [19]: normed_data = data.copy()
normed_data.rename(
columns={"horsepower": "power"}, inplace=True)
In [20]: demodata.norm_columns(
["city mpg", "highway mpg", "power"], normed_data)
In [21]: demodata.invert_norm_columns(
["price", "weight", "riskiness", "losses"],
normed_data)

What we did in the preceding code was make a copy of the limited data that we've
established as our starting point, and then we updated the copied set by calling two
functionsthe first function normalized the given columns whose values are more
favorable when higher, and the other function inverted the normalized values to
match the first normalization (as their pre-inverted values are more favorable when
lower). We now have a normalized dataset in which all the values are more favorable
when higher.
If you would like to have more exposure to Pandas in action, be sure to view the
functions in the demodata module. There are several useful tricks that are employed
there to manipulate data.

Individual plots
Before jumping into subplots, let's take a look at a few individual plots for our
dataset that will be included as subplots. The first one that we will generate is for
the automobile price ranges:
In [22]: figure = plt.figure(figsize=(15, 5))
prices_gs = mpl.gridspec.GridSpec(1, 1)
prices_axes = demoplot.make_autos_price_plot(
figure, prices_gs, data)
plt.show()

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Chapter 6

Note that we didn't use the usual approach that we had taken, in which we get the
figure and axes objects from a call to plt.subplots. Instead, we opted to use the
GridSpec class to generate our axes (in the make_autos_price_plot function).
We've done this because later, we wish to use GridSpec to create our subplots.
Here is the output that is generated from the call to plt.show():

Keep in mind that the preceding plot is a bit contrived (there's no inherent meaning
in connecting manufacturer maximum, mean, and minimum values). Its sole purpose
is to simply provide some eye candy for the subplot that we will be creating. As you
can see from the instantiation of GridSpec, this plot has one set of axes that takes up
the entire plot. Most of our individual plots will have the same geometry. The one
exception to this is the radar plot that we will be creating.
Radar plots are useful when you wish to compare normalized data to multiple
variables and populations. Radar plots are capable of providing visual cues that
reveal insights instantly. For example, consider the following figure:

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Customization and Configuration

The preceding figure shows the data that was consolidated from several 1985 Volvo
models across the dimensions of price, inverse losses to insurers, inverse riskiness,
weight, horsepower, and the highway and city miles per gallon. Since the data has
been normalized for the highest values as the most positive, the best scenario would be
for a manufacturer to have colored polygons at the limits of the axes. The conclusions
that we can draw from this is thisrelative to the other manufacturers in the dataset,
the 1985 Volvos are heavy, expensive, and have a pretty good horsepower. However,
where they really shine is in the safety for insurance companieslow losses and a very
low risk (again, the values that are larger are better). Even Volvo's minimum values are
high in these categories. That's one manufacturer. Let's look at the whole group:
In [27]: figure = plt.figure(figsize=(15, 5))
radar_gs = mpl.gridspec.GridSpec(
3, 7, height_ratios=[1, 10, 10], wspace=0.50,
hspace=0.60, top=0.95, bottom=0.25)
radar_axes = demoplot.make_autos_radar_plot(
figure, radar_gs, normed_data)
plt.show()

The following table is obtained as a result of the preceding code:

There are interesting conclusions to the graph from this view of the data, but we will
focus on the code that generated it. In particular, note the geometry of the gridthree
by seven. What does this mean and how are we going to use it? We have two rows
of six manufacturers. However, we added an extra row for an empty (and hidden)
axis. This is used at the top for the overall title. We then added an extra column for
the legend, which spans two rows. This brings us from a grid of two by six to a grid
of three by seven. The remaining 12 axes in the grid are populated with a highly
customized polar plot, giving us the radar plots for each of the manufacturers.

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Chapter 6

This example was included not only because it's visually compelling, but also
because it will show how flexible the grid specification system for matplotlib is
when we put them together. We have the ability to place plots within plots.

Bringing everything together

We've seen a small aspect of the GridSpec usage. This has been a tiny warm-up
exercise compared to what's coming! Let's refresh with the ASCII sketch of the
subplots that we wanted to create. Flip back to that page and look at the layout. We
have three axes that will be stretching all the way across the title, price ranges, and
the MPG data at the bottom. The three riskiness or losses plots will then be placed
on the left-hand side in the middle of the page, and the radar plots will take the other
half of that part of the plot on the right-hand side.
We can plot what this will look like before adding any of the data, just by creating
the grid and subplot specification objects. The following may look a bit hairy, but
keep in mind that when splicing the subplot specs, you're using the same technique
that was used when splicing the NumPy array data:
In [28]: figure = plt.figure(figsize=(10, 8))
gs_master = mpl.gridspec.GridSpec(
4, 2, height_ratios=[1, 2, 8, 2])
# Layer 1 - Title
gs_1 = mpl.gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(
1, 1, subplot_spec=gs_master[0, :])
title_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_1[0])
# Layer 2 - Price
gs_2 = mpl.gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(
1, 1, subplot_spec=gs_master[1, :])
price_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_2[0])
# Layer 3 - Risks & Radar
gs_31 = mpl.gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(
2, 2, height_ratios=[2, 1],
subplot_spec=gs_master[2, :1])
risk_and_loss_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_31[0, :])
risk_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_31[1, :1])
loss_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_31[1:, 1])
gs_32 = mpl.gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(
1, 1, subplot_spec=gs_master[2, 1])

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Customization and Configuration

radar_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_32[0])
# Layer 4 - MPG
gs_4 = mpl.gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(
1, 1, subplot_spec=gs_master[3, :])
mpg_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_4[0])
# Tidy up
gs_master.tight_layout(figure)
plt.show()

In the preceding code, when we instantiated GridSpec, we provided a geometry of

four rows and two columns. We then passed the data for the height ratios so that
each row will have an appropriate size that is relative to the others. In the section at
the middle, for the risk and radar plots, we gave a geometry of two rows and two
columns, and again passed the height ratios that provide the proportions we desire.
This code results in the following plot:

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Chapter 6

That's exactly what we were aiming for. Now, we're ready to start adding individual
plots. The code that generated the preceding skeleton plot differs from the final
result in the following three key ways:

The axes that are created will now get passed to the plot functions

The plot functions will update the axes with their results (and thus no longer
be empty)

The skeleton radar plot had a one-by-one geometry; the real version will
instead have a five-by-three geometry in the same area

Here is the code that inserts all the individual plots into their own subplots:
In [29]: figure = plt.figure(figsize=(15, 15))
gs_master = mpl.gridspec.GridSpec(
4, 2, height_ratios=[1, 24, 128, 32], hspace=0,
wspace=0)

# Layer 1 - Title
gs_1 = mpl.gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(
1, 1, subplot_spec=gs_master[0, :])
title_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_1[0])
title_axes.set_title(
"Demo Plots for 1985 Auto Maker Data",
fontsize=30, color="#cdced1")
demoplot.hide_axes(title_axes)

# Layer 2 - Price
gs_2 = mpl.gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(
1, 1, subplot_spec=gs_master[1, :])
price_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_2[0])
demoplot.make_autos_price_plot(

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Customization and Configuration

figure, pddata=data, axes=price_axes)

# Layer 3, Part I - Risks

gs_31 = mpl.gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(
2, 2, height_ratios=[2, 1], hspace=0.4,
subplot_spec=gs_master[2, :1])
risk_and_loss_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_31[0, :])
demoplot.make_autos_loss_and_risk_plot(
figure, pddata=normed_data,
axes=risk_and_loss_axes, x_label=False,
rotate_ticks=True)
risk_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_31[1, :1])
demoplot.make_autos_riskiness_plot(
figure, pddata=normed_data, axes=risk_axes,
legend=False, labels=False)
loss_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_31[1:, 1])
demoplot.make_autos_losses_plot(
figure, pddata=normed_data, axes=loss_axes,
legend=False, labels=False)

# Layer 3, Part II - Radar

gs_32 = mpl.gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(
5, 3, height_ratios=[1, 20, 20, 20, 20],
hspace=0.6, wspace=0,
subplot_spec=gs_master[2, 1])
(rows, cols) = geometry = gs_32.get_geometry()
title_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_32[0, :])
inner_axes = []
projection = radar.RadarAxes(spoke_count=len(
normed_data.groupby("make").mean().columns))

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Chapter 6
[inner_axes.append(figure.add_subplot(
m, projection=projection))
for m in [n for n in gs_32][cols:]]
demoplot.make_autos_radar_plot(
figure, pddata=normed_data,
title_axes=title_axes, inner_axes=inner_axes,
legend_axes=False, geometry=geometry)

# Layer 4 - MPG
gs_4 = mpl.gridspec.GridSpecFromSubplotSpec(
1, 1, subplot_spec=gs_master[3, :])
mpg_axes = figure.add_subplot(gs_4[0])
demoplot.make_autos_mpg_plot(
figure, pddata=data, axes=mpg_axes)

# Tidy up
gs_master.tight_layout(figure)
plt.show()

Though there is a lot of code here, keep in mind that it's essentially the same as the
skeleton of subplots that we created. For most of the plots, all we had to do was
make a call to the function that creates the desired plot, passing the axes that we
created by splicing a part of the spec and adding a subplot for that splice to the
figure. The one that wasn't so straightforward was the radar plot collection. This
is due to the fact that we not only needed to define the projection for each radar
plot, but also needed to create the 12 axes needed for each manufacturer. Despite
this complication, the use of GridSpec and GridSpecFromSubplotSpec clearly
demonstrates the ease with which complicated visual data can be assembled to
provide all the power and convenience of a typical dashboard view.

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Customization and Configuration

The following plot is the result of the preceding code:

The creation of complex subplots in matplotlib can be perceived as a daunting task.

However, the following basic practices can help you make it a painless process of
creating visual goodness:
1. Write down an explicit plan for what you want to present, which data you
want to combine, where you will use the stacked data and means, and so on.
2. Sketch out on paper or in an ASCII diagram the desired layout. This will
often reveal something that you hadn't considered.
3. With the layout decided upon, create a GridSpec- and
GridSpecFromSubplotSpec-based collection of subplots with empty axes.
Don't add any plot data. Your grid-tweaking should happen at this point.
4. With your girds ironed out, update your axes with the desired plots.
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Chapter 6

Further explorations in customization

We have covered two areas of customization that come up frequently in various
online forums. The other topics in advanced matplotlib customization include the
creation of axes, scales, projections, and backends for some particular data or project
requirements. Each of these have tutorials or examples that are provided by the
matplotlib project, and given your newly attained comfort level with reading the
matplotlib sources directly, these are now within your reach.
Several of these are worth mentioning specifically:

The API example code for custom_projection_example.py provides

a highly detailed look into the means by which you can create custom
projections. Another example of this is the radar plot that we created earlier
in this chapter. If you view the library files for this chapter, you will see that
we based the work on the polar projection that comes with matplotlib.

The API example code for custom_scale_example.py shows how to create

a new scale for the y axis, which uses the same system as that of the Mercator
map projection. This is a smaller amount of code, which is more easily
digestible than the preceding projection example.

The matplotlib Transformations Tutorial will teach you how to create data
transforms between coordinate systems, use axes transforms to keep the text
bubbles in fixed positions while zooming, and blend transformations for the
highlighting portions of the plotted data.

Finally, Joe Kington, a geophysicist, created an open source project for equal-angle
Stereonets in matplotlib. Stereonets, or Wulff net are used in geological studies and
research, and Dr. Kington's code provides excellent examples of custom transforms
and projections. All of this has been documented very well. This is an excellent
project to examine in detail after working on the matplotlib.org tutorials and
examples on creating custom projections, scales, and transformations.

Configuration
We've just covered some examples of matplotlib customization. Hand in hand with
this topic is that of configurationthe tweaking of predefined values to override
default behaviors. The matplotlib module offers two ways to override the default
values for the configuration settingsyou can either run the control files, or run the
control parameters that are stored in-memory to make changes to a running instance.

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Customization and Configuration

The run control for matplotlib

While commonly expanded to the run control, the .rc extension and -rc suffix
trace their origins to 1965 and the Multics (short for Multiplexed Information and
Computing Service) operating system, where rc stood for the run command. Like
many software systems that were developed on UNIX- or BSD-based machines,
matplotlib has an rc file where the control of matplotlib may be configured. This
control is not limited to configuration files; one may also access an rc object via
the matplotlib API. Each of these is covered in the following few sections.

File and directory locations

The configuration of matplotlib is possible through the creation and editing of
the matplotlibrc file. The matplotlib module will search for this file in the
following locations:

The current working directory

The $HOME/.matplotlib directory
INSTALL/matplotlib/mpl-data/, where INSTALL is the Python sitepackages directory where matplotlib was installed
A temporary directory created by Python, in case $HOME/.matplotlib is
not writable
The directory defined by the MPLCONFIGDIR environment variable (if defined,
this directory will override the use of $HOME/.matplotlib)

You can use matplotlib to find the location of your configuration directory by using
the following code:
In [30]: mpl.get_configdir()
Out[30]: '/Users/yourusername/.matplotlib'

Similarly, you can display the currently active matplotlibrc file with the help of
the following code:
In [31]: mpl.matplotlib_fname()
Out[31]: '/Users/yourusername/mastering-matplotlib/.venv-mmpl/lib/
python3.4/site-packages/matplotlib/mpl-data/matplotlibrc'

Using the matplotlibrc file

There are hundreds of configuration options that are available to you via the
matplotlibrc file:
In [32]: len(mpl.rcParams.keys())
Out[32]: 200
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Chapter 6

You can have a look at some of these with the following code:
In [33]: dict(list(mpl.rcParams.items())[:10])
Out[33]: {'axes.grid': False,
'mathtext.fontset': 'cm',
'mathtext.cal': 'cursive',
'docstring.hardcopy': False,
'animation.writer': 'ffmpeg',
'animation.mencoder_path': 'mencoder',
'backend.qt5': 'PyQt5',
'keymap.fullscreen': ['f', 'ctrl+f'],
'image.resample': False,
'animation.ffmpeg_path': 'ffmpeg'}

The configuration options that you need depend entirely upon your use cases, and
thanks to matplotlib's ability to search multiple locations, you can have a global
configuration file as well as per-project configurations.
We've already run into a special case of matplotlib configurationthe contents of
the style files that we saw at the beginning of this chapter. If you were so inclined,
all of those values could be entered into a matplotlibrc file, thus setting the default
global look and feel for matplotlib.
A complete template for the matplotlbrc file is available in the matplotlib
repository on GitHub. This is the canonical reference for all your matplotlib
configuration needs. However, we will point out a few that may be helpful if you
keep them in mind, including some that may be used to decrease the render times:

agg.path.chunksize: 20000: This improves the speed of operations

slightly and prevents an Agg rendering failure

path.simplify: true: This removes the invisible points to reduce the file

savefig.jpeg_quality: xx: This lowers the default .jpg quality of the

axes.formatter.limits: This indicates when you use scientific notations

webagg.port: This is the port that you should use for the web server in the
WebAgg backend

webagg.port_retries: With this, the number of other random ports will be

size and increase the rendering speed

saved files

for exponents

tried until the one that is available is found

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Customization and Configuration

Updating the settings dynamically

In addition to setting the options in the matplotlibrc file, you have the ability
to change the configuration values on the fly by directly accessing the rcParams
dictionary that we saw earlier:
In [34]: mpl.rcParams['savefig.jpeg_quality'] = 72
Out[34]: mpl.rcParams['axes.formatter.limits'] = [-5, 5]

If you either find out that your changes have caused some problems, or you want to
revert to the default values for any reason, you can do so with mpl.rcdefaults(),
which is demonstrated in the following code:
In [35]: mpl.rcParams['axes.formatter.limits']
Out[35]: [-5, 5]
In [36]: mpl.rcdefaults()
In [37]: mpl.rcParams['axes.formatter.limits']
Out[37]: [-7, 7]

Options in IPython
If you are using matplotlib via IPython, as many do, there are IPython matplotlib
configuration options that you should be aware of, especially if you regularly
use different backends or integrate with different event loops. When you start up
IPython, you have the ability to configure matplotlib for interactive use by setting
a default matplotlib backend in the following way:
--matplotlib=XXX

In the preceding code, XXX is one of auto, gtk, gtk3, inline, nbagg, osx, qt, qt4,
qt5, tk, or wx. Similarly, you can enable a GUI event loop integration with the
following option:
--gui=XXX

In the preceding code, XXX is one of glut, gtk, gtk3, none, osx, pyglet, qt, qt4, tk,
or wx.
While you may see the --pylab or %pylab option being referred to in older
books and various online resources (including some of matplotlib's own official
documentation), its use has been discouraged since IPython version 1.0. It is better
to import the modules that you will be using explicitly and not use the deprecated
pylab interface at all.

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Chapter 6

Summary
In this chapter, we covered two areas of detailed customizationthe creation of
custom styles, as well as complex subplots. In the previous chapters, you have been
exposed to the means by which you can discover more of matplotlib's functionality
through its sources. It was in this context that the additional topics in customization
were mentioned. With this, we transitioned into the topic of matplotlib configuration
via files as well as rcParams. This is a transitional topic that will be picked up again
at the beginning of the next chapter, where we will cover matplotlib deployments.

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Get more information Mastering matplotlib

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