Publib

Description

Produce publication-level quality images on top of Matplotlib, with a simple call to a couple functions at the start and end of your script.

Project GitHub page

For similar librairies, see seaborn, which also add neat high-end API to Matplotlib function calls, and the Matplotlib default style feature

Install

pip install publib

Use

At the beginning of the script, call:

set_style()

After each new axe is plotted, call:

fix_style()

Note that importing publib will already load the basic style.

A few more styles ('poster', 'article', etc.) can be selected with the function set_style()

Because some matplotlib parameters cannot be changed before the lines are plotted, they are called through the function fix_style() which:

• changes the minor ticks

• remove the spines

• turn the legend draggable by default

Examples

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib as mpl

A default Matplotlib plot:

mpl.rcdefaults()

x = np.linspace(0,5,250)
y = np.cos(x)**2+np.random.normal(scale=0.5,size=len(x))
yav = np.cos(x)**2
plt.figure()
ax = plt.subplot()
ax.plot(x,y,'o',label='normal distribution')
ax.plot(x,yav,zorder=-1,label='average')
plt.xlabel(r'$x$')
plt.ylabel(r'$\cos^2 x$+noise')
plt.title('matplotlib')
plt.legend(loc='upper left')
plt.ylim((-1.5,3.5))
plt.show()
plt.savefig('mpl_default.png')

And now the same code with the two new lines calling the publib functions

from publib import set_style, fix_style
set_style('article')        # before the first plot

x = np.linspace(0,5,250)
y = np.cos(x)**2+np.random.normal(scale=0.5,size=len(x))
yav = np.cos(x)**2
plt.figure()
ax = plt.subplot()
ax.plot(x,y,'o',label='normal distribution')
ax.plot(x,yav,zorder=-1,label='average')
plt.xlabel(r'$x$')
plt.ylabel(r'$\cos^2 x$+noise')
plt.title('article')
plt.legend(loc='upper left')
plt.ylim((-1.5,3.5))

fix_style('article')  # after the axe has been created

plt.show()
plt.savefig('publib_article.png')

Run the _test() routine in publib.py for more examples.

Changes

• 0.1.9: added talk and OriginPro style

• 0.1.8 : fixed deprecation error messages

• 0.1.7 : default fonts to Times in article

• 0.1.6 : improve Readme

• 0.1.5 : changed those buff_style functions in fix_style

Erwan Pannier - EM2C Laboratory, CentraleSupélec / CNRS UPR 288